The Nativity - God's protest song...

Well who would have thought that Rage Against the Machine would have the Christmas number one, especially as for the last few years at least, the winner of the X-Factor has been pretty much guaranteed the number one slot.

‘Killing in the Name’ could not be a more unlikey choice for the top slot this or any other Christmas... not a saccharine syrupy lyric in sight, a great guitar riff, and very very political (and fairly colourful) lyrics. It is a heartfelt cry for justice. The song is about the then campaign against corruption in the US police forces, trying to expose and remove officers who were also members of the Ku Klux Klan, and American society’s unwillingness to act against this clear abuse of power.

‘’Killing in the Name’ is a cry for justice that is echoed down the corridors of history: in the recent Climate Change protests, the ‘Stand Up’ anti-poverty campaign, the Make Poverty History and Jubilee 2000 campaigns, Band Aid, CND, the Suffragettes the anti-slavery movement, and so on... Things just should not be like this. We know they shouldn’t. God knows they shouldn’t... and yet they continue to be so, we continue to be so...
In a year of the failed Copenhagen summit, global recession, mass unemployment, flooding nationally and internationally, banking crises, and more fighting and dying in Afghanistan it is no wonder that we might think that God had gone on an extended holiday and left us to our own devices and our self-made mess... In that context ‘Killing in the Name’ seems a most appropriate anthem this Christmas.

We so easily approach the events that we recall tonight as though they were a scene from many of the Christmas cards that we have received or sent. The Holy Family surrounded by animals, shepherds, maybe an angel or wise man or two all enveloped in the divine light of God. A soft focus Nativity, and yet our first reading tonight could not be a more sharper contrast.

The prophet Isaiah speaks to Jerusalem has been ransacked and laid waste. It has been waiting for it’s day of liberation. Those who guard the city’s shattered buildings and nearly empty streets are scanning the horizon. They have to be especially wary as the Babylonians have undermined the city’s walls leaving the it defenseless. Suddenly, off to the east, they spot someone on the crest of the Mount of Olives. They can barely make out the person’s faint cries. As he makes his way down the mount they hear, “Your God is King!” The messenger is from Babylon and has made the 500 mile trip across the desert to bring this hopeful news to Jerusalem. God is returning to making the city holy by His divine presence.

We gather again tonight, looking out for hope and life too, for many of us feel hopeless. Yet over the brow of the year comes the Christmas story... and our hearts sink. The soft focus, saccharine stories of the God who fails to make a difference... And yet, have we really heard the Christmas story at all? Strain with me to hear again what St John says. The Word, who pre-existed with God, has brought all that is into existence. The life that he lives is like a beacon of light to people - a blinding light that cannot be extinguished. He lived that Divine light and life amongst us, but we did not see him or recognise him, but those who do are offered the life of God, life with God. Who or what is this Word? He is the one who speaks of, acts out and lives the very life of God Himself... Not a mention of global recession or unemployment, Afghanistan or climate change, but there is talk about light, life and an over-riding sense of hope...

If you came tonight to coo over a baby, born in conditions that the Social Services would have a fit about, but to go ‘ahhh’ at the Christmas story nonetheless, then you will find that child on the front of many a card at home. Through the child born in the manger in Bethlehem, tonight God speaks to us His Word, He blinds us with the light of justice and He deafens us with His protest song of hope.

Friends I am not naive enough to realise that this sounds all too utopian, a Christmas sticking plaster over the gaping wound of my life or our lives together - yet tonight I am reminded in the midst of political, financial and environmental turmoil this baby is born. The Word made flesh. God himself amongst us, returning to make the city, this village, our workplaces, our families, our lives, holy by His divine presence.

A colleague of mine was once describing the beauty of the world to some children, when one child popped up with, ‘He could not have done it without the council,’ meaning the workers of which his Dad was one. The child knew that without us, God will not, without God we cannot. Or to put it another way, ‘Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, if he is not born in you, you a still forlorn. Want a better life? A better year? Some good old fashioned hope? It begins at the manger. But we have got to accept what He offers. This baby comes to make us holy, to forge a friendship between us and God, to offer us light, hope and life, to transform our lives and together, our world. Amen

A Power About Him...

His conception

…questionable,

his birthing

rough and coarse,

his crib

a feed trough…

He was a refugee,

a poor man's child,

a tradesman…

…yet there

was a power

about him

that drew

many to their knees…

…one day,

out in the desert,

the tradesman

turned subversive,

he challenged the

religious fabric

that held his

world

together,

he was mocked

and vilified….

…yet there

was a power

about him

that drew

many to their knees…

..he touched

the unclean,

and broke the rules,

he had little respect

for authorities.

His followers,

fishermen

and outcasts,

his platform

a hillside…

…yet there

was a power

about him

that drew

many to their knees…

…his ended

as a criminal

stripped

whipped,

and crucified..

he died in agony

calling out

to the one

he called father…

and the sky darkened,

and the ground shook..

…there was a power about him,

….there is a power about him,

……and it calls us to our knees…

From the excellent Eternal Echoes blog...

Advent Antiphons

From at least the eighth century the antiphon before and after the Magnificat at Vespers (Evening Prayer), for the seven days leading up to Christmas Eve, has greeted Christ with a title starting with “O”. These became the basis of the popular carol “O come, O come, Emmanuel” (see below). The initials, when read backwards, form the Latin “Ero Cras” which means “Tomorrow I come.”

They are now also used, in shorted form, in the Alleluia verses before the days’ Gospel readings.

