02/12/2024
The Archbishop today led the Daily Service for BBC Radio 4.
You can read his reflection here:
The Collect for Advent Sunday begins – “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and to put on the armour of light.”
This is the Common Worship version of the Prayer Book Collect which says, “Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light.”
Not much difference. Or is there?
The modern version asks God for grace to cast away the works of darkness. This is one of the great Advent themes: Christ the true light that enlightens everyone is coming into the world. We look forward to his birth at Christmas, but we also look forward to that day when we will see him face to face, and when the Lord returns as judge and the whole creation is brought to perfection. This is strong stuff. The child who is born in the manger is also the man who dies upon the cross for our sins, and also the one whom God has appointed as king and judge. But the prayer then says that we must put on the armour of light. This sounds good, and is, incidentally, much closer to the biblical text from Romans that the prayer is based upon, but there is a small difference from the Prayer Book version. In the Prayer Book it is not us who put on this armour, but God. We ask that God will clothe us with his light and peace, because, left to our own devices, we do not know at what hour the Lord will come. And we don’t always feel very ready. As Jesus says in Luke’s gospel, if the house owner knew when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake.
Here is the paradox of faith: only God can get us ready to meet God. We cannot do it ourselves. That is why God comes to us in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ; and this is why he is called not just Jesus, but Emmanuel, God with us. By his presence with us and by his Spirit, he can put his armour of light on us and make us ready for the day when Christ returns.
Moreover, amidst all the troubles and travails of our world at the moment, and though I long for people to know God in Jesus, the one who saves them, I increasingly believe that first of all they need to experience him as Emmanuel, the one who is with us.
And this is our responsibility. To let God get us ready. To let God be in us and work through us. To let God’s light shine upon us shine in us. Therefore, at the beginning of this Advent, this new year for the church, we raise our sights to God’s kingdom and to Jesus Christ our Saviour, asking God to put upon us the armour of light, so that when Christ comes again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal. Amen.