Homily for Advent 3....

Thee above image is of St Nicholas - why I include it in this post will, I hope, become clear.

Make a straight way for the Lord

St John the Baptist was not exactly known for living in a respectable area – he “appeared in the wilderness”; nor was he known for his sartorial elegance – “Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, and had a leather belt around his waist.” And nor was he known for dining in high society – he “ate locusts and wild honey” - brings to mind a nice crispy exterior with a soft gooey inside! He must have looked at the very least a formidable sight, but his words were possibly even less attractive. He said to the Pharisees and Sadducee's, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.”

And yet despite all this John is venerated in Judaism, Christianity and Islam as someone who was totally faithful to God and to what God asked him to say. He might be what is deemed “a fiery preacher” – someone who’s message is one of repentance and who constantly calls people back to the Living God. But this is what he was sent to do, and of course we Christians show him devotion because he pointed to Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He showed us that Christ must increase while he must decrease. In John the Baptist we see one who was not concerned with his own status or power, but who simply sought to do as God told him and who even to the end was concerned that he had done what God had asked of him and pointed out the true Messiah.

Fidelity to God, for John the Baptist, eventually meant martyrdom and many, many Christians over the last two thousand years have faced martyrdom as they have sought to be faithful to Christ. The first Saints of the Christian Church were all martyrs – among them most of the apostles. The Roman Canon, which was the Eucharistic Prayer used in this land for a millennia up to the Reformation and allowed once again when in 1988 the Bishops of the CofE said that any once canonically authorised Eucharistic Prayer may still be used, contains two lists of saints nearly all of which are martyrs:

the apostles and martyrs Peter and Paul, Andrew, (James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude; we honor Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian)
For ourselves, too, we ask some share in the fellowship of your apostles and martyrs, with John the Baptist, Stephen, Matthias, Barnabas, (Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia) and all the saints.

St Lucy, we observed yesterday and it is customary to include the names of the saints for the week ahead in any Eucharistic Prayer on Sunday. In the early Church the list of saints was known as the Martyrology. Martyrdom is not something that is sought, unlike the practices of certain poeople who falsely use the term today while immolating themselves and killing countless other people along with themselves. Out of the overwhelming numbers of Christians a minority have experienced martyrdom and yet their numbers continue to increase and in the 20th Century there were more martyrs than in any other. Invariably these men and women refuse to go along with what wicked people, often in positions of power want. We can think of Charles Lwanga and his companions (both RC’s and Anglican) who refused to engage in same sex practices with the King of Uganda, we can think of St Maximillian Kolbe who died in place of a Jewish man in Auschwitz, or we can think of St Stephen being stoned for believing in and preaching in the name of Jesus.

Fidelity to Christ brings opposition, but it also brings affirmation from God. Unfortunately, we sometimes are not fully aware of the importance of fidelity to Christ and His Gospel. Sometimes examples of it can be found in the most unexpected of places. For example, after this homily, as we do every week we shall all stand to say the Nicene Creed and yet this very statement of the Faith was the product of much persecution by heretics who were seeking to overtake the church, but who eventually withdrew and went off into the desert where they were to emerge and adapt into a 6th century force that conquered many Christian lands and introduced their own religion.

At the Council of Nicea there was a heretical bishop called Arius who denied that Jesus was God. On the other side was St Athanasius who was a staunch defender of the orthodox position that Jesus was God. St Athanasius was persecuted terribly by Arius and his followers. Yet he wasn’t the only one.

On the 6th of December each year we observe the Feast of St Nicholas, who we know as Santa Claus (the figure that the secular Coco-Cola company renamed as Fr Christmas so as to do away with the overtly Christian connotations - and make lots of profit too). St Nicholas was known for his great acts of kindness and his leaving of gifts.

In one of his most well-known acts of selflessness as a young priest, Fr Nicholas reacted to the intention of a wealthy businessman of Patara who had fallen on hard times and lost his fortune. Desperate, the man had determined to sell the bodies of his three daughters in order to raise funds for the family. Hearing of the plan (it seems through a divine revelation), Fr Nicholas went to the businessman’s home in secret during the night and threw an offering of three hundred gold coins wrapped in a handkerchief through the man's window. Convinced of the goodness of the gesture, though unaware of the identity of his benefactor, the man used the funds to arrange for his eldest daughter to be married honourably to a nobleman. Later the man arose to find the act had been repeated; and eventually, a third time. In each instance, the priest made his offering secretly, attempting to conceal his works of charity. And the stories of these acts of gift-giving are many, as is the story that he left coal for those who were bad.

However, there was another side to this kindly priest for he subsequently became a bishop and was called to participate in the Council of Nicea. St Nicholas is particularly remembered for his zeal against Arius. Having openly combated him with words, Bishop Nicholas, in a fit of fervour (some accounts indicate he was as displeased with Arius' monopolisation of the meeting by his 'constant arguing' as he was with his heretical statements), went so far as to cross the floor of the Council and box the ears of Arius. Shocked by this behaviour, especially given that the canons forbid clergy from striking any one at all, yet uncertain of how to react to such actions by a bishop they knew and respected, the fathers of the council determined to deprive Nicholas of his Episcopal emblems (traditionally his vesture and the Gospel book), and placed him under guard. However, a short time later, several of the assembled fathers reported having a common vision: the Lord and His Mother returning to Nicholas his Episcopal items, instructing that he was not to be punished, for he had acted 'not out of passion, but extreme love and piety'. This was taken as a sign that the extreme behaviour of Nicholas was none-the-less pleasing to God, who was thus restored to the fullness of his Episcopal office.

Santa Claus boxes the ears of a heretic! Well, he would have a field day in the General Synod! Zeal for the Lord and his Gospel drove Santa Claus to extreme measures – he and Athanasius along with others were not going to give in to heresy and allow the Church to taken over by those who advocated it.

At the end of the day we have to understand something very important – the Gospel is Christ’s not ours – and certainly not ours to change. There are many damaging issues facing the whole Church at this time and not a few affecting the CofE, but despite these difficult times our Heavenly Father is calling us to be faithful to his Son and the Gospel. There are those who in the name of seeking to be credible and relevant seem determined to impose a secular world-view on the Church – if they get their way the Church will continue to wither for it will have abandoned theological rigour and even reason.

John the Baptist, Stephen, Lucy, St Nicholas and many others fought the good fight and ran the race that was set before them – seeking to make a straight way for the Lord. Our calling is no less – we must defend The Faith and stand up to heresy. I don’t advocate boxing someone’s ears, but I do advocate fidelity to Christ and his Gospel even when certain modern day examples of Arius, are seeking to impose their own version of faith on us. Fidelity to Christ and his Gospel demands we make a straight way – may he grant us the grace of the Holy Spirit to do so.