First or Last

One of the things that this country is famous for is queuing. We’re all guilty of it – we all end up queuing at some point or other. From what I’ve been told, and seen on the news, some people will queue for hours – many many hours – for something they feel is important to them. For example, paying respects to our late queen.

And we’re not happy when people queue jump, are we? Remember the backlash to those two ITV morning television hosts doing it.

Yet here Jesus says the last shall be first and the first will be last. Not only that but He tells us that the workers all received the same pay. Those who only worked for one hour received that same amount as those who worked for the entire day!

If we take this literally, to us, it seems a bit unfair and contrary to our knowledge of God as a fair and generous God.

But! We are not supposed to take this passage literally. It is important to remember that Jesus taught in metaphors and stories. And, Jesus us telling this parable to explain several things:

Jesus uses this parable to further explain what the Kingdom of God is like and to highlight God’s continuing care for His people. He is also highlighting the importance of choosing eternal life with Him over the temptation of worldly wealth whilst teaching His disciples to serve others. Greatness is not ruling over others but serving others. Jesus came to serve – not to be served.

In the Kingdom of God all are treated the same.

Everyone comes to faith (the vineyard) at different times of life.

Some are “lifelong” followers, or disciples, of Jesus. Some find Jesus much later in life.

It is never too late to find faith, belief in Jesus, and to begin living faithfully.

God wants ALL people to have faith in Him and return to a life with Him. Not all do; but that does not mean we should give up. We should continue to persevere, to spread the word, to live by Jesus’s example and plant those mustard seeds to continue to draw others back to Christ.

ALL believers, who repent, no matter how long or how hard they work during this lifetime, will receive the same reward:

eternal life
God’s grace
God’s forgiveness and reconciliation with Him

However, we must be careful not to compare and become envious of others and what we perceive they have been given (thinking they are being given more that they’ve earned).

It is not really possible for us to see what others have experienced as they serve God. We cannot see their inner conflicts or their background struggles. Neither can they fully see ours.

In the end, all of us truly need to trust God and know that all we have is from His grace, which He has freely given.

So, going back to that queue, it doesn’t matter if we are at the front, the back, or in the middle! It doesn’t matter at what age we found Christ. God freely gave us His grace and what matters is that we did find Him. Regardless of where we are in that “queue”, if we turn to Christ, follow Him, reject evil and repent our sins then God forgives us and we are reconciled with Him.

Talk given at Holy Trinity Sheerness and Minster Abbey 24th September 2023 (Matthew 20:1-16).

Knock Knock…

… Who’s there? Jesus. Jesus who?

…

Jesus who? This is what Jesus asks His disciples. He starts with an icebreaker – who do the people say I am?

I suspect that, like many of us would do when we are asked a searching question, the disciples may have been analysing the question to try and work out what answer Jesus was looking for.

The Bible references many identities that the people had allocated to Jesus. The disciples had lots to choose from to answer Jesus’s question.

But then Jesus asks the key question (no pun intended).

He says: “But you, who do you say I am?”

And Peter does not disappoint. Peter answers from his heart, sharing the knowledge given to him by God.

“You are the Christ”, Peter says, “the Son of the Living God”.

This is Peter confessing his faith and it is so important that it is on this faith, this statement by Peter that Jesus is the Christ, our Saviour from sin, that Jesus builds the foundation of His church – a church tasked with the mission of sharing the good news that Jesus Christ is our Saviour.

C.S. Lewis wrote:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Mere Christianity by C.S.Lewis

Jesus is Lord! He is the Son of God!

… So, who is Jesus to you? Don’t answer with your head. The answer is written in your heart.

Who is Jesus to you?

And now, let’s turn that around: Who does Jesus say you are?

When you leave this world, how do you want to be remembered? Will your obituary/eulogy be just a boring list of facts – born on – worked at – died on? Or will it be full of memories from people whose lives you have touched with kindness – whether you remember it or not?

Alfred Nobel was reading the morning paper in 1888. The day before, his brother, Ludvig had died. But the newspaper accidently wrote the obituary about Alfred. He was dismayed that they had called him “the merchant of death” and that it read “Dr Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”

Nobel was appalled and this inspired him to create the Nobel Peace Prize and to donate his entire fortune to causes of peace.

Who does Jesus say you are?

