To make an end is to make a beginning

With darker evenings, gale force winds, heavy rain and the first frosts it’s feeling very much like the end of the year.  And I suppose as we reach the last Sunday in November we really are heading into the last weeks of the year.  Or are we?

Today is also Advent Sunday.  And the traditional Christian Year begins with Advent.  Maybe what feels like the tail end of the year is at one and the same time the start of a new year!  I rather like that thought.  It’s the thought we are going to explore a little on the Sundays of Advent, beginning today.  As we prepare for Christmas through Advent we’ll be reading from the Old Testament only to find that as the Old Testament comes to an end there is a new beginning in the story of Jesus.  This year we are also going to make connections between the beginning of the Gospel story of Jesus and the end as he goes to the cross and beyond to resurrection.  We’ll find that for Jesus the end of the story is but the beginning of an even greater story.  That in many ways is the wonder of the Gospel we share – endings filled with despair turn out to be new beginnings filled with hope.

We’ve been at it again – clearing out things from our past.  On one of those recent forays into the loft I came across a set of 45’s and EP’s – I well remember getting our first gramophone.  With it came a special holder with sleeves for a collection of 45’s – bit sad really!  There’s a Beatles single – she loves you – and a Baron Knights pastiche of all the latest hits - Johnny Morris telling the story of Delilah the Sensitive Cow … and one my Dad got of TS Elliott reading his poetry.  I could never quite understand my father’s enthusiasm for T. S Eliot.  He read his poetry in the dullest of voices … and it was hard to make sense of.

I grew to like it … and I treasured my father’s copy of his collected poems.  The poems are full of all sorts of references and allusions – but TS Eliot was insistent his poems should be published with no references no footnotes.  And the publishing house he helped to found that still publishes his poetry has followed his request.  Until now.  Browsing in Waterstones a couple of weeks ago I spotted it the new two volume edition of the poetry of TS Eliot complete with masses and masses of endnotes and references.

Wow!

I think I’ll stick with the bare text as TS Eliot wanted it.

I love Possum’s Book of Practical Cats – I well remember a teacher reading it to us – though I like Cats the musical now!  And then at Christmas the coming of the Magi – caught my imagination long time ago and still does.

And then the Four Quartets. Or at least the last section.  Or at least some lines from the last section.

You never can quite understand but somehow as with the best of poetry they say something profound.

What we call the beginning is often the end

And to make an end is to make a beginning

The end is where we start from.

That’s something that has always fascinated me.  Nowhere is that more so than when it comes to our faith – for somehow it’s what faith is all about.  And at Christmas that theme comes very much to the fore.

With darker evenings, gale force winds, heavy rain and the first frosts it’s feeling very much like the end of the year.  And I suppose as we reach the last Sunday in November we really are heading into the last weeks of the year.  Or are we?

Today is also Advent Sunday.  And the traditional Christian Year begins with Advent.  Maybe what feels like the tail end of the year is at one and the same time the start of a new year!  I rather like that thought.  It’s the thought we are going to explore a little on the Sundays of Advent, beginning today.

That passage we read from Isaiah 11 is such a wonderful passage about new beginnings.  There’s the picture of a tree cut down to its stump – but from the stump comes new growth – and with the new growth new hope.

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
   and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
   the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
   the spirit of counsel and might,
   the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. 

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
   or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
   and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
   and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
   and faithfulness the belt around his loins. 

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
   the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
   and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
   their young shall lie down together;
   and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
   and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
   on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
   as the waters cover the sea. 

You can see it coming to pass in the day of Isaiah, in the days that followed Isaiah.  But there’s a movement forward an impetus, a momentum – as the Old Testament stories themselves come to an end there is always the seed of a new beginning.

And as the Old Testament comes to a close there is within it the seeds of a new beginning.

And in Christ that new beginning happens.

But as the story of Jesus is told as it comes to an end with the cruel death of Christ, that end becomes a new beginning – as in resurrection a new story begins to unfold.

As the Gospel story of Jesus was told it caught the imagination of those who heard it … and they set off on that exploration of faith that would lead them forward to the end of their lives only to find that in the end was a new beginning of resurrection in the presence of God.

As the Gospel story was committed to writing those who put the story together could sense the power of the story – and the way they told it has a tremendous power.

On the first three Sundays of Advent I want to look at the three Gospels that have the great Christmas stories at the beginning.  Luke, Matthew and John.  And what I want to do is to look at the way in each of the Gopel stories there is a wonderful way that the story ends where it began only to find that end place the start of something wonderfully new.

