Today’s Advent Reflection is from Mark Hackney
‘We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete’.
1 John 1:1-9
1 We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— 3 we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Reflection
Knowledge is a curious thing, and it can sometimes become fractured or even go missing.
If you have seen the play, or watched many of the film versions, of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (or even if you have done neither of these things) you will realise that, at no point in the proceedings, does a monkey play a key role. In fact, there is no monkey whatsoever. There is a monk, (Friar Laurence, crucial to the plot) but absolutely no monkey. Yet a student of mine, in his actual SATS’ exam, managed to write: ‘Romeo fails to receive Juliet’s important letter that she is not really dead because the monkey fails to pass it on.’ What on earth the examiner thought I shudder to think. But, of course, we all make errors under pressure. And he was a clever student; he simply miss-wrote.
In any case, a false piece of knowledge had been transmitted. On a different scale altogether, the issue of distorted messaging is what concerns John in his first letter. He wants to make it clear to his readers what true knowledge is. He writes about ‘knowing’ and ‘knowledge’ an impressive forty-five times in the five chapters of this letter. It is crucial to John that he conveys to people that the Gospel alone imparts true knowledge of God – not the false teachings (what some may call Gnosticism) that was emerging in some early churches during John’s old age.
John wants to keep it simple and clear, our messaging must be borne of our knowledge of Jesus Christ, and not be contaminated by other worldly influences. John knows the truth, he possesses true knowledge, he was there! ‘What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us’.
We have the same concern today in our wider society, where society exhibits a spiritual lethargy. We try to convey the real truth, God’s reality, the Good News, to others. But it’s challenging, isn’t it?
The contemporary, postmodernist, mindset finds big ideas pretentious, naïve – and Christianity is the biggest of big ideas. If you talk of ethics you might be accused of ‘signalling’, and if you wish to hold a truly serious conversation about life’s meaning, you might be accused of being something of a ‘downer’. ‘Keep it light!’ they may say to you. Of course, you reply, in this time of Advent especially, ‘That’s exactly what I am doing by telling you of Jesus’.
Yet, if we still our Christian voice, keep our light in the shadows, allow what we know to be true to linger in the recesses of society’s consciousness, we do John’s legacy a disservice. Rather, as I strongly suspect, John would say: we do God a disservice.
During the expectancy of Advent, and the joy of Christmas, let us try, as much as we are able, to feel and transmit, the love and glory of God. By our demeanour, our visits to church and home Bible reading, our Zooming, real-timing, phone calls, longed-for (if brief) visits, charitable works – by all these things – we can live and promote our Christian knowledge. God’s truth.
During this somewhat claustrophobic Christmas, we can and will feel joy and appreciate John’s words to us. We will walk in the light as Jesus himself is in the light. The eternal life that was with the Father and has been revealed to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you for writing or reading our Advent Reflections. As John states: ‘We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete’. And we still have six to go!