Will Jesus see us as being faithful to Him? Micah 6:8 says: “This is what the Lord requires of you. Be fair to other people. Love kindness and loyalty, and humbly obey your God.”

Faith means walking with Jesus by treating others right, showing kindness and lifting up those who weary from the journey.

Jesus told us to be ready because He will come again at an hour when we do not expect Him.

Are we ready?

Who does Jesus say we are?

Talk given at Minster Abbey 27th August 2023

Minster Abbey Talk on John 17:1-11

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things:…”
Lewis Carroll

And if we were having a conversation over some coffee and cake (hint hint) that is precisely what would happen. We would have a conversation; maybe about the weather, the coronation, a television drama, … all sorts.

Some of us find it easy to converse, some of us find it more difficult and communicate in other ways. Some of us are good at listening and for some of us it “goes in one ear and out the other”.

But, how do we pray?

There are many different ways we can pray, but ultimately, if we think about it, prayer is just the same as that conversation over coffee … isn’t it?

If not why not?

We have the opportunity to talk to God about anything and everything; and not just when we’re worried or in need or when things aren’t going as we’d like but also when we’re thankful, joyful and when things are going well.

We can do a lot of talking to God but we need to remember to listen as well. If we are honest none of us listen as much as we should.

Prayer is vitally important in our lives. An oft repeated quote “seven days without prayer makes one week (weak!)”.

Today’s Gospel reading is part of one of Jesus’s longest prayers.

In short it summarises Jesus’s relationship with the Father and the relationship He wanted His disciples to have with Himself and the Father.

Like the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) this prayer is in three sections.

Jesus prays for Himself
Jesus prays for His disciples
Jesus prays for all believers past, present and future

Despite us having celebrated Jesus’s Ascension on Thursday, this prayer passage takes place before His arrest. But it is significant because it becomes Jesus’s evaluation of the purpose of His life, death, resurrection and ascension.

God’s glory and Jesus’s glory are one and the same. Through the death of Jesus God is glorified and all believers receive eternal life.

Eternal life is knowing the one true God; being in a living fellowship with God. And this life we receive when we accept Jesus into our hearts and lives. Jesus’s purpose, His mission, is salvation.

Jesus prays with great concern for His disciples. He was not concerned about Himself – He knew God’s plan, He knew He had to suffer and die to be victorious. Jesus’s victory was unquestionable. The disciples were just like us. They were not infallible. Jesus had predicted the disciples would desert Him. And so He prayed for them, that they would be kept safe and protected by the Father’s power and that they would fulfil their future ministry. The disciples were about to be tested and Jesus prayed that this would not separate them from Himself or from each other.

Again, like the Three-in-one, Jesus mentions three things about His disciples:

They had accepted His teaching
They had accepted the knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God
They believed

Jesus prayed that the world would stop being opposed to God.

“All I have is Yours and all You have is Mine.” Jesus has equality with the Father.

He prays that, as He and God are one, the disciples and believers will remain as one.

In unity.

Not divided.

Division is the result of the failures of Christians.

God is awe-inspiring and loving. Jesus’s prayer is an outpouring of love and concern.

Jesus was shortly returning to the Father and to the glory He has before the world began. He had completed His mission. The Holy Spirit had been promised. With the help of the Holy Spirit it is now our turn.

Our mission, if we choose to accept it, is to bring glory to God through all we do in His name.

Are we ready?

Do we accept this mission?

A Journey of Truth and Faith

(Talk on Luke 24:13-35 23rd April 2023)

This passage from Luke teaches us a lot about truth and faith. It is, in both a literal and a spiritual sense, about journeys. Literally, it is about two disciples (followers of Jesus) walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Spiritually, it is about their and our journey from not knowing Jesus to truly knowing Jesus and sharing our experiences of Jesus. It is about rediscovering Christ’s presence in our lives, gaining a fresher understanding of God’s transforming grace, allowing our hearts to be ignited with the Holy Spirit as we too walk with Christ.

The Bible makes very clear and specific statements about Jesus. As the disciples walked along they were discussing the scriptures and the recent events that had happened. When Jesus appeared to them they were walking the wrong way – away from Jerusalem. They were preoccupied with their own difficulties, overwhelmed with sadness, grief and hopelessness. They were unable to identify God’s purpose in what had happened.

Humans like to know reasons for…well everything. We ask (both aloud and to ourselves) why? We analyse, we interpret, we assume, we conclude. And we use the answers as a Sat Nav! What we decide the answers are determine/direct what and where we do/go next.

