An Advent Reflection - 14th December 2025
Advent is a season of big promises. In our readings and antiphons we are hearing repeatedly the voices of the Old Testament prophets speaking to the people of Israel, promising deliverance. Just one example:
The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. [Jer 23:5]
If only… even leaders of good will, who truly seek justice and righteousness, are mired in the intransigence of human nature and world affairs seem to go from bad to worse. And of course there are people driven by a raw lust for power and greedy for gain, whether on the world stage or on the PCC, who contribute to the mess. There is a brokenness in human nature that can lead any of us into behaviour that sends things awry, that turns us away from the paths of righteous to which God calls us. We may truly desire to seek justice and righteousness but it can so easily go wrong.
So how do we live with these big promises that can seem to lead nowhere? We believe that these promises were fulfilled in the incarnation of God as the man Jesus of Nazareth, who lived out a life of self-giving love and came to a painful and tragic end. His surrender to the will of his Father enabled him to pass through death to new life and opened the way for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us. That Spirit empowers us to follow him on the same path wherever that might lead in our particular circumstances. He calls us into a kingdom that is very different from the kingdoms of this world.
This kingdom comes in small ways, like yeast that permeates and transforms flour into bread, or a small seed that grows into a large bush and provides homes for many creatures. The gospels call us to be attentive, alert to the coming of this kingdom. Advent is particularly a season of watching and waiting for the kingdom and provides us with a reminder of our need to be present here and now, alert and watchful for those small glimpses of the kingdom.
Another strand that we see in our Advent readings and antiphons is that God is a God of love as well as of judgement. There is a tenderness that can be seen in many of the great prophecies of this season, such as from Isaiah chapter 40:
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. [Is 40:1-2]
In Advent we hold together the judgement and the love of God as two sides of the same coin. Love has to stand against all that blocks love, which means judgement upon behaviour that goes against God’s loving ways. But in that judgement there is forgiveness when we turn to God and cry out for help, acknowledging our weakness. We constantly go astray but we have only to turn around and allow ourselves to be touched by the tender mercy of God to find forgiveness and healing.
God’s love is limitless and I have come to realise that human love can be without limit too. The more love is shared the more there is, it multiplies without end. Our community is called together to live that love without limit, to both give and receive it. Sometimes the hardest thing is actually to let ourselves be loved, to let the love of our sisters touch us and soften our hearts. When love has been betrayed in the past then it is hard to trust again, but I believe that bit by bit God’s love works in our hearts, healing those wounded places and enabling us once more to give and receive love.
God’s kingdom is ushered in by all our small acts of kindness toward one another that work like leaven in the community. It can be a smile that silently says ‘welcome, I appreciate you’ or quietly sweeping up the mess that others have missed. In such simple acts we build a loving environment in which we feel safe and loved and into which others can be welcomed. We see glimpses of the kingdom and those big promises come another step closer to fulfilment.
Mother Anne - 14th December 2025