Last leaves turning gold and falling from a Japanese maple, on Advent Sunday. Nearby, very long established daffodil shoots seeking the short daylight, waiting for their time in Spring.
Waiting, watching, sensing the time is coming: themes of Advent. Hope, for light in darkness. Longing, for the approaching birth. Trembling, with anticipation for new life. Fearing, for hostile forces muster.
“Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to us O Israel”
The angels will sing: “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to all people of good will”
Basilica of Saint Neophytos is the name of the underwater basilica in Lake İznik, modern-day Turkey. This was where those who gathered for the Council of Nicaea .
The Telling of our Faith.
Over the past weekend, the Christian Church has been celebrating one of the most important anniversaries of our faith, the 1,700 Anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council which was held in Nicaea, (now Iznik) in what is now Turkey. Until 325AD, the Christian Church was established in various centres of mission but, as it grew, it was also dealing with persecution on a large scale from those who did not want the Christian faith, rooted in the life, witness and teaching of Jesus Christ to succeed. Whilst we have never been free from persecution nor strangers to martyrdom, the period until the 4th century was particularly one where many Christians were put to death or tortured for their faith. In the 4th Century, under the reign of Emperor Constantine, things changed. His mother, Helen(a) had become a Christian during a time in the Holy Land and her faith influenced her son. Though he did not immediately become a Christian himself, (though he died one), he declared that Christianity would become the official religion of the Roman Empire. Peace and stability came to the Church.
Except, not quite! When people are up against terrible suffering, persecution and death, there is a unity which concentrates everyone on survival and on being loyal to what they believe. It brings with it its own high level of support for each other. There is no time or freedom to concentrate on anything but holding each other together, caring, loving and sustaining each other in mutual hope and encouragement. When danger passes, the personal relief can sometimes give people the opportunity to face issues of disagreement which trouble them and can produce division. That is what happened and the church faced differences in practice and custom caused by not being able to worship and prayer together. Things like the date when the Church observed Easter and other practices needed to be dealt with but the Church was facing its biggest ever challenge at Nicaea. At this moment in the story of the Church the biggest and most important question of our faith had to be faced: Who is Jesus? Under its new found peace, Christianity had to face the question about the nature of Jesus. Followers of a theologian called Arius maintained that Jesus was a created being, who whilst a good man and infused with the vision of God, was not God. More than anything else before or since this view threatened to destroy the church. The fierce debate it created division amongst Christians and everything we stand for was in danger of falling apart. So concerned was Constantine that the Christian faith he had chosen to bring stability and harmony to his Empire was itself in grave crisis, that he called together Christians leaders at Nicaea. This was the first Synod or gathering and here the question about who Jesus truly is, was debated. The Council rejected the teaching of Arius and affirmed the total belief that Jesus is one in substance with his Father; that both are God together with the Trinitarian belief that the Holy Spirit is part of a three-fold God. At Nicaea, the Church set out our belief in a ‘Statement’ or ‘Creed which became, at one level the ‘Constitution of the Christian Faith. Though it was refined and deepened at the Council of Constantinople in 381AD and again at Chalcedon in 451, it has become the ‘foundational statement of the Christian faith’ and it forms an essential part of our expression of personal and corporate belief to be recited by the whole Church, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglian, Methodist, every Sunday. Essentially it is summarized by the acclamation often made in worship.
This is our faith. We believe in One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Pope Leo gathered last weekend gathered with 27 other Christian leaders to celebrate the 1700th anniversary in Nicaea, modern-day Iznik, Türkiye. Pope Leo thanked Patriarch Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, for his “great wisdom and foresight” in calling for Church leaders to celebrate this important anniversary together. He spoke of the power of the Nicaean Creed to “invite Christians, even today ,to ask ourselves who is Jesus Christ for us personally,“ especially when there is a risk of reducing Jesus Christ, “to a kind of charismatic leader or superman, a misrepresentation that ultimately leads to sadness and confusion.” The Pope went on to point out that reducing Jesus to an intermediary between God and humanity, and therefore not Divine, ignores the reality of the Incarnation.”“But if God did not become man, how can mortal creatures participate in His immortal life?” asked Pope Leo. “What was at stake at Nicaea, and is at stake today, is our faith in the God who, in Jesus Christ, became like us to make us ‘partakers of the divine nature’.”
He went on to say that, because the Creed was professed by all Christian Churches and Communities, “it is of fundamental importance in the journey that Christians are making towards full communion. Faith in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, born of the Father before all ages…consubstantial with the Father (Nicene Creed) is a profound bond uniting all Christians.”
For me, reciting the Creed grounds my faith in Jesus who, in his birth, life, teaching, death and resurrection, speaks to me of the immensity of God’s Love, for me personally; for each other;and of my love for God; and of the power of that love to embrace all. Telling the story of what God, the Holy Trinity has done for us and goes on doing, and speaking it prayerfully at the heart of worship is a tremendous experience of belonging and believing which holds us in a deeply inclusive and profound relationship and so becomes the prayer which speaks from the heart of our living faith in God.
