One for the children – and young at heart – our Crib and Christingle service on the 24th December started our final Christmas countdown. Rachel explains how the story of Jesus birth can be explained through crisps …much to the entertainment of all!
Our service for the fouth Sunday of Advent, as we focus on Mary – mother of Christ and the promise we have in a new life at Christmas. What would you wish for a new child: what would you want to protect them from experiencing? Our thanks also for the gift to the church from Phillip and Frances – a twinned toilet – and for eighteen years service, preparing the altar for communion services, Freida who passes the torch to another.
Our minds are looking towards the big day – when we celebrate Christ’s arrival, at his birth in Bethlehem. What a celebration; so why, when reading our old testament reading this evening, I wonder who decided to be the buzz kill with Isiah and his description of Woes and Judgements as we’re gearing up to the excitement of the season? But at a time of reflection – it’s more important than ever we focus on if we’re ready to receive Jesus.
Today we remember John the Baptist. The cousin of Jesus, he was convinced Jesus was the true messiah – to the extent that he went to the wilderness and proclaimed the redemption of sin through the baptism of water, and a promise that one more powerful would come, to baptise with the Holy Spirit. In Advent, we prepare to welcome the Christ child, but it’s a time of repentance, and preparation for Jesus second coming. As we take this journey, will we ask Jesus through his spirit, to strengthen us?
John the Baptist is an unusual character; we might find an encounter with him a little off putting at first – would we want to spend an evening with him? But then, prophets force us to face the part of ourselves we find uncomfortable – and John’s message of repentance, to turn our lives around, can be just as hard for us to hear today.
“Lo, he comes with clouds descending” – a fantastic hymn for this day from Charles Wesley, but as you listen to the lyrics, are you comfortable with the language? Power, glory, claiming the kingdom, thrones, people, nations – the language all of being under subjection to Jesus the King. But Jesus was a king who was different: he doesn’t conform to the pictures usually associated with kingship, with earthly glory and power. Rather, the King we follow is a servant king.
If you were starting a business that only produced one out of four viable products at the end of a complex and costly factory process, you’d be lucky to find investors to back you. However, although Jesus – through the parable of the sower – suggests three out of four won’t hear the message, with the Gospel always being freely available to all, success can easily come from failure.
Are we willing to let go of our ideas of what ‘looking good’ looks like? Are we willing to shed our ideas of what we ‘should’ be doing? Are we willing to let go of our illusion of control? What does success look like – and are we seeing success as trying to fit in, getting on with those around us: twisting our Christian faith into a call to ‘niceness’, as nobody can be offended?
Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ two sisters had let Jesus know that their brother, Jesus friend, was ill. It was days later that Jesus set off to visit: “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died” – hardly words of welcome from Mary and Martha to Jesus, but understandable in the height of grief. Jesus was moved and understood their grief – as Jesus cared for the ten lepers, the man with the shrivelled hand, the blind man and indeed Lazarus, he cares for us too: although as with Lazarus, it may not be at a time we expect.
As 11am approaches, a short service by the war memorial takes place at St Mark’s. We honour the dead, of all sides in conflict – remembering the sacrifices made by others for our freedoms today.