Here are reflections and musical settings (sung by the Dominican student brothers at Blackfriars in Oxford) for these wonderful antiphons that you can use day by day until Christmas Eve:

O Sapientia – O Wisdom – 17 December
O Adonai – O Lord of might – 18 December
O Radix Jesse – O Root of Jesse – December 19
O Clavis David – O Key of David – December 20
O Oriens – O Dawn – December 21
O Rex Gentium – O sovereign of the nations – December 22
O Emmanuel – December 23

There is also a really good resource of reflections on these antiphons, the 'jewels of the church' here.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

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! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Gaudate Sunday - today

The third Sunday of Advent (that’s today) is called Gaudete Sunday. It gets this name from the first word of the Introit at Mass, Gaudete in Domine Semper – Rejoice in the Lord always.

Advent was originally a forty-day fast in preparation for Christmas, beginning on the day after St Martin’s day (12 November). Advent goes back as far as the 5th century, but probably not further because there’s no evidence of Christmas being kept on 25 December before the end of the fourth century. The Advent fast was shortened to four weeks in the 9th century, and by the twelfth century the fast had been replaced by simple abstinence. Gregory the Great (~540-604) was the first to create an Office (a daily service) for the Advent season and Masses for the Sundays of Advent. In both Office and Mass provision is made for five Sundays, but by the tenth century four was the usual number, though some churches of France observed five as late as the thirteenth century. Despite all the messing about with the length and the practices in Advent, it has always had the characteristics of a penitential season – like Lent, a season for waiting on God, for purification, or in contemporary terms, a time for self-assessment and bringing your life into order under the guidance of God and your spiritual guides.

There’s another similarity between Lent and Advent. The middle (third) Sunday of Advent (that’s today), like Mothering Sunday in the middle of Lent, has traditionally been a day for breaking the fast. In Churches, flowers and musical instruments were once forbidden during Advent and Lent, but on the middle Sunday they were permitted to be used, and priests and deacons would wear rose-coloured vestments were allowed instead of purple or black. Some churches use red candles in their Advent wreaths; to me that always seems as if it’s making Christmas come too soon. I prefer the practice of using purple ones; but if you go and buy a purple set, you’ll find that the third one is usually pink instead of purple, to mark Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete Sunday is a reminder that Advent is passing, and that the Lord’s coming is near. The focus today is more on the Second coming than on the first – more about Maranatha than Incarnation – and so the theme for the day is one of intense joy and gladness, and heightened expectation. So today, on Gaudete Sunday, the spirit of penitence in preparation for Christmas and the coming Messiah is suspended in favour of a joyful anticipation of the Promised Redemption – the already (even though it’s not yet) that permeates the entire mindset of the Christian believer.

It’s no simple thing to make sense of a faith that has a long tradition while the world all around us has changed. The language of the Christian faith includes stuff fromn the Bible that is as much as three thousand years old, and ideas that have been worked and re-worked through a number of eras – the dark ages, the middle ages, and so on. How do we make sense of Gaudete Sunday when we live in a world with a twenty-first century cosmology, a hadron collider, the latest in hubble space telescopes, in the year when the celebration of Darwin has been everywhere? How can faith be believable and rational as well as faithful?


Some do still take the “already-not-yet” of Christian thought quite literally, believing that one day the sky will somehow literally split open and Christ will return. But many take the biblical language as being of its time, and weave the underlying truths together with a modern, scientific view of the world – which means to say that you can recognise where the interpretation of earlier times is what we would consider magical or supersititious, without trashing the important, lifegiving thread of truth that runs through the faith. You don’t have to throw out the baby with the bathwater. The most important element in the underlying escahtological promise is not the strange apocalyptic visions of the sixth century BC, or the second century AD, or the overlay of medieval superstition, but the fact that Christian theology opened up a way of looking forward in hope to a better future, rather than taking a negative, nihilistic view of the world.

With thanks to Maggi Dawn - from her blog.

Presents or Pressence?

Advent 3

13th December 2009

Luke 3:7-18

It is hard for me, at this time of year not to look back to events of four years ago and to recall the events of 6.01 am on 11th December 2005 - the date and time of the Buncefield explosion. Despite four long years elapsing, it fills me with anger that those responsible are only just beginning to be held to account and that those affected most are still trying to piece their lives together and move on. None of my feelings are about retribution but they are about public, upfront reform and justice.

It is also hard for me, at the end of week one of the UN Climate Summit, not to look forward with hope and expectancy to the outcome of these crucial talks. I told you when I was last here that I hoped to attend The Wave. With a few others we gathered with 50,000 others last Saturday in London, and my hope and prayer as I marched was to show the world’s leaders that they need to act with courage and justice for the world and her peoples both now and in the future.

John the Baptist who we meet again this morning, seems to be fueled by similar anger, calls for reform and justice. John preaches about ethical reform, about lifestyle change. Yes his message is both personal and political. John says step up folks, change your ways, because God is coming with justice. Get ready... God is coming!

Now that is surely good news. God is coming! Change your lives! Change the Government! Change the economic system! Save the planet! But I am also suddenly brought up short by John. He’s talking to me. I am the crowd not Total or HOSL, or the banking sector, or our politicians. I don’t much like being lumped in with others as a brood of vipers. A snake in the grass. It is all to easy to lose sight of what John really says - change your life Simon because God is coming. You are a snake in the grass, you are a viper. You lie low with others colluding. Yes you have a poisonous bite.

