Authority in Christianity

St Catherine's Monastery, one of the oldest surviving monasteries in the world, nestling beneath Mount Sinai, was built between 527 and 565 by the Emperor Justinian (483-565). Founded at the traditional spot where Moses was said to have met God at the Burning Bush and received the Law on Mount Sinai, Jews and Muslims also revere this ancient monastic site. In the late 19th century the monastery was 10-11 days journey by camel from Cairo. Among the many archeologists and scholars who made that journey were two intrepid Scots ladies from Cambridge, twin sisters, versed in Hebrew, Arabic and Syriac! They discovered, after a series of visits, that there was a 4th century Syriac version of the New Testament hidden amongst a pile of disused manuscripts and were allowed to photograph it to enrich our knowledge of the New Testament. This is noted among the important manuscripts used in the Greek New Testament today. (Read the enthralling story in Sisters of Sinai, Janet Soskice, Chatto & Windus, 2009.)

Search for the most ancient texts of the Bible was fuelled by a desire to get back nearer to the originals, as early copyists made emendations in all the manuscripts as they felt fit. It is quite probable that these 19th century researchers were interested in the literal understanding of the renewed texts. Today we see the need to dig deeper to find, in these Middle Eastern writings, what was the pith of their writings - if possible to discover their understanding of what they wrote. This is more difficult than digging for ancient manuscripts and journeys on camels in the deserts of Arabia!!

Friends of ours who visited Ewell monastery in the 1990s will be aware that we often gently remonstrated in word and in writing about the traditional misunderstanding of what was being celebrated at Advent. Based often on part of the 13th chapter of Mark - the 'little apocalypse', as it is known -

"But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. (Mark 13: 24-27)

- the traditional theme of Advent, from early medieaval tradition, was that there would be a Second Coming of Jesus. This is often literally mirrored in many of the 18th century hymns, such as Charles Wesley's great hymn, 'Lo, he comes in clouds descending ...'

Apart from this passage and part of the revelation of St John the divine, there is nothing in the New Testament which might lead us to believe that there is going to be an end of the world. Of course humankind might just trigger that by our own deluded sense of power and insane experiment - but that is not a theological matter ...

Perhaps what Christians should be thinking about, and meditating upon, in Advent, is, 'How can we express both to ourselves and to our non Christian friends and others, what is the pith and kernel of the birth of Jesus?' That will involve going back to the gospels and making a great effort to understand what Matthew and Luke, (and John in Chapter 1), were 'saying' in the nativity stories, prefaced by the genealogies, (which we find so boring!) It is, in a nutshell, that Jesus was rooted in the history of Israel, the Son of man whom God chose to be redeemer. I will not spell out what that can mean - one has to ponder these early texts in relation to the history of Israel to come across the astonishing richness of the birth. Yes, the shepherds, the magi and all that we traditionally know about Christmas, pale in comparison to the complete revelation of who Jesus is.

That same Jesus is now Lord and, with the Father, transcendentally present to us - immanent here and now and always. It is not easy to be in such a positive state of mind and spirit to be able to understand these crucial facts of the gospel. It generally takes a life time! But we can begin to accept this astonishing message of the gospel. What better time to start than this lead up to the celebration of the birth?

A bishop once asked us at the monastery what we thought of the 'push' to 'put Christ back into Christmas'? I never felt that this was a reasoned move by Christians. The real question for us all, all the time, is, 'How can I accept Jesus as Lord in my life?' And to do that is not a matter of miracle but of response to Jesus who approaches us and in a conviction born of reasoning with the gospels on their own terms - and that, admittedly, is difficult. But also it is a matter of understanding why it is that so many of the great people we know cannot accept the churches' portrayal of the gospel. Does their incomprehension perhaps stem from my own blinkered and traditional view of the New Testament, and perhaps, more than we realise, informed by the words of many of the 18th century Advent and Christmas hymns we sing so gladly?! If only the amazing melodies of those hymns had adequate words to go with them!

The Future Now! means that the kingdom of God, inaugurated by Jesus in his life time, has been prospering throughout the centuries. Really? Yes! Remembering the terrible things that have been committed throughout history it remains that God's new creation in Jesus can be wholely trusted. We have not got to wait for the 'End' in apocalyptic terms. And yet, as I heard a preacher say recently, '... when the kingdom comes ...' But the kingdom, in God's terms, means God's life and desire for us working already in us through Jesus the Lord.

And his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting about him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you." And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother". (Mark 3: 31-35)