Sermon - The Symbolism of Advent Sunday

Time Death and Judgement by George Frederick Watts (now hanging in St Giles-in-the-Fields)

A sermon given during Holy Communion following the Baptism of Nicola Pitts on the First Sunday in Advent at St Giles-in-the-Fields on 1st December 2024 based on readings from Romans 13.8-14 and Matthew 21.1-13.

Drawing on the changing symbolism in the art of George Frederick Watts, whose work hangs in St Giles-in-the-Fields to explore the Prayer Book readings for the First Sunday in Advent.

Start:Stop - Keep Awake

Apocalyptic City, Ludwig Meidner, 1913

Hello and welcome to this week’s Start:Stop reflection, my name is Phillip Dawson. An audio version of this reflection can be found here.

Chapter Thirteen of Mark’s Gospel contains the longest speech on a single topic in the whole of the text. In what some call the “Markan Apocalypse,” Jesus offers a glimpse of what’s in store for his followers in the future. In the tradition of ancient apocalyptic writing, the passage ‘elasticates’ time – giving descriptions of persecution and suffering that may well have been already happening to the Christian communities to whom Mark is likely to have been writing – as well as seeming to predict events in the more distant future. But the timeline snaps back - ending firmly in the present, as Jesus explains that not even he knows when these things will come to pass – so we must all “keep awake”; the last words he speaks before his passion and death.