The disciples did not fully understand the Scriptures or the meaning of what had happened to Jesus. They had knowledge but it was incomplete and not understood. It was not true knowledge of the right information.

Jesus appeared and started to walk with them. They did not see Jesus. They were kept from recognising him. The Risen Christ walking with them on their journey, but unrecognised, igniting the fire of God’s love in their hearts. Like the Footsteps poem when there is only one set of footprints (because Jesus is carrying us).

But, this enabled Jesus to impart true knowledge. He explains and interprets for them. This teaches us that the key to interpreting the Old Testament is Jesus.

Jesus explained everything from Moses to the prophets, how the Messiah would save God’s people through His death and resurrection, rescuing a sinful, unholy people by reconciling them with The Holy God.

Jesus is the Messiah whose life, death and resurrection grants us salvation. Jesus Himself told us “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me”.

God cannot be near sin. The only way for us sinners to be reconciled to Him was for Jesus to become sin, be punished for our sin, to die and defeat death; so that through His resurrection we could, with faith and repentance, be forgiven and have a relationship with God.

But it is not sufficient to just know the facts. We must also believe in that knowledge, we must truly believe in Jesus and in what He taught. Like the disciples recognising Jesus (when He broke the bread) and rushing back to tell the others, we have to open our eyes in faith. If we believe in Him then we strive to be in His image and this is shown in how we live. We need to believe in God’s word and be motivated by faith. We know God fulfils His promises but we also need to believe this. We know He is always with us, all the time, especially those times when we only see one set of footprints. But, we also need to believe this.

There is a story that gets quoted a lot so apologies if you, like me, have heard it used before:

There was a young boy caught in a house fire and forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you”. He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see was flame, smoke and darkness. The boy was too afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling “Jump! I WILL catch you”. The boy protested “Daddy, I can’t see you” The father replied, “But I CAN see you and that’s all that matters”.
Reece Sherman’s Faith Lessons

Do we understand truly? Or do we rely on our assumptions? Do we truly believe and trust in God? I pray that we do.

God is always there for us and will catch us. He can see us even if we cannot see Him. Do we have enough faith to jump into those life saving arms? I pray that we do.

Thank you.

Poppet on a journey, running through grass

Witnessing and Doubting

(Talk given at Minster Abbey 16th April 2023)

So…witnessing and Doubting Thomas!

The other day I read that the public (according to the newspapers) claim the church do not promote Easter as much as Christmas. Easter and Christmas… two very important events for us – Christmas the celebration of the birth of Christ, the incarnation, God becoming man to save us…and Easter where Jesus is sacrificed in our place to defeat death, rise again, and enable us to be forgiven for our sins and reconciled with God.

So I thought about this and here’s a couple of comparisons:

The Church

At Christmas:

Advent – 4 Sundays
- Hope, Prophecy, Patriarchs
- Peace, Bethlehem, Prophets
- Joy, Shepherds, John the Baptist
- Love, Angels, Mary
Carol Service
Christingle Service
Crib Service
Midnight Mass
Christmas Morning Service
Candlemass

At Easter:

Ash Wednesday Ashing Service
Lent – 6 Sundays
- Invocabit
- Reminiscere
- Oculi
- Laetare
- Judica
- Palm Sunday
Maundy Thursday Service
Good Friday Pilgrimage and Gathering at the Cross
Stations of the Cross
Holy Saturday Vigil/Service of Light
Easter Sunday Service
Ascension
Pentecost
Corpus Christi

Versus

What I think is most appropriate to call commercialisation:

Where Christmas is promoted with:

Father Christmas
School Nativity Plays
Carols
Christmas number ones/Christmas songs
Grottos
TV Ads
Work Dos/Christmas parties
Decorations
Cards
Presents
Trees
High Street decorations and lights
Shop displays and more decorations
Christmas dinner menu options at pubs and restaurants for approx. 2 months
Pantomimes
Etc

And where Easter is promoted with:

Chocolate and chocolate eggs
The Easter Bunny
TV Ads but on a smaller scale
Small shop displays normally in seasonal aisles
Small amount of Easter decorations
Small amount of Easter cards
Easter dinner menu options for 1 day

In my opinion, having compared the aforementioned; the media, yet again, is showing a biased and incomplete picture. The evidence suggests that on the contrary the church does more at Easter but the sway of commercialisation makes the commercial version of Christmas more widely known.

