Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S2-E22 | Everyday Eurasia |  Dr. Steve Wright

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S2-E22 | Everyday Eurasia |  Dr. Steve Wright · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  This week on the podcast, we're welcoming Doctor Steve Wright.
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  In 2015 he moved from Australia and joins the faculty at Nasrin
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  Theological College in Manchester to teach theology.
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  Originally from the Wesleyan Methodist Church tradition, he
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  teaches and supervises across a wide range of subjects.
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  He will take us on a journey through time, exploring the rich
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  themes and deeper reflections of the Christian literatical
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  calendar. As far as we can tell, every
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  single generation of the Christian Church has looked at
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  the world around itself and said this must be it, we must be
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  living in the last days. And so the early Christian
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  practices around the the preparation for the arrival of
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  Jesus at Christmas were oriented towards the future.
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  And so the practices around this season that we now call Advent,
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  Advent coming from the Latin word for coming or arrival.
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  This season of Advent focused on this future coming of Christ.
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  So Advent is a season both of looking back to the arrival of
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  Christ, the word made flesh in the birth of the infant Jesus
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  Christ, but it also looks forward to the future, the
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  coming of Jesus Christ again in glory at the end of days.
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  Many churches around the world celebrate Advent which goes
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  across 4 Sundays by lighting a candle each week and celebrating
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  one specific theme. The themes in the modern world
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  tend to be hope, peace, joy and love.
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  But in the pre modern early church the themes were the
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  traditional last things. These were death, judgement,
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  heaven and hell. Perhaps a bit more sombre than
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  hope, peace, joy and love, but I want to suggest that there's a
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  strong similarity between the two.
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  Hope, peace, joy and love as they're commemorated in Advent,
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  don't speak the things we already possess.
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  But if we start with hope, hope according to Scripture, is that
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  which is not seen. It is precisely that which we do
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  not possess, that which we do not currently halt.
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  To have hope is to look at the world and say, I know that God
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  will bring about a brighter future tomorrow.
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  And so as these churches light their candles for hope, peace,
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  joy, and love, they are praying for these things to arrive.
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  Praying that we might be a people of hope, Praying that the
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  peace of Christ might reign. Praying that the joy of God
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  might be made alive in US. Praying that love might arrive
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  within this world too short on love.
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  There is a great temptation, though, to sentimentalize these
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  themes, to sentimentalize this entire season.
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  The commercial way of approaching Christmas is, of
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  course, highly sentimental, with lights and songs and food, all
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  of which are oriented towards comfort and coziness.
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  But the biblical texts that we read around this season actually
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  are quite jarring and startling. They speak of upheaval.
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  There's a woman who is pregnant, but not by her betrothed.
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  There are angels, but angels always appear within the
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  biblical story to disrupt things, the signs of the
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  breakdown of history. There's the mass murder of
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  infants. There are sorcerers, these magi
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  who appear from other nations. All the events surrounding the
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  birth of Jesus are jarring, but they are for us, signs of the
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  Kingdom, signs of the coming that we anticipate.
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  So we're not just remembering the past in our event, we're
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  looking towards the future with Speaking of things that we do
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  not yet possess, Speaking of hope.
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  And so the arrival of God in Jesus Christ doesn't simply
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  comfort and console, but it again interrupts.
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  And the arrival of God in Jesus with the text that we read at
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  this point in the church here all invite us to take a very
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  serious look at the world with eyes unclouded by
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  sentimentality. One of the texts that's beloved
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  of the church at this time of the year is the Magnifica of
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  Mary where Mary meets Elizabeth and Elizabeth comes out to meet
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  her in amazement. Not saying to Mary, oh you're
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  going to be a mum. How exciting.
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  None of that sense mentality. Elizabeth comes out to Mary and
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  says, I am amazed to witness what God is doing in your life.
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  And then Mary sings her song which calls for a radical
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  upheaval in the structure of the world.
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  Mary looks out at the world and says May God bring down the
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  mighty and lift up the lowly. She proclaims a state of things
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  that we don't yet currently see. She sees a future that is being
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  as yet unveiled before us. And so this is our orientation
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  in the season of Advent and Christmas.
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  The worship of the church at this point of the year is what
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  we call eschatological. That's just a a fancy bookish
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  term for being oriental oriented towards the final things of God,
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  the last things that God will bring about.
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  Again, because we've centre our worship on the resurrection of
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  Christ, we are centred on the way that God brings about
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  something new. And so Advent and Christmas, we
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  want to look at the world with open eyes, being able to see the
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  world as it is, being able to hear the witness of women
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  speaking to a vision for the world that is radically
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  different from the world as we've known it.
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  And we want to be able to pray that love might arrive, however
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  slowly. Let me pray for you, Holy God.
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  We thank you that you come to us wrapped in the flesh of Jesus
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  Christ, bearing our nature, and that you lift up our nature in
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  Him, that you walk within our world, inhabiting our situation,
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  and that this gives us 'cause for hope.
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  Although we might look at the world and be filled with
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  uncertainty and sorrow and despair, we know that you
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  promise your return in Jesus Christ, and we long for that
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  day. May we be people who wait.
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  May we be people who look for your return.
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  In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
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  Thank you for listening to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  region, visit our website, eurasiaregion.org.