ADVENT REFLECTION
Restoring Advent Ron Thomlinson and the Rev James Macfarlane begin a series of reflections for Advent
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IM, for someone who never even mastered painting by numbers, my sudden interest in the restoration of old, dark, heavily varnished oil paintings took me completely by surprise. Fiona Bruce’s programme Fake or Fortune? is partly to blame. Hopefully your wife, Jean, who has experience of restoring paintings, will confirm that varnish is applied to protect from dust, dirt, smoke and ‘the atmosphere’. Astonishingly, it seems that varnishes were prepared in such a way that they could later be removed without damaging the original work, thus keeping a picture safe and secure. During 1948–49 a coat of varnish was applied to Leonardo da Vinci’s precious painting Virgin of the Rocks. The varnish degraded badly. It took 18 months of restoration work before the picture was, in 2010, able to be appreciated again in all its glory in the National Gallery. In this case, varnishing, which should preserve and protect, buried the original image and became counterproductive. The more I thought about varnishes, the more I became aware of my presumptions that block out the realities of Advent. I return automatically to the old, comfortable images, rather like unthinkingly removing the Christmas decorations from their well-used boxes – more of the same and no longer seeing things in focus and full colour. So, Jim, I have decided to examine my picture of Advent and make an inventory of various varnishes that may bury the truths I need to see in pristine condition. There is the varnish of my religious tradition. The varnish of the particular culture of the country in which I live. It is impossible not to recognise the varnish of the secular. These varnishes do degrade and obscure. Restoration skills fascinate me because they are gentle, patient and begin with small movements. Care is paramount and preserving the original is the name of the game. 10
Salvationist 27 November 2021
It’s time to start restoring Advent! After all, varnishes were made to be removed, and their removal often reveals facets of the original that no one even knew were there.
Ron, just as old masters suffer from time and exposure, our Advent traditions have been subject to something of the same fate. The season tends to be marked by special services, carol singing, Nativity plays and children’s parties. Secular duties also encroach: shopping, editing the Christmas card list, decorating, organising family gatherings – it can all become very busy and programmatic. Some of us even get grumpy. The Bible readings in services can almost be recited from memory. But let’s ask a simple question: Who are the two greatest Advent theologians of the New Testament? Matthew and Luke? A good guess! The Advent narratives are found there, but I would suggest that the greatest theologians are unquestionably John and Paul. The prologue to John’s Gospel is in a league of its own, unsurpassed for profundity. And where else will you find such a concentrated definition of the essence of Christ’s Advent as in the opening verses of the letter to the Romans? ‘Who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power’ (vv3 and 4). If the varnish overlaying our modern
traditions has become a bit dulled, the same was true of the faith of Israel in the time before the birth of Christ. The living voice of prophecy had ceased. The last messenger, Malachi, had delivered the oracles of God. Then, for 400 years, silence! Some rabbinic traditions said that the Shekinah, the divine presence, had departed from Israel. The nation’s secular fortunes had likewise come to a new nadir. Israel’s lustre had gone. What could be expected in such days? Against all the odds – in the ‘fullness of time’, says one of our great Advent theologians – divine restoration came. All the prophetic anticipation of Israel’s destiny now converged on this one fixed point: ‘But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son’ (Galatians 4:4 King James Version). In the words of the great Advent hymn: O come, thou Key of David, come And open wide our heavenly Home; Make safe the way that leads on high And close the path to misery. Rejoice, rejoice! Immanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
RON IS A CHRISTIAN WRITER IN THE NETHERLANDS AND JIM LIVES IN RETIREMENT IN DUNOON. THEY BECAME FRIENDS IN 1966 WHILE CADETS AT DENMARK HILL