This needs to be combated, but how? Simply, we need to follow the instruction and example of Peter in Acts and go out and witness, spreading the good news of the true meaning of both Christmas and Easter, sharing what, through love, Christ did for us and the joy of His resurrection with all it’s connotations of redemption.

Meanwhile, where does Thomas fit into all this?

Personally, I feel sorry for Thomas. I think he got a bit of a rough deal. Thomas the Doubter…in actuality he was a fervent believer yet what do we remember him for – doubting – the one who wouldn’t believe without seeing for himself and touching his beloved Master’s wounds.

Maybe, despite it being unfair, one of the reasons we remember Thomas specifically for this event is because it shows us that doubt is okay!

Doubt is something we all experience at some point and in reality, faith and doubt can and do co-exist side by side.

Thomas was not evicted from the group of disciples for his doubt. He was not condemned by Jesus for his doubt. He continued to be a valued part of the disciples as they stayed together, discussing all that had happened, sharing meals, continuing to accept each other.

Thomas had not been there when Jesus had appeared to the group of disciples initially. What was he doing? Where and why wasn’t he there are interesting questions.

BUT, it occurs to me that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t there so that God could use him for the benefit of those too scared to admit their doubt both then and now.

Thomas only doubted for one week! He then met the risen Jesus and believed. In fact, he believed so fervently for the rest of his life that he was killed (or martyred) for his belief. Yet, still, he is referred to as “Doubting Thomas”.

One small brief moment of doubt, one incident, one mistake, one failing – and a label is applied – something that is still very much done today. And, whilst that person learns, believes, repents, changes, moves on, that label sticks.

Instead of calling Thomas “Believing Thomas” – a far more accurate name/label; because of that one brief moment of doubt he is known as “The Doubter”.

Through this and through Thomas, maybe God is teaching and reminding us that we should not label people. That we should allow people to change and accept that people do change. That we all make mistakes but when we repent God forgives us; likewise when others make mistakes we should allow them to repent and forgive them.

One more thing: asking questions.

There is a common phrase heard in classrooms and training rooms throughout the land:

“There are no stupid questions” and “if you ask a question most of the people in the room are probably thinking it and are just too scared to ask”.

Children in particular ask a lot of questions and, whilst these are often ‘when or what is for dinner?’, they often ask the really big questions:

What is God’s name?
What does God look like?
What does it mean to be reborn?
How is Jesus alive?

The questions children, and indeed some adults, ask are, in their own way, blessings. They make us think and help us gain deeper understanding and insight together.

The person that both expressed the doubts of everyone and asked the question everyone else was thinking was Thomas. For this we owe him a great deal for if the question had not been asked the answer would not have been given. Thomas the Brave who said to Jesus “Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” To whom we owe thanks for Jesus’s answer “I am the [only] way [to God], the [real] truth and the [real] life, no one comes to the Father but through me”.

Thanks to Thomas we know it is okay to be honest about our doubts as well as our faith, we know that labels do not reflect who people truly are and we can realise how questions can lead us to deeper knowledge and growth. Thanks to Thomas, who believed because he had seen, we can see because we believe.

Easter Spoilers

Talk from 26th March (John 11:1-45)

Who likes reading spoiler alerts to find out what will happen ahead of the next episode?

Who avoids them like the proverbial plague? Ah okay, you might want to put your hands over your ears then because in some ways this passage from John is a little bit like a trailer or spoiler for two weeks time!

Today we hear about and celebrate the resurrection of Lazarus. In two weeks we hear about and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

There are lots of parallels in this story pointing towards what was going to happen. John even mentions at the beginning of this passage an event (Mary anointing Jesus’s feet) which does not occur until after the resurrection of Lazarus.

Jesus was very clear right from the beginning that EVERYTHING He does is for the glory of God. His wisdom and knowledge far exceeds ours.

It was still difficult for Martha and Mary that Jesus did not immediately drop everything and come to them upon hearing that Lazarus was severely ill.

Today’s society tend to want everything immediately. Patience and waiting are hard. Whilst I know that waiting times for ambulances are much longer than ideal at the moment; how many of us have to wait over two days before one leaves to attend to us?