Yes you Simon, are you growing into a healthy tree? Are there visible signs of God at work in your life? Are you bearing fruit, because if you aren’t, the axe is lying at the foot of the tree... Oh and don’t kid yourself that you are ok because you wear a dog collar and say all the right things in church - God can provide all the dog collars and people to fill churches he likes. What about you Simon? Well? How in all God’s earth is that good news? This Gospel is not about them and us, there is not a sheep or goat in sight. It is a Gospel about us not about the institutions and how corrupt they may be. John reminds us not to lose sight of the vision we started with this Advent - long for the world to be different and for God to transform it, but it begins with me.




John’s hearers are as bewildered with this other-worldly message as I am. What should we do? His message can be summed up in one word - repent. Do not live the way you have been, but seek to live out the justice of God in ways that can be tangibly seen and experienced - share out of your wealth, with those who have less than you - if you have two coats, give one to someone who doesn’t. If you have food, share it with someone who does not. Repentance should be visible and should cost us something.

Our natural inclaination is to recoil from John’s suggested lifestyle. This is not about supporting DENS or giving to Christian Aid. This is about demonstrating that we are ready for God’s coming. By living a repentant life, not only do we willingly choose to favour and support the poor and needy and live out Kingdom values, we outwardly demonstrate to the One who comes almost unseen amongst as a baby that we are ready to receive his judgement on us.

Hmmm... that doesn’t sound much like good news. First he calls me a viper, and now I should live like a paper... The good news that John proclaims is that the change we long for is coming in Christ, the babe of Bethlehem. He comes transforming judgement. When someone says to you this week, ‘Are you ready for Christmas?’ they mean, have you got all the trimmings ready - cards sent, presents bought and wrapped, turkey ordered etc. But with only 12 days to go, are you really ready for Christmas says John?

This morning, John reminds us that Advent is not about readying ourselves for Christmas - all turkey, crackers, parties and presents, but that Advent is about God and His presence in our lives and in the world. Are we really ready for that, for,

‘..He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire...’

12 days to go, are we ready with presents or His presence?

Advent Calendar

He will come like last leaf’s fall

One night when the November wind

has flayed the trees to bone, and earth

wakes choking on the mould,

the soft shroud’s folding.

He will come like frost

One morning when the shrinking earth

opens on mist, to find itself

arrested in the net

of alien, sword-set beauty.

He will come like dark,

One evening when the bursting red

December sun draws up the sheet

and penny-masks its eye to yield

the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come,

will come like crying in the night,

like blood, like breaking,

as the earth writhes to toss him free.

He will come like child.

Rowan Williams, (The Collected Poems, 2002)

The Wave - Advent Signalling hope

Here is the text of ++ Vincent's address at the eccumenical service as part of The Wave. A word or two signaling a need for us and our leaders to change lifestyles and our world...


This morning is a marvellous expression of solidarity and compassion and they are robust Christian virtues!

Today we are concerned for all those whose lives are directly affected by climate change, the world’s poorest and the most disadvantaged. This is an important perspective which we must not lose in the midst of all the other concerns expressed in recent weeks.

We know that issues of world poverty and development cannot be separated from concerns for the environment. They are intimately connected. Indeed, in a memorable phrase Pope Benedict XVI said: “The book of nature is one and indivisible.”

This is all about how you and I live each day. That is why our religious faith is so important in tackling the problems that we face because our faith is directly concerned with how we live each day, how we put truth and belief into practice. In that daily living you and I know that there is much to do before we achieve sound and sustainable relationships between the peoples of this earth and with the environment of the created world.

Pope Benedict XVI in his statement to the UN Climate Change Initiative in September this year, made clear that since the natural environment is given by God to everyone, so our use of it “entails a personal responsibility towards humanity as a whole, particularly towards the poor and towards future generations.” This is why we are right to repeat again and again the straightforward appeal: ‘Live simply!’; ‘Live simply so that others may simply live and so that our planet may be cared for and not exploited!’

Of course we sense within us never-ending demands, often provoked by the culture of our consumer society. But we must look hard at the way we live our lives and consider again those whose future is threatened by the effects of our own lifestyles. Only when we are clearly prepared to change the way we live will politicians be able to achieve the change we say we want to see.

There is a lovely quotation from His Holiness, The Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew. He says:

“The age of information permits no excuse for ignorance, inaction or indifference with regard to containing and reversing climate change. There is nothing less than a moral imperative for all people despite and indeed beyond political or racial differences . Refusing to acknowledge the demands of our planet is a sin against creation. Resisting them is tantamount to blasphemy against God.”

They are important words from the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Creation reflects God’s goodness. To love God is, among other things, to give thanks and praise for the gifts of creation and to recognise that they are destined for all people. Technology, for example is one of those gifts, part of the call of God ‘to cultivate and take care of the land’ (Gen 2.15). So technological advance is a crucial part of the way we will find solutions to the problems caused by climate change. Technology, of course, is not morally neutral. Rather its proper use is guided always by its effect on the common good. So today let us say, let the genius of our finest minds serve the needs of all, and the needs of our environment.

Our voices today are not filled with anxiety or gloom, but with hope. This is because we know the source of true, enduring hope. Our most radical hope lies in the truth of the promised final completion, the final resurrection of all created beings, transformed into the reality of that wonderful vision of ‘a new heaven and a new earth.’(Rev 8.19-23)

This is the hope that inspires us to insist that our world is not our own, not at our disposal, not for us to do with just what we like. Indeed, at the centre of our world stands the human person, every single one made in the image and likeness of God and deserving, for that reason alone, respect, freedom and cooperation.