In our Advent services I want to look at the way three of the Gospels tell the story

 As we prepare for Christmas through Advent we’ll be reading from the Old Testament only to find that as the Old Testament comes to an end there is a new beginning in the story of Jesus.

  This year we are also going to make connections between the beginning of the Gospel story of Jesus and the end as he goes to the cross and beyond to resurrection.  We’ll find that for Jesus the end of the story is but the beginning of an even greater story.  That in many ways is the wonder of the Gospel we share – endings filled with despair turn out to be new beginnings filled with hope.

To make an end is to make a beginning

And the end is where we start from.

And so we turn to the end of the Gospel according to St Luke.

 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

The story of Jesus has been told.  That powerful teaching of love for God, love for neighbour, love for enemy.  The wonderful parables.  The great journey to Jerusalem.  The devastating end to his life that seemed such a crushing defeat to all his followers.  And then the mystery, the awe, the excitement of all that happened subsequently.  In some way they met with the one who was risen and knew in his presence in some way they were in the very presence of God.  The Gospel closes with the very friends of Jesus who had been devastated in their loss, singing his praises in the Temple – that place where God’s presence was so very real.

And that’s where the story had begun.

In the temple.

With someone sensing the presence of God with him in the most mysterious and disturbing of ways.

Luke 1:5-25

In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.

 Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. Now at the time of the incense-offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside.

Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’ Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.’ The angel replied, ‘I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.’

 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary. When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

 After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, ‘This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favourably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.’

Between that beginning and that ending a massive story unfolds that brings the presence of God in all his love into the lives of many, many people.   It’s the story of the coming of John the Baptist with his prophetic word that would give light to those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, and would guide our feet into the way of peace and of Jesus the Christ who would bring down the powerful and lift up the lowly, who would fill the hungry with good things, and send the rich empty away.

And it really is a story for everyone.  In Luke’s telling of the story at the beginning of the Gospel it is the women who play such a part – Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist, and Mary the mother of Jesus have such a powerful part to play.  And Anna, the prophet, who becomes the first to speak about the Christ child to all who were looking for the redemption and liberation of Jerusalem.  And at the end it is the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee who followed him, saw the tomb where he was laid … and returned on the first day of the week at early.  And again the women are named: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women with them – they were the first to tell the good news of the risen Christ to the apostles.

At the beginning and at the end people in the presence of God give glory to God.

At the beginning and the end, women have a voice to speak and all are drawn to that voice.

Out of apparent endings come new beginnings.  And something to celebrate.

If you’ve read your Highbury News you know I am celebrating today.  It’s been a year joining with our family in Patagonia as they celebrate 150 years of the Welsh Community there.  And doing that family history in the famly grave yard near Brynsiincyn on Anglesey we came across more of the family story.

My Great Great Grand-father’s brother and his wife emigrated to Patagonia.  His wife’s parents and two of his sisters were buried in the same graveyard.  And the husband of another in a much finer grave.

It was that other sister who in the late 1860’s had emigrated to the USA as a young girl just turned 20.  She went at the invitation of the United Welsh Societies because she had a wonderful way with words – a poet and a preacher she could preach with a real inspiration.  And she did.  Throughout the States in Welsh Communities – she married and in the late 1880’s was ordained in the Welsh Congregational Church in Waterstown, Wisconsin – the first woman minister to be ordained in that state.

And it was 100 years ago today that she died.

Her son by then had become a significant figure in government circles and went on to  be part of Woodrow Wilson’s team at Versailles after the first world war, campaigned for Roosevelt’s election as President and then served as Ambassador to Moscow just before the Second world war, becoming Harry S Truman’s special envoy to Winston Churchill after the second world war.

Wonderful family stories – but most of all the passion for preaching – sharing the wonderful good news of Jesus Christ and the difference he makes in the lives of us all.

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Isn’t that the case.  It’s as we arrive at the end of the Jesus story that we really understand the beginning.  And it is only as we remember the ending that is a new beginning that we grasp all that the beginning actually meant.

Almost the last word is given by T.S.Eliot to another woman preacher.  A remarkable woman who lived in Norwich 600 years and more ago.  Julian of Norwich.

For me it sums up this year a message of certainty in a world of uncertainty.  A certainty that we need to hold on to as we discover the full meaning of the Christmas story by paying attention to the ending of the story only to find that’s the beginning of something new.

And the words TS Eliot wrote into the troubled world of the 1930’s?

And all shall be well

And all manner of thing shall be well.

That’s what I want to hold on to this Christmas.