Judging Advent

Sermon preached at Our Lady of Walsingham and St Francis on the Third Sunday in Advent 2013

You've come last in the Art Show.

Your beautiful picture of

Rochester Castle by sunset

 has been deemed "rubbish"

by Sir Alex Bouffant,

the famous art critic.

Of course,

you're naturally enraged that your picture

which has taken you 5 years to do

including hours and hours

of intensive art courses

using lots of very skilled techniques

costing you well over £6,000

has been judged to be mediocre at best.

So enraged are you

that you make the decision

to sue Sir Alex for slander.

Would an English Judge take such a case seriously?

[PAUSE]

How many judgements are being made

 in this scenario?

Clearly,

there is the judgement of Sir Alex

that your painting was worthless.

There is also the impending judgement

of the Civil Judge

assuming that your case goes all the way

to the courts in the first place.

What about your decision to sue?

Isn’t that a judgement too?

[PAUSE]

It's quite clear that your decision to sue

is perhaps ill-advised at best.

It was probably based on hurt pride

more than anything

more obvious.

If Sir Alex is already known for his artistic judgment,

then it’s very likely that, actually,

he knows more about what makes good art

than someone who has only studied it,

albeit intently, for 5 years.

The judgement to sue is not a sound judgement:

it is not in possession of all the facts.

[PAUSE]

St Paul has been criticised by the Corinthians

for being unfaithful to the Gospel.

They claim that he does not speak with the authority of Christ.

Perhaps they are pointing to

 his past when he persecuted Christians.

Perhaps they are concerned about

his views on whether Jews and Gentiles

can both be Christians.

Perhaps they struggle with

the criticisms he has made about their lifestyle.

St Paul makes criticisms of the Corinthians.

The Corinthians make criticisms of St Paul.

This does sound like the beginnings

of parts of the church breaking away

from each other.

Arguments lead to

squabbles which lead to

an unhealthy silence which leads to

schism, fracture and divorce.

St Paul’s reaction

to the Corinthians’ accusation

is very clear.

“But with me it is a very small thing

that I should be judged of you,

or of man's judgment:

yea, I judge not mine own self.

For I know nothing by myself;

yet am I not hereby justified:

but he that judgeth me is the Lord.”

St Paul is saying very clearly that

no man is really in any position to judge another

without first knowing

all the facts

beyond reasonable doubt.

When St Paul uses the word “judge” here,

he is using a very unique Greek word

which implies that the judgement is incomplete

– it’s the sort of judgement

you might find in a preliminary hearing,

 not a judgement

on which you could get convicted.

Of course St Paul is quite right to say that

 it is a small thing to be judged by the Corinthians

or by anyone else,

and he is quite right to say

that he can’t even judge himself,

because the results of
the preliminary hearing

are not meant to be conclusive.

St Paul is joined in this idea

by St John who says

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God,

and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.”

We heard that only a few weeks ago!

As far as St Paul and St John are concerned,

we are not finished,

we are not yet what we should be.

[PAUSE]

We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ

will come again to judge the living and the dead.

In what sense will the Lord judge us?

We have only to look at His life

to see how Our Lord operates.

The blind receive their sight,

and the lame walk,

the lepers are cleansed,

and the deaf hear,

the dead are raised up,

and the poor have the gospel

preached to them.

 And blessed is he,

whosoever shall not be

offended in Him.

His miracles are very clear signs to us

that Our Lord Jesus Christ

is committed to our perfection.

“Be ye therefore perfect,”

 He says,

 “even as your Father which is in heaven

is perfect.”

We know full well that

we cannot be perfect at all

of ourselves.

St Paul and St John are both aware

that they don’t even know how

to begin to be perfect.

St Paul is very willing to admit

that he is still trying to work out his salvation

with fear and trembling.

Perfection can only come from

the One who created us and is,

in some very clear sense,

still creating us

albeit with our co-operation.

 We can choose to be imperfect

by choosing that which

God does not want of us.

 This is why every human being

is called to repentance,

 so that they can turn to God and allow Him

to make them perfect.

St Peter tells us,

 “Repent, and be baptized every one of you

in the name of Jesus Christ

for the remission of sins,

and ye shall receive

the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

The unrepentant see their own idea of perfection

and believe that their own studies of life

make them competent to judge their lives

to be perfect according to their will.

[PAUSE]

We are indeed the artwork of God.

We owe our being to Him and our perfection.

This Advent-time, we look for the coming again

of Our Lord Jesus as our judge.

He is our judge not to our condemnation,

but to our salvation,

our perfection and our true selves.

Until then, we must keep faithful as

“of the ministers of Christ,

and stewards of the mysteries of God,”

being patient with each other

and with ourselves until He comes again

in glory

to judge the quick and the dead.

What better judgement is there for us than that?