It is hope that inspires us; faith that sustains us. Our union with Christ in prayer is our source of energy, of a new life for our effort as his disciples. Amen.

The image above is courtesy of Dave Perry from his blog

Advent II sermon

Herewith a verison of Tim's sermon this morning...

MESSAGE: Peace
1 Introduction
How well do you know the book of Malachi? Probably better than you think. Did that first reading sound familiar?
tempting to sing the readings - text of Messiah
Handel saw a lot in the prophecies of Jesus' coming, and he set parts of them beautifully to music. The Messiah gives us a picture of a mighty king, wonderful counsellor, and so on. Today, though, our theme is peace, and that comes up less often.

2 Peace
What is peace?
Not quiet, or an absence of noise or conflict - more than that.
On Friday some of us were at the children's disco at school. It certainly wasn't quite, or still, but watching the children enjoying themselves I felt a definite sense of peace. Things were as they should be; God was there.

Our book group recently read "The Shack" by William Young. It gave us all a lot to think about. One of the things that struck me was a passage where the central character learns, "The Bible doesn't teach you to follow rules. It is a picture of Jesus. Words may tell you what God is like and even what he may want from you, but you can't do any of it on your own. You didn't think you could live the righteousness of God on your own, did you?"
And a bit later "Just don't look for rules and principles; look for relationships - a way of coming to be with me."

Peace is about relationships; about the relationship between us and the people around us, or between us and God, or between us and the world we live in. Relationships are active; they have to be worked at.

One of the names given to Jesus is "King of Peace". That doesn't mean he kept quiet and did nothing, or that he avoided conflict. On the contrary, at times he seemed to be looking for a fight! Sometimes the absence of conflict is a sign that we're ignoring evils that should be fought.

3 Readings
Peace isn't about accepting everything as it is, about an absence of change. If anything, it's more about accepting and welcoming change. Look at today's readings!
Malachi writes about a refiner's fire, and fuller's soap; Isaiah, quoted in Luke, wrote about valleys being filled and hills being made low.
As long as relationships are broken, or non-existent, there isn't real peace.

4 Christmas
Jesus came to show us his way. The thing that really stands out when we read the gospels is that he cared about people. He noticed them. They mattered to him. He needed friends, and he worked with them and through them.

In this season of Advent we're preparing to receive the greatest present anyone could ever have, the gift of God's own Son. He came to show us how to live in the right sort of relationship with God, one that would enable us to live in peace with God and with each other.
Have you ever given someone a present, and then been disappointed when they didn't show any interest, when all the thought you had put into choosing that present seemed to have been wasted?

A child perhaps - I can remember one birthday when Ian was about two when he was much more interested in a large cardboard box than in the present that had been inside it!
If you can picture yourself in that situation, perhaps you can imagine how God must feel when we reject his gift; when we show more interest in the turkey, and the parties, and the material gifts we're hoping for, than we do in the amazing gift of his Son.

5 Conclusion
I hope you'll have a peaceful Christmas - in the truest sense of the word. One thing we can do to make that more likely is to work at relationships. If we put real effort into the time we spend with the people around us, and with God, amazing things can happen. Amen.

Advent - season of peace

Mary:

in blue headdress, representing divinity

in white top, purity

A rope-like belt around her waist...
does it anchor her into her reality
or is it almost an umbilicus into the border,
a permanent link to God.

An orange-brown skirt shows humanity? the flames of the Spirit?




The central figure represents both angel and Spirit,
perhaps Angel gently greeting
Spirit flames coming upon her, hovering over her.

Central image represents God,
Mary breaks the symmetry, leaning into God.
A willingness to be involved.
God has made room for Mary.
Mary's foot is well-anchored into her humanity,
tucked into the green earth.

There is a sense in which her skirt mirrors the flames of the Spirit.

The light at the top is perhaps an illusion to the star.
Symbolising that this is where the action is
Watch this space.
Almost dove-like in shape ... "This is my Son..."

And from this central tableau, rays radiate out into the world, like the sun.
Shedding light and hope and peace beyond Godself.

With thanks to http://www.opawa.org.nz/advent

Don't Panic! - The Wave

More than 50,000 people came together to demand action on climate change today at The Wave, the biggest ever UK climate change march. The Wave and called for the Government to take much more urgent and effective action. People from all over the country dressed in blue encircled Parliament, calling on the UK government to settle for nothing less than a climate deal in Copenhagen that avoids dangerous climate change and protects the world’s poorest who are already feeling its effects... and I was there!

It was a very humbling event and began with an act of worship at Westminster Central Hall. Over 3000 of us gathered to pray and praise before protesting. Both Archbishop Rowan and Archbishop Vincent were present with Joel Edwards and others to lead us. You can hear Archbishop Rowan's address to us by clicking the photo of the service sheet below.


It seems to me that today's events are archetypally Advent focussed. ++Rowan spoke about not allowing the threat of climate change to fill us with fear, "...This is not about fear. This is not about Christians saying to the rest of the human race ‘it’s not time to panic’, ‘worry harder’. Because we know from experience that doesn’t actually change very much... In sharing the good news there is life for us, life for our neighbours and life for the creation in which God has places us and that is something of joy, not fear … we must act not out of fear but out of love and generosity... Our liberation is the world’s liberation. Good news for us should be good news for the whole of God’s world...” That sense of hope is surely a theme, if not the theme running through this holy season.

