Sunday 29Th November 2020. Advent 1. Isaiah 64:1-9 Psalm 80:1-8, 18
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Sunday 29th November 2020. Advent 1. Isaiah 64:1-9 Psalm 80:1-8, 18-20 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 Mark 13:24-37 Happy New Year! Today is Advent Sunday the start of the church’s New Year. Perhaps you wonder why the church doesn’t keep the same New Year date as the rest of the world – although in fact, we could ask why the world doesn’t fit in with us, as Advent Sunday was established as the start of the Christian Year hundreds of years before the West settled on 1st January as the change of year. Advent has many associations. For some it will always recall a crown made of wire coat-hangars and flame retardant tinsel, for others it’s lighting candles in church, for yet others it’s a calendar full of chocolate. For almost everyone there’s something special about Advent. Advent is often treated like “Christmas Lite”. This year, even in the churches, the restrictions of Corona Virus mean that we are starting our Christmas preparations very early and impinging on Advent. Still, Advent isn’t Christmas, it’s a season of its own, and it’s a season we need. Although traditional Advent calendars contain pictures and Bible verses from the Nativity story, Advent isn’t really about preparing for Christmas. It’s about preparing for the end of time, for Christ’s second coming, for the inauguration of God’s new heaven and new earth. The traditional themes of Advent are death and judgement, heaven and hell: a reminder of the readings we’ve followed through November warning us not to be complacent about the Day of the Lord. Today’s reading from Isaiah calls on the Lord to come swiftly to rescue his people, the Psalm does the same. Knowing what we do about the reality of the Day of the Lord, we’re not surprised that 1 Corinthians urges us to stay firm in our faith, for the Day of the coming of the Lord may be a scary day. St Mark records Jesus saying that when we see him coming again in his glory with great power and glory, the sun itself will be darkened, the moon will go black and the stars will fall from heaven. The Day of the Lord is an awesome day, and a day for which we need to prepare. The readings don’t tell us how, only that we must. So each of us must look into our hearts and resolve how we need to prepare for the Day of the Lord. The start of the New Year has become a time for making resolutions. Most of us fail to keep these resolutions, but maybe we could make some Advent resolutions, and maybe we could keep them as this isn’t the doomed start of the next year when we expect to fail at keeping resolutions. The only resolution we need to make is to model our lives more closely on Jesus, so that when he comes in glory we will recognise him and be seen to be like him. However, working out that resolution will be different for each of us. I wonder if any you need to live out your resolution in any of these ways • Being more generous with possessions, time and talents, devoting them to God’s work, as Jesus did. • Being more caring for those who are poor, annoying, a bit difficult, as Jesus did. • Paying greater attention to God’s word by reading the Bible, as Jesus did. • Spending more time listening to God in prayer, as Jesus did. • Being God’s light in the place where we live, as Jesus did. We want to be ready for Christmas, and we need to be ready for the second coming. Advent, season of preparation, gives us time to do that. Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility; that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Sunday 22nd November 2020. Next before Advent. Stir Up Sunday. Christ the King. Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 Psalm 95:1-7 Ephesians 1:15-end Matt 25:31-end. This is the last Sunday of the year. The Church’s year runs from the first Sunday of Advent to the Sunday next before Advent; that’s today. Today has many names: Sunday next before Advent reminds us to get ready for the season of getting ready; Stir up Sunday reminds us that getting ready may not be totally comfortable; Christ the King reminds us why we want and need to get ready to serve the King. This Sunday is so famous it has even made it into one of Nigella Lawson’s cookery books (although she did get some of the details wrong). Today is a day that reminds us that we are under orders from God to be the people who live in such a way that anyone who looks at us can see that we are God’s people. There are many ways to do this: some of us wear funny clothes that mark us out as belonging to God. The clothes can be useful, they are a constant reminder to those of us wearing them that we are representing God, and we need to live up to God’s standards. Some of us choose to work for organisations which try to enact God’s laws and decrees, even though they don’t bring in much money. These organisations can be useful, they require us to be accountable to others about how we live and what we do. Some of us commit ourselves to praying for our communities so that we know how to act like God with those around us. These prayers can be useful because they open our ears to God’s words for a place and strengthen us to go and do God’s work. Some of us undertake activities which benefit our local community or the wider world, serving as councillors and committee members, working for the good of others. These activities can be useful because they make us visible to others so that they can see God. There are many things we can do to enact our prayer “your kingdom come, your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven,” but today reminds us that we don’t do them because we are good and kind, have a social conscience or a desire to tidy up the world, we do them because we are under orders from our King to behave like our King. Our Gospel reading is clear and unambiguous: God orders us to care for those who need most care. Every Sunday when I stand at the altar in Woodditton church I look at a stained glass window in the tower which depicts people feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and welcoming the stranger. That window stirs me up to recall God’s orders to me, it stirs my conscience as I realise how often I have been deaf to God’s orders, it stirs my resolve to do better (if 2D people made of coloured glass can do this, surely I can). Caring for those in need is not always comfortable. People have needs at times which are not convenient; they are not always as thankful for our help as our pride might like; they often need the same help over and over again. But then we know that, for we too are people who need help, are not always thankful and often need to be supported again and again and again, especially when we seek God’s help. In our reading from Ezekiel the prophet condemns those who should be help-givers after the pattern of God: the rulers and priests, the leaders, movers and shakers. When they are compared with the Shepherd who is the King of Love they are found to be lacking in generosity and helpfulness. Ezekiel condemned them because, by their office, they had “taken the King’s shilling” and signed up to fight in God’s army. We can look at political leaders and church leaders and condemn them just as Ezekiel did. But we too have taken the King’s shilling, we too have signed up for God’s army, and so Ezekiel’s image of self-serving shepherds who fleece their flocks is a reminder of our responsibilities and the judgement that faces us. It can feel like a thankless task, always looking out for the needy, always taking second place behind those who have less, always setting aside our own desires to do God’s work. But Paul’s words to the Ephesians should encourage us. We have a King who has done this work already; when we offer Matthew’s cup of water to someone who is thirsty, we are offering this cup from a reservoir continually filled up by God; when we reach out to touch someone in need, we reach out with Christ’s own hand; when we remember to obey our orders we are marching alongside our leader who is also enlisted in God’s army with us.