But Jesus knew what He was doing and so He waited. Once the time was right He told the disciples He was going back to Judea. The religious leaders there already wanted Jesus dead and this worried His disciples. Ironically, it is Thomas (later to be known as the doubter) who persuaded the disciples to accompany Jesus even if it meant death.

Jesus is the Light of the World. As He says, if we walk during the day (in the light) we will not stumble because we see (have) the light of the world (Jesus).

Those who walk at night stumble because the Light (Jesus) is not in them.

By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days.

Decomposing!

Stinky!

Yuk!

Martha (the sister who in another passage we are told did all the chores whilst Mary sat listening to Jesus) heard Jesus was on His way and came to meet Him.

Martha says “Lord, if you had been here…” Martha knows and believes that Jesus has the power to heal. Is she declaring her faith? Or is she displaying anger that Jesus was not there in time to stop Lazarus dying? Jesus tests her and she proclaims her faith and her belief.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life and He was about to prove it whilst showing, again, through this miracle that Jesus is the Giver of Life and the Saviour. He was also showing His followers a preview of how He would be defeating death.

It is important that we understand the relevance of Lazarus having been in the tomb for four days. Jesus had raised people to life before after all, so we need to know what makes the resurrection of Lazarus so different.

Well, previously when Jesus had raised people from the dead the timescale between their death and resurrection was a great deal shorter.

Jesus needed this miracle to be determinate.

To help us understand let me explain that at that time people believed that a person’s spirit left their body on the third day after their death. On the fourth day there is no doubt. The person is really dead. Not sleeping. Dead Dead!

This was important as it meant there could be no dispute over the fact that Lazarus was actually dead before Jesus resurrected him.

Martha went to Mary and told her “The Teacher is here”. Jesus is the Ultimate Teacher. Mary went to Jesus and used the same words as her sister, “Lord, if you had been here …” Mary and the Jews with her wept. Jesus wept. But, Jesus was not mourning Lazarus. Jesus knew all along that He would be raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus wept for those who did not understand. He wept for those who had lost hope. He wept at the sight of the very suffering He came to save us from. Through Jesus believers are to grieve with hope.

Jesus went to the tomb, He called for the stone to be moved away. The stench of death was all around. Jesus prayed. He did everything with prayer. He knows God always hears Him and thanks God for this. But He also needed the crowd to see that God had sent Him and that He was acting with God’s authority.

Jesus called out in a loud voice “Lazarus, come out!” Jesus has compassion for each one of us and calls us by name.

Lazarus came out still bound in the burial cloths BUT no longer a rotting corpse. Instead he was fully and completely healed. Jesus told the crowd to unbind Lazarus and they helped free him.

Lazarus, a new creation, freed from the tomb and welcomed back to life.

Jesus died to defeat sin and death, the Ultimate Sacrifice and our Saviour is raised from the grave so we can be forgiven and reconciled with God.

Not only that but Jesus came to have a relationship with EVERYONE, not just the Jews.

So how does that affect us. Basically, we cannot experience the resurrection unless we experience death. By this I mean that we cannot accept new life in Christ, if we do not allow our old, sinful lives to die.

We need to let go of whatever is holding us back, whatever is stopping us from being a new creation in Christ.

Let us hear Jesus calling us by name, let us say goodbye to what is holding us back, let us leave the tomb and walk in the light of Jesus.

And more than that, as we are told in Romans; by believing and having faith in Jesus, what He has done, is doing and will do, we are able to take part in bringing glory to God in all we do.

Let us give Him the glory, great things He hath done.

Mothering Sunday

Talk from 19th March 2023

I’ll start by admitting that, whilst I was thinking about what I might say today, I was tempted to include a vote on who wants a talk about Mothering Sunday versus who wants a talk on today’s readings (Colossians 3:12-17, Luke 2:33-35, John 19:25b-27). Instead, in a good news bad news kind of result, you’ve got a bit of both.

The other week my husband asked me if I would be taking the Mothers’ Day break in the Lenten fast. Being me I asked why and got told it’s because it’s Respite Sunday. Well, those of us with the job title of Mother might agree that respite is a myth! So I looked it up.

In medieval times this Sunday, called Mid-Lent or Refreshment Sunday, was indeed used as a day of respite from the Lenten fast.