As part of the act of worship, supported by many different demoninations, we also gathered to praise God in song, and to pray - seeking forgivness for what we have or have not done to the Earth and it's peoples and to praise the Creator who brought all of this into being, and who is redeeming us into action. It was a very fitting way to begin our protest.


Prayer led me to protest - something of a new experience for me. And yet protest is surely also a theme running through this holy season. Advent calls us all to acknowledge before God that things in our world shouldn't be like this, and aacknowledging this before the powers that be, calling them to account, and prayerfully, expectantly, demanding that God should come and redeem the whole of Creation...















We used a version of a prayer by St. Theresa of Avilla:

Christ has no body now on earth but ours.
no hands but ours,
no feet but ours.
Ours are the eyes through
which Christ's compassion
is to look out on the earth.
Ours are the feet by which
he is to go about doing good.
And ours are the hands by
which he is bless us now. Amen

Why Are we Waiting...

As we wait, don't forget the online resources out there, especially
the Church of England's online Advent calendar - click the logo to see it...

Also have a look at Beyond's website and especially their blog, at the very interesting real-life Advent calendar they are doing using beach hut instalation art. Below is a sample...

Coffee Shop Annuciation

The angel went in and said to her, ‘Greetings, most favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was deeply troubled by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean. Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for God has been gracious to you’ (Luke 1:28-30)

Outside in the pedestrianised heart of the city the chilly air and failing light of a winter’s afternoon are turning shoppers thoughts to home, but in the cosy warmth of a top floor coffee shop two young women are engrossed in their conversation. What does this candid photo reveal? Could this be a moment of annunciation; a precious time of unexpected blessing and affirmation, or is the texture of their dialogue altogether different? Is one of these two an ‘everyday angel’, the bearer of uplifting, encouraging or soul-soothing words? It seems to me to be perfectly reasonable that we should expect God to be speaking to us within our everyday conversations and encounters. When the angel tells Mary that God is with her I rather think that this is a reminder of a continuing truth. God’s graciousness is for sharing freely and often. We can be agents of everyday annunciation and channels of God’s blessing too.

To be truly seen, heard and appreciated with kindness and care is to be enveloped in the warmth of divine love. To be encouraged, guided and challenged by others to fulfil our own individual life vocation as the unique person we are is to discover godly intention running through the complexities of our lives together. In the weaving of meaning and hope in dark times we are all capable of being everyday angels. As Mary discovered, God’s love is for sharing; it is purposeful and demanding, yet liberating and profoundly authentic.

Everyday annunciation is about accepting and offering, receiving and sharing love as gift. And equally we can all expect to be surprised by the blessings God has in store. Perhaps annunciation is not the exception after all but rather the everyday norm of how God operates. Because God is always wanting to birth kindness, justice and peace where they are most needed.

From www.http://davesdistrictblog.blogspot.com

More compassion less consumption...

What can we do this Advent?
Be more about compassion and less about consumption.
Be more about presence and less about presents.

Incarnation isn’t about escaping from our human stresses – quite the opposite – incarnation is entering our ordinary, messy human lives more deeply…

See the excellent website that the clip comes from (it's a bit American, but...)

With thanks to www.liturgy.co.nz

More waiting...

This piece of art is by Ben Bell, from London. I have used it on the jeader of this Advent blog as it uses something urban and contemporary to reflect on matters spiritual. It is Sacramantal - it is an outward sign of the inner grace of God available to us through Jesus Christ.

And so this art image is an everyday image from his urban life. An everyday image for us, we all pause as pedestrians, waiting at lights.

This piece of art invites us to consider our experience of waiting; How do we feel when we wait at lights? What makes it hard for us to wait? What are the forces that push us, not to wait, but to hurry across? How do we feel about those who don’t wait?

And so with these everyday experiences, we approach Advent.

The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival." The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent.

In this double focus on past and future, Advent also symbolizes the spiritual journey of individuals and a congregation. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. That is a process in which we now participate.

We affirm that Christ has come, that He is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power. That acknowledgment provides a basis for a Kingdom lifestyle.

We are called to be faithful stewards "between the times." We confess with "all creation that we are groaning awaiting its redemption," and our responsibility to "love the Lord our God with all our heart" and to "love your neighbor as ourself." Advent invites us to wait for the coming of Jesus.

And so, using Ben’s art, we ask ourselves the same questions: How do we feel as we wait for Jesus? What makes it hard for us to wait for Jesus? What are the forces that push us, not to wait, but to hurry across? How do we feel about those who don’t wait?

With thanks to http://www.opawa.org.nz/advent

Waiting

It seems that as the world becomes supposedly less complicated through technological advances, we still find ourselves waiting. Waiting for that package to arrive that we ordered online in record speed. Waiting in line at the self-checkout station at the supermarket, designed to eliminate the evils of waiting. Waiting for the phone to ring on Saturday night. Waiting for that great job to come along. Or waiting for that elusive perfect relationship. It never ends. Researchers tell us that the average person will spend 5 years of his or her life waiting in line, 2 years playing telephone tag, and six months sitting at red lights. That is over 7 and a half years of waiting, at best doing nothing, or at worst experiencing great aggravation! The bottom line is that even in our fast-paced world, with postmodern conveniences, we are all waiting for something. However, as strange as it sounds, during the Advent season, we discover a purpose to our waiting. Let me explain.

