The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

1/12/2006

The Vicar writes Stephen Tucker

The English mystic, Julian of Norwich, (c.1342-1420) famously wrote, All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.’ It is an expression of Christian hope and it was written in the context of her consideration of the physical and spiritual suffering and pain in creation a pain she knew well in her own life. But why should we believe her? Advent is traditionally a time for revisiting our understanding of Christian hope so it is worth trying to answer that question.

In the musical Jesus Christ Superstar the words were given a more modern translation along the lines of everything is going to be all right.’ Hearing it in that form we might feel a bit more suspicious. Is this the kind of hope which orders a fourth martini on the Titanic on the grounds that rescue is bound to arrive on time and we just have to sit back and wait for it? Faced with that kind of facile optimism we are more likely to feel we must do something. So we follow the chap who has a plan. And when that fails we may feel inclined to join those who are drinking to drown their despair.

That in brief characterises our society’s view of the future; the optimistic belief that something will always (scientifically?) turn up to get us out of the mess: the ideological belief that if only we adopt this policy, this solution, this prime minister, things will get better; or the realistic/pessimistic view that nothing much can be done about anything so we must keep our heads down and make the most of things for ourselves.

None of which seems to relate to Julian’s vision of Christian hope though it could be made to sound like the first view hopelessly optimistic. Christians, of course, have produced some very similar views in their presentation of God intervening to sort everything out, of belief in Jesus putting everything right in your life, or of the church having the answers if only we would do what it tells us. Curiously these solutions have never quite seemed to ring true, perhaps because though some parts of the Bible might be adduced to support each view, a closer and more sensitive reading of Scripture points to something deeper and more challenging.

Thus Paul talks about hoping for what we don’t have, not for what we can already envisage. Love he says, cryptically, hopeth all things’. Faith is the substance’ of things hoped for. Hope is especially associated with the virtue of patience (the waiting and watchfulness of Advent). The hope of glory is the presence of Christ in us. Hope then is the quality of expectant, discerning, honest, patient, courageous, Christlike and open living. People who really give us hope (as a wider reading of Julian might confirm) are the people who strike us as living in this way. They do not tie God down to specific answers or interventions, though they might pray passionately for specific things (as Jesus says in Gethsemane, Let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.’) They are able to look the horrors and muddle of our world in the face and not be defeated by them. They anchor themselves in the belief that God heals. Whatever we hope for and look towards in Advent therefore, is pre-eminently an experience or glimpse of some kind of healing in our lives and that healing may simply reside in a renewal of hope and courage in the face of things that do not change.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’ (Romans 15:13)

With my love and prayers for Advent and Christmas,

Fr Stephen