So why, I thought, would you break the fast, or resolution if you like, for one day when (assuming you’ve been able to keep it so far) you are half way through and it’s beginning to get easier. After all, it takes 6 weeks to make a new routine stick and only 1 to break it. Breaking the fast surely just makes it harder to keep for the final half of Lent.

Penny drops!

That’s why, I thought, because it had got easier, it’s not a temptation in the same way anymore, it’s easier to resist, that habit of having whatever it is we’ve given up is becoming a habit of not having it. We are not having to make as much effort and so the motive of Lent, the preparation, the trials, the testing need refreshing so that we are putting the same amount or even more effort into the second half of Lent as we did in the first half. It is not supposed to be easy.

So how did this become associated with Mothering Sunday? Simply because of the texts read at Mass during those medieval times which were full of many metaphors for and references to mothers; which are often linked to the personification of the church as the Bride of Christ and with the Virgin Mary.

Time passed. (It didn’t know the answer to the question). After the English Reformation (when coincidently the same readings were still being assigned to this Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer) Christians would ‘Go a Mothering’. This means they would return to their “Mother Church” for a service on this Sunday. By “Mother Church” we normally mean either the church in which we were baptised, the local parish church or the nearest cathedral (the cathedral being the “Mother Church” of all the churches in the diocese).

In more recent history, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their Mother Church, usually with their own mothers and family members.

Nowadays, we use Mothering Sunday to give thanks to all those who mother us. A day when we celebrate all who have and do give us motherly care.

Providing this love and care is, in itself, a vocation. It is a vocation of nurturing, care, love and joy. Equally, it is a vocation of tiredness and worry, pain and sacrifice.

There can be no doubt that Mary experienced all these elements of motherhood. She accepted the vocation and all the pain that was to come with it.

Jesus was born to be our Saviour and this involved Him being the Ultimate Sacrifice. In this short passage from Luke, Simeon receives Jesus like a priest receiving a sacrifice. He warns Mary that “a sword will pierce” her soul also.

We are told that Mary treasured and pondered on all these things she was told about Jesus. We can only imagine how much she may have dwelt on and worried or dreaded that time coming. Did it give her a chance to be prepared? A chance to be ready when that moment came?

Mary understood the joy of motherhood. But, she also had to understand the pain as she saw Jesus humiliated, tortured and die an extremely painful death. The sword piercing her soul.

Mary was there at important moments in Jesus’s life. Likewise, she was at the cross at His time of death. Yet, even at the moment of death Jesus’s heart is open. He sees the pain and grief of the mother who sacrificed for Him, whom He loves and respects. He sees the grief of a trusted disciple and friend and He gives them to each other to support and care for each other. He ensures that they will be okay by this act. An act of compassion at His darkest hour.

So as we move towards communion and towards our time of prayer let us bring to the Lord all our joys and sorrows. Let us bring to Him our thanks for all those who have provided us with a mothering care and all those who have been like mothers to us.

As we remember Jesus’s sacrifice for us upon the cross, His act of love, may we try and understand the pain of those who suffer out of love and may we strive to follow His example and walk in His footsteps striving to act with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness and love.

First Sunday in Advent 27th November 2022

Happy New Church Year! Today, we are celebrating both the first Sunday in the church year AND the first Sunday in Advent; and so, yes, the Christmas jumpers have been got out.

And in Matthew, Jesus tells us to “Stay Awake…”. I don’t know about you but I am most definitely going to need more coffee!!!

We are told that, if the house owner knew in advance exactly what time the thief was going to break into his house, then he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. He would be prepared! He would have made plans to protect his home and for the thief to be caught.

Likewise, if we were to receive a warning that something would happen at a certain time then we would prepare and make sure we were ready. If an electricity company says at this time on this day we are turning the electric off then we would make sure that batteries were charged, the torches were working and so on.

We would be ready and alert!

“Keep awake for you do not know on what day or at what hour your Lord is coming.”

We know Christ will return – this is promised and God keeps His promises. What we do not know is the timing – and God’s time is not the same as ours.

So we must be ready and watchful.

Be prepared.

Advent is a time of waiting and preparation.

Are we prepared?

When I ask you “are you ready for Christmas” what do you think of?

Is it whether you’ve got all the presents?

Is it whether they are all wrapped or how much wrapping you need to do?

Is it whether the Christmas cards are all written or who you’ve still got to send one to or whether they’ll be posted in time with the planned postal strikes?

Is it when the decorations will go up or whether they are up already or when they’ll be got out of storage?