You think we have it rough, how about waiting thousands of years, not for something minor like groceries, but for the king whose eternal reign would end the oppression of the world? What do we think about thousands of people hoping and praying fervently for something miraculous to happen, while successive generations are born and pass away, without a hint of fulfillment? I am speaking here of the ancient Hebrew patriarchs, kings, prophets, and priests, who waited expectantly for the coming of the Messiah. The prophet Isaiah expresses this hope:

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD (Isaiah 2:2-5, RSV).

Then, hundreds of years later, born in Bethlehem, a small town in the Roman Empire, their hope is finally realized, but with a twist, because Jesus is not the earthly warrior-king many expected. And even after waiting, the final realization of the Messiah's eternal reign is still yet to be seen, coming in the future, when the baby born in Bethlehem returns in power to judge the living and the dead. All of this makes our own waiting seem pretty insignificant. Somehow waiting five extra minutes for a dried out bun and a tiny piece of meat from a fast-food restaurant seems pretty trivial.

During the Advent season we symbolically participate in the waiting of the patriarchs, kings, prophets, and priests, as we await Christ's final and glorious return. Through prayer, liturgy, Eucharist, and the signs and symbols of Advent, we groan with Isaiah for a day when weapons will be turned into agricultural instruments. We cry out with Zechariah, rejoicing that the dawn from on high is breaking upon us. We pray with the likes of Adam, Job, Hannah, Solomon, Micah, and millions of others, named and unnamed, many whose expectations of the future kingdom may have been hazy, yet who still yearned for something more complete and more "real" than what they knew.

We legitimately cry out Maranatha, Come Lord!, with St. Paul. When God the Word became man in Christ, celebrated on Christmas day, the world was sanctified. Something in the fabric of the cosmos shifted as creation became a fitting vehicle for God's redemptive work. Human experiences have been sanctified as well, commemorated in our Church Year. Yes, as the season of Advent shows, even waiting has become sanctified.

As we wait in long lines this Advent season, or as we wait for anything really, I think it is important that we remember the waiting of those expecting the Messiah, and always wait with patience, humility, and expectant hope in a state of prayer. I know it is difficult, but especially during Advent, waiting prayerfully and patiently, in the manner of our Lord and his blessed Mother, is not only a good spiritual discipline, but could also lower our risk of holiday-induced blood pressure. It seems like we're all waiting for something, so why not use these experiences to enhance our Advent disciplines by prayerfully waiting, joining our prayers with Isaiah, Zechariah, and all the saints?

From http://www.ancient-future.net/waiting

Advent Hope - a sermon for Advent Sunday

Herewith a version of my sermon for Advent Sunday 2009...

This week the inquiry into the Iraq war began. According to Sir John Chilcott, the Chair of the inquiry, ‘...We need to establish what happened. We are piecing this together from the evidence we are collecting from documents or from those who have first hand experience. We will then need to evaluate what went well and what didn’t – and, crucially, why...’ I have to say that I remain cynical that the inquiry will achieve what it needs to, and if it did, would it make any real difference to the families of nearly 5000 dead since 2003? Will it rebuild Iraqi society and it’s infrastructure?

This week the newly created supreme court of the UK overturned a ruling by the High Court that banks should allow the Office of Fair Trading to investigate the fairness of charges for unauthorised overdrafts. Just when you thought that banking might have changed having been so thoroughly accused following the global recession, no, situation normal continues...

Next week, tens of thousands of us will gather in London for The Wave. We will march to march to Parliament to encourage 60 of the world’s political leaders meeting in summit in Copenhagen, including leaders from China and the USA, to agree to the firm foundation for a legally binding climate treaty as early as possible in 2010. I passionately believe that I have to do something to wake the world’s leaders up, it is my duty as a Christian, but I have to confess that I remain cynical if I am really honest that any binding agreement will be made then..
I am sure that speak for all of us when I say that throughout my life, I have had longing that things on the world stage as well as things local and personal would be better by now. God knows we pray that it would be. And yet, as we we edge ever nearer another season of goodwill, it feels like we no nearer that utopian goal. The things that I hope might have been resolved have been replaced by other seemingly unsolvable issues.

The people of Israel, at the time that God spoke through Jeremiah, understood hopelessness on a far grander scale. In 587 BC Assyria attacked the nation of Israel, burned Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and carried off its people into slavery. Their situation puts ours into stark contrast doesn’t it? In those years of exile the people of God quite rightly asked God again and again ‘why?, Why are we in this situation? Why did you allow it God?’

It is into this sense of devestating defeat and discouragement, this longing for God to right things, that these words from Jeremiah come. In that context, they feel like naive words indeed. Yet it is all to easy to ‘grin and bear it’, because it takes real courage to stand up, to make your voice heard, to swim against the flow, and to complain.

But Jeremiah goes one step further. In the midst of their sense of gut-wrenching hopelessness, Jeremiah along with the prophet Isaiah, proclaim a different vision based on a renewed trust in God. "Your God reigns!" All of those grand phrases that are so well celebrated in Handel’s Messiah "Comfort, ye, my people," "And he shall reign forever and ever" came out of exile. "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah... In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety" says Jeremiah. The time is coming! I will restore, re-gather Israel and Judah, do for you that which you cannot do for yourselves, namely, bring you home.

Pushy, risky theological claim that, all present evidence to the contrary, God still reigns and God's purposes shall not be finally defeated. It takes a lot of faith to express confident joy in the reign of God and at the same time honesty about the situation. Israel's prophets managed to pull it off.