Christ the King window, St Eadmer’s Church, Admarsh-in Bleasdale, Forest of Bowland, North Lancashire. The dedication to Eadmer is thought to be unique in the United Kingdom and possibly the world. Eadmer is probably the name of a monk who, during a Vigil called to determine where Saint Cuthbert’s body should be laid finally to rest, received a vision from God that his Shrine Church should be built at what is now Durham. Those who established the Church at Bleasdale where a family who came from Hexham which at the time was in the Diocese of Durham. The window is a Triptych with Christ in glory taking up the centre panel (above). The window was made by Abbot & Company of Lancaster in memory of Isabella Bullock and was installed on 5th November 1925, 100 years ago. (Photo: Robert Gardener, former churchwarden)
Christ our King in Glory reigning.
This week, the Christian Church celebrates the Feast of Christ the King, the last week of the Church Year, which begins again on Advent Sunday.
The title, Christ the King in glory reigning is a theme found in a number of hymns. Specifically it is the title of a hymn by Canon Patrick Appleford to which was given the tune Sunderland, written by Father Geoffrey Beaumont CR. Both were members of the Twentieth Century Music Group which sought to give the church new hymns in contemporary style with new words and tunes. The hymn Christ our King in glory reigning is rarely sung now but its title celebrates the universal sovereignty of Jesus Christ combined with a longing for God to reign over the world He has created, as a Kingdom filled with Justice, Love and Peace.
This is a Kingdom which contrasts deeply with how much of the world regards kingship. It is a rule of self-giving love rather than one of domination or control. It is a rule of gentleness. It is also a reminder to us that God rules in glory. That glory is expressed in worship not just on earth but especially in heaven. This state of living close to God in His nearer presence is experienced together with all who have entered fully God’s Kingdom and who form a great myriad of beings which include Angels and Archangels, Saints and Holy Ones; all who form what the Eucharist calls the whole company of Heaven and of which we are part. We are citizens of a Kingdom which calls us to live by the values shown to us by Jesus. These values are not as many in our world understands them. The foundations of God’s Kingdom are holiness, justice, freedom, peace and love. To be citizens of such a kingdom means to have far more radical and differing values than those often found in the world around us.
To establish this Kingdom was costly and totally self-giving. The poet, T S Eliot, has a phrase, Costing not less than everything and that is precisely what it cost Jesus to bring God’s new Kingdom into being. It needed love and sacrifice because God was releasing a new, powerful force into the world. The Kingdom that Jesus inaugurated from the Cross is not a Kingdom as this world understands it. God’s Kingdom is very different. In the face of hatred it brings love; gentleness replaces might; peace instead of strife; mercy instead of retribution; justice rooted in fairness; liberty and freedom in the place of oppression and intolerance; self-giving replacing self-centredness; service to others rooted in humility replacing pride; forgiveness removing blame and generosity overcoming greed.
All this and much more come at a cost but it is one that God chooses to pay in the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. There is the throne of God from which he reigns over our hearts and lives. From that very cross He claims us as His own and he asks us to claim each other in love and acceptance and generosity, valuing each other as God values each one of us.
We often speak of Service to God and to each other as hallmarks of the Kingdom. This service is initially one of the heart before it is of the hand. We are called to carry within us the signs of the Kingdom as companions of our High King. We are called to share those signs , the values we follow, and in the words of St Mother Teresa of Kolkata, to share the simple, little things we learn from our King, but with a great deal of love.
I have often been encouraged by a little prayer I came across, written by a new Christian who had just come to faith. His experience of God’s love showed him what he must do.
O Lord, you are King of our spirits. You have issued orders to your subjects to do a great work. You have commanded us to preach the gospel to every creature. We are going on that errand now. Let your presence go with is to enliven and enable us to persevere in that great work until we die. Amen
Play for us, Lord God. We wish to hear music; the music of heaven. Play notes to calm our fears, soothing our souls from anxiety.
Our world is ripped apart by sounds, discordant, ugly sounds from the bowels of hell – bombs, missiles, bullets, tanks, cries of painful death – Guttural sounds of soldiers. many far from home, tired too, hungry. bewildered, disillusioned.
Ordered about by those whose only tunes are hatred. a cacophony of crashing disharmony – flowing from cankered, disfigured hearts no longer united with the music of the One who created them.
Wars begin in hearts crumpled by demonic blackness. Is this hell? Despair. The concerto of annihilation. No symphony. No sympathy.
But, if You, Lord, play music to us, It will find a way to soothe and caress our troubled souls. Help us to hear the beautiful harmony as you sprinkle note upon note of your kindness and love upon us, enfolding, holding, re-awakening our vision.
As your music lifts our hearts towards the orchestra of heaven. help us to become in tune with your message which tells that there is more than hell on earth. There is earth raised up to heaven.
Mr G's Ponderings 