Is it whether the Christmas pudding and Christmas cake are made or when they’ll be made?

Be honest – when asked if you are ready for Christmas – who actually interprets this question as:

Are you ready for Jesus?

Are you ready for His birth?

Are you ready for Him to come again?

!!!

“Keep awake for we do not know the hour He will return.”

Thankfully, this does not mean that we all must become insomniacs. It means we need to be Spiritually awake. To be on our guard against spiritual distraction. To pay attention. To spend time with God in prayer and growing our faith. To be more fully alive in Christ.

I was writing Christmas cards this week. I’ve been writing quite a lot to give hope to people who would otherwise be forgotten. And I got quite cross because I found a range of cards that have the greeting “Happy Holidays”.

Now this really annoys me. It’s the same with a lot of television adverts on at this time of year.

Let me share why…

It misses the point!

It doesn’t just miss the point – it totally avoids it with an enormous detour.

And what is it that these Christmas cards and adverts are all missing out?

Well, the clue’s in the name. The reason for the season – Christ. The greatest gift of all.

So we must stay spiritually awake so that we do not commit the crime of leaving Christ out of Christmas. We must be alert and watchful to make sure that we do not demote Jesus to the bottom of the list. We must be on our guard to ensure that we are not just giving Him a cursory nod/brief acknowledgement or lip service just so that we can “tick that box”.

We must be prepared and ensure that we are putting Jesus at the forefront of our lives. Before everything else. First.

So this year let us use this time of Advent to wait patiently for Christ.

Waiting can seem boring. It can be hard to be patient. Especially when there are so many other distractions.

But waiting does not actually mean doing nothing!

It is an opportunity to prepare our hearts, our minds, our souls.

It is an opportunity to put our trust in the Lord. To truly repent, to forgive and to accept forgiveness. It is an opportunity to seek God more deeply in prayer and to surrender to His ways – becoming more alive in Christ.

I’m going to deviate slightly to quote from a Christmas film, which due to this quote is, in my opinion, one of the best Christmas films:

Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child’s cry. A blazing star hung over a stable and wise men came with birthday gifts.

We haven’t forgotten that night down the centuries; we celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, the sound of bells and with gifts. But especially with gifts. You give me a book; I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry could do with a new pipe.

We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled…all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It’s his birthday we are celebrating. Don’t ever let us forget that.
Let us ask ourselves what he would wish for most…and then let each put in his share. Loving kindness, warm hearts and the stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.
The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

So let us use this advent to be ready for and to remember Christ this Christmas as we pray:

Lord, grant that we may stay awake, remain watchful and stand firm in the faith out of our love for you. Amen.

Harvest Festival

As normal, for our area, donations received during the Harvest Festival were mainly in the form of long life goods for the food bank. A representative for the food bank passed on their thanks from themselves and on the behalf of those who need to use the food bank – which was nice!

But, during the service I glanced around at all the tins of food and I was thinking…

I thought back to when I was a child and we were asked to take something in for the school and church harvest festivals. Mother would go through the cupboard and present us with a tin, “You can take that” she’d say “no one likes that one”!

I thought about comments I have heard from varying sources on such occasions of: “And everybody bring a tin. Everyone always has something in the cupboard they don’t like so there’s no excuse.”

I thought that, whilst given the choice between nothing and a tin of food that has only been chosen as a donation because nobody likes it then there may well be some gratitude, because anything may well be better than nothing – if it is the only food you can get and you are actually starving. BUT does that make our reason the right reason when we choose what to give?

I thought, shouldn’t we be giving the best we can offer. It is to God to whom we are giving our offerings. It is to God we are giving thanks for the harvest and that we are fortunate enough to have something to eat. When donations leave the altar and make their way to the food bank to feed those in need they are also “feeding Jesus”. Surely, therefore, it should indeed be the best we can offer.

Whilst it is true that people have different tastes and it may well be that a food one person hates is another person’s favourite; the important thing is the motive. What is the motive behind the choice of product? Is it the best we can offer or is it actually just a case of wanting that item out our cupboard? Are we giving our Lord the best of our harvest or the dregs?

What is written in our hearts is known. No excuses can be made.

So when such choices are to be made, remember we should be giving of our best with a pure heart (the right motive) – not finally getting rid of that tin that nobody likes but providing a feast fit for a King – our Saviour.