But,,, The nation never returned to their homeland as a whole. The restoring vision that God shared through the prophets was true for only a handful, a remnant of the the people ever made it back... But look again at what God says through Jeremiah as that’s not what he promised - a future time is coming, when I shall not only restore things to the way they were, but also do a new thing - a righteous branch shall spring up for David. A new spring shoot will begin to grow from the long dead tree that is the historical line of King David. When that time comes says God - things will not only restored to the way they were but the lasting the peace and security that you long for will come.

Advent is a time when Christians are invited into exile. It is a time when the church calls us to live differently. To slow down. To refocus our priorities. To step away from the madness that is the innevetiable rush to Christmas and to stop and look at the world and our lives and the mess that they often really are. But instead of being stilled into inactivity through a crippling hopelessness and despair that thing have ever been thus and will not change. Instead we should live as exiles - refocussing our lives and hopes on God, knowing that it is only He who can bring the transformation we long for.

Advent calls us to hear the hope of God through Jeremiah - that things in our world and in our lives will not only be restored, but that God will do a new thing in us and amongst us personally and globally. Advent must be time to cry to God about the injustice of war, of debt, of a climate change, but also to expect, with sure hope, that God will bring a new spring shoot of faithfulness to grow in us, so that through us our world and our lives together can be transformed. Friends I still hope that the world would be a better place and that my life would be in better shape - in Advent God reminds me that it will be. That’s not wild hope. That’s certain hope. Amen

Online Advent calender

The CofE are really trying with their web resources again this Advent. The materials are gathered this year under the banner of 'Ready, Steady, SLOW.' The material clearly ties in with concern for the environment, our place in it and our impact on it.

As ++ Rowan said recently: "We hope for a world in which we have learned to live with the grain of things, to live patiently, to live respectfully, to live in a way that takes our environment seriously..."

There are some excellent resources over at their Advent website including an online Advent calendar and the opportunity to receive daily emails with thoughts, prayers and challenges.

So go on, take time out this Advent with a go-slow lifestyle and let us wait patiently this Advent for God...

Paperless Christmas

Well folks it's not even Advent yet, but despite that, from a contact on Twitter (thanks Phil) I bring you this...

It is utter genius...

Enjoy

Daily Advent Prayers

I value the power of a Google search and All Hallows Leeds for the following Advent prayers which I will, and I encourage you, to use each day... and can be downloaded here...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Waiting and Longing
A daily prayer practice for Advent

Written and compiled by Annie Heppenstall-West, Jan Booth and Ray Gaston

Introduction

‘Everywhere, at any moment, Christ comes in.’
J A T Robinson

That’s what the Advent journey encourages us to expect. In Advent we practise the discipline of opening our hearts to the presence of Christ in our midst, we wait for a glimpse of the truth that he is with us, we long to experience the joy of his presence and the wonder of the love of our God who became flesh and dwelt amongst us and whose Spirit is with us now encouraging us to join in the living of God’s Kingdom now!

Preparation

• Arrange a simple Advent ring of four candles with a fifth, larger white one in the centre. Blue or purple candles are often used, but you may have your own reasons for picking different colours!

• Decide how you are going to light the candles.

• Familiarise yourself with the tune for Psalm 42 (see below).

• Choose seating that will be comfortable during meditation.

• You might like to choose appropriate music to begin and end.

Opening Responses

For the darkness of waiting,

of not knowing what is to come,

of staying ready and quiet and attentive,

we praise you, O God:

For the darkness and the light are both alike to you.

For the darkness of staying silent,

for the terror of having nothing to say,

and for the greater terror of needing to say nothing,

we praise you, O God.

For the darkness and the light are both alike to you.

For the darkness of loving,

in which it is safe to surrender, to let go of our self-protection,

and to stop holding back our desire,

we praise you, O God.

For the darkness and the light are both alike to you.

For the darkness of choosing,

when you give us the moment to speak, and act, and change,

and we cannot know what we have set in motion,

but we still have to take the risk,

we praise you, O God.

For the darkness and the light are both alike to you.

For the darkness of hoping

in a world which longs for you;

for the wrestling and the labouring of all creation

for wholeness and justice and freedom,

we praise you, O God.

For the darkness and the light are both alike to you.

From All Desires Known by Janet Morley

Sung Psalm

As a deer longs for flowing streams,

So my soul, so my soul,

As a deer longs for flowing streams,

So my soul longs for you, O God.

(from Psalm 42:1)

Click on the music to hear the tune:

Affirmation of faith in God’s presence

The Psalmists prayed:

Deep calls to deep

at the thunder of your waterfalls;

all your waves and your billows have washed over me.

By day you lead me in steadfast love;

at night your song is with me,

prayer from the Heart of my heart.

Psalm 42:7—8

You knit me together in my mother’s womb … My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Psalm 139:13, 15

St Paul said:

‘In God we live and move and have our being.’

Acts 17:28 [quoting the Greek poet Epimenides]

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38—39

Christ promised:

Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Matthew 28:20

Light the main candle, recognising the presence of Christ.

We declare:

Christ is here!

The Spirit is with us!

Pause

Meditating on Scripture

Week 1: Longing for the light of God’s presence

Let us know,

Let us press on to know the Lord;

His appearing is as sure as the dawn;

He will come to us like the showers,

Like the spring rains that water the earth.

Hosea 6:3

As the sun is constant, so too is the love of God; it is we who, like the earth, sometimes turn away and sometimes turn towards God. My waiting is for my own readiness to see the light.

Silent contemplation follows the scripture reading (see Suggestions for Contemplative Practice below).

Week 2: Longing for the lover of my soul

I sought him but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

I will rise now and go about the city,

In the streets and in the squares;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.

