2008 Letter No 12

Each month Bill writes a pastor's letter for our monthly church magazine called 'The Messenger'. Here is the letter for December 2008:

I well remember the excitement of Advent when I was growing up. Every December an Advent calendar was attached to the back of the kitchen door. My older brother and I would take turns to open the door for the day. Each day a suitably festive picture was revealed – a sprig of holly, a snowman, a robin, an angel or whatever. There was just one date that was entirely predictable. The final door always revealed a picture of the baby Jesus.

Advent calendars provided a countdown to Christmas Day, which falls  on 25th December every year. Each year we celebrate the arrival of Jesus on 25th December. If you look at a diary for next year Christmas Day will already be marked for 25th December 2009, and in 2010 it will be on 25th December again. From one point of view Advent marks the predictable countdown to our annual celebration of the nativity on a well-known date. From that perspective Advent is helpful for getting us into the right frame of mind for Christmas.

But there is another aspect to Advent as well. It reminds us about that day, which is surely coming but the date of which we do not know, when Jesus will return in glory to bring history to a close and to judge the living and the dead. That day will come like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:43). It will not be printed in our diaries ahead of time. We must be ready at all times because Jesus will return when we are not expecting him (Matthew 24:44). Jesus told his followers, “No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36), so people who declare with great certainty that they know the date are being very presumptuous, to say the least.

The word Advent literally means “coming”. So Advent reminds us of when the Son of God came to us two thousand years ago with his glory veiled as a baby in Bethlehem. And it also reminds us that the Son of God will yet come to us a second time, but on that occasion with his glory unveiled as the Lord and Judge of history.

Now let us think about Advent calendars again. When I was growing up some of my friends had Advent calendars with chocolates. I never had one, but I was rather jealous of those who did. Nowadays Advent calendars with chocolates seem to be the norm, and chocolate can provide an interesting symbol of judgment – one of the great themes of Advent.

Over the past year or two I have become increasingly aware of the injustice involved in the production of chocolate. Many of the chocolate plantations of West Africa use the labour of child slaves. That is why it is important to buy our chocolate from fair trade sources, bearing the ‘Fairtrade’ logo:

Fairtrade chocolate is usually a bit pricier than other chocolate, but we shouldn’t want bargains that are reliant on the slave labour that went into producing them.

And this is where chocolate becomes an interesting symbol of judgment. We want justice for child slaves, but this involves judgment upon the slave masters and all those who knowingly gain from the labour of slaves. Sometimes we love the word justice, because it is about wrongs being put right, about peace and right relationships being restored. But alongside justice comes judgment. When we pray “Thy Kingdom come”, we are asking for God to bring his justice. We are asking for wrongs to be put right and for peace and right relationships to be restored. And we are also praying for judgment to come. Justice and judgment are different sides of the same coin. The reason we do not yet see God’s justice and peace in its perfection is that God is showing patience towards sinners, who will face his judgment when true justice comes. It is a sobering thought, which drives us back to God’s grace and his plan of salvation, which we find in Jesus and which we celebrate at Christmas.

Even so, “Come, Lord Jesus!”