GRACE THROUGH TIME 2

THE WORD HAS ITS STORY TOO

The public history of the world, the succession of great events and important personalities, helps to pin down another history going on along with it, the history of the Word of God. So it was in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, king of Judah, that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. It was in the year King Uzziah died that Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord. It was in the days of Herod, king of Judea, that an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. And it was in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, that the Word of God came to John in the wilderness. Alongside public history, woven through it and within it, another history is played out, the history of God’s Word, and of the relationship between God and God’s people established on that Word.

Here are two further experiences of time, then, the history of humanity, what we normally mean by the word ‘history’, and, for those who believe, the history of God’s Word, a history of creation, salvation and new life. This second history can be forgotten in the pressures and anxieties generated by the first: wars and rumours of wars, famine and drought, economic depression and ‘man’s inhumanity to man’. While these, clearly, cannot be ignored, other things too are to be remembered and Advent is a time for practising remembering.

How wonderful it is to be remembered and kept in mind. The prophet Baruch recounts the joy of the people of Israel when, in their exile, God remembered them (Baruch 5:5). Paul tells the Philippians that he remembers each day their shared life in the gospel. He is very tender with them and tells them how much he misses them and longs for them with the compassion of Christ (Philippians 1:8). John preaches a baptism of repentance, calling his listeners to remember who they are and where they come from, to remember that their life finds its deepest meaning within the Great Story of God’s dealings with them.

Advent is a time to remember also that we are remembered: God has kept us in mind. Zechariah says this in his prayer of thanksgiving at the birth of John: this birth is a sign that God has remembered His covenant and His tender mercy has moved God to visit His people.  The birth of the Baptist is the overture of a new and definitive chapter in the history of God’s Word, which brings, as Zechariah puts it, ‘the knowledge of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, and a light to guide our feet into the way of peace’.

As in the time of the prophets, and in the time of John the Baptist, so today there are great public events and notable personalities. But there is always also the continuing history of God’s Word. Paul’s words to the Philippians reflect God’s Word to the world: I remember each day our shared life and long for you with the compassion of Christ. How goes it then with this koinonia, this shared life established for us by Christ, the Word who brings light and breathes love? Advent is a time to think about this question and so remember this other history that defines us.

This reflection was first published in The Tablet, 5 December 2009, p.13