I sought him, but found him not.

The sentinels found me,

As they went about the city.

‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’

Scarcely had I passed them,

When I found him whom my soul loves.

Song of Solomon 3:1b—4

My soul searches restlessly for the love of Christ, to know him and be one with him.

Silent contemplation

Week 3: Longing for that which is promised

I have taken you by the hand and kept you;

I have given you as a covenant to the people,

a light to the nations,

to open the eyes that are blind,

to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,

from the prison those who sit in darkness.

I am the Lord, that is my name;

my glory I give to no other,

nor my praise to idols.

See, the former things have come to pass,

and new things I now declare;

before they spring forth,

I tell you of them.

Isaiah 42:6b—9

It is the coming of the kingdom of Shalom, the reign of the Prince of Peace, for which I long, on earth as in heaven.

Silent contemplation

Week 4: Longing for the Christ Child

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of the Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

Luke 1:41—45

Fruit of the womb, the Human One*, brother, friend, child; with a mother’s longing to see her unborn, so I long to know you more deeply, my Christ.

Silent contemplation

Candle lighting of the Advent ring
(the four smaller candles)

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Mohandas Gandhi

The kingdom within:

Once, Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is within you.’

Luke 17:20—24

Bearing good fruit — through the reign of the Lamb in our hearts:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever.

Revelation 22:1—7

Living in the light

(based on Hosea 6:3 and Revelation 22:1—7)

Light through rain clouds stirs

memories of deeper love;

I long for your warmth.

Sunshine and rain wake

seeds deep within my earth-heart;

I hunger for light.

The light of the lamb,

living water of cleansing,

heal me, make me new.

Amen.

The first candle is lit.

Pause

Embracing the lover

(based on Song of Solomon 3:1b—4)

I seek longingly

in the city streets and squares,

you whom my soul loves.

As I search the streets,

let me see you in the eyes

of the people there.

Let me hold you and

bring you within my own house,

my love, my dear one.

Amen.

The second candle is lit.

Pause

Acting on the promise

(based on Isaiah 42:6b—9)

Hand in hand with God,

healing touch, words which set free

flow out from your heart.

Hand in hand with God,

you lead the way to Shalom,

wine-blood spilt for love.

Hand in hand with God,

hope-beacon to a dark world,

Christ, enlighten me.

Amen.

The third candle is lit.

Pause

Giving birth to the Christ within

(based on Luke 1:41—45)

Grow in me, love-child,

grow and fill me with your life,

make my soul your home.

Grow in me, Christ-child,

be born of tears and pain, in

unshakeable love.

Reach fullness in me,

open me and live through me,

my body is yours.

Amen.

The fourth candle is lit.

Pause

Closing prayer

I pray

Not only come, O Lord,

but move me to let you in,

for already you stand at my door, knocking,

your presence immediate, urgent, powerful;

Not simply be with me, my God,

but let me feel your presence always,

for you are always here;

Not so much hear my prayer,

but give me words which resonate

with the energy of your love,

for you are the eternal listener to our souls’ song;

Not always help me,

but let me learn to see your working in my life;

Not give me,

but humble me,

that in my lowliness

I may fall no further;

Not protect me

but immerse me in life,

and let me love and give and learn to follow

the driving, compelling power of your wild Spirit;

Not necessarily save me,

but let me understand that

like the ocean holds the swimming seal

so you hold me,

always and completely,

and in you alone can I safely lose myself

and so find you.

Amen.

Suggestions for contemplative practice

To spend some time meditating on the Bible reading, we offer the following suggestions:

Spend whatever time on this that feels comfortable for you.

Sit in such a way that you can be both comfortable and alert. It may help to have your back straight, with both feet on the ground. Let your shoulders drop.

Be aware of the chair under you, supporting you, the floor under your feet. Let the chair and the floor take your full weight. Watch as you let the tensions drain out of you.

Focus your attention on your breathing …

Don’t change it … just notice it … your lungs expanding and contracting, the feel of the air through your nostrils. When your attention wanders, just gently bring it back.

Now focus on the deepest place within you … the very centre … the core of your being. Go into that place … and be still … listening as if to something very subtle.

Ask God to take you through the Bible passage you have read. Or take a phrase or just a word from the passage and gently turn it over and reflect on it.

You could now ask God for what you most desire. Speak with God about it.

— or —

Sit in silence with the chosen phrase or word.

When ready, let your attention come gently back to the room. Take your time.

Notes on ‘the Human One’

The phrase used in the prayer for Week 4, ‘the Human One’ (in place of the more familiar ‘Son of Man’), comes from The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version (OUP 1995).

The title for Jesus, ‘the Son of Man’, is found frequently in the Gospels and almost nowhere else in the New Testament. With a single exception, only Jesus uses the term, and always, in Gospel contexts, to refer to himself. The title has a complex history, but it is not possible to show that the use of the term in Judaism has influenced its widespread use in early Christianity. The Greek term, whose literal translation is ‘the Son of the Man’, is clearly enigmatic, but in the Gospels it takes on its meanings from the contexts in which it is used. The term may easily be misunderstood, however, as referring to a male offspring, ‘the son’ of another male being, ‘the man’; hence this version uses ‘the Human One’ as a formal equivalent to ‘the Son of Man’. ‘The Human One’ is clearly a title of a non-androcentric form, and is also open to the many nuances of interpretation that are possible in the original Greek term. No gender is ascribed to that term.

See also: Walter Wink, The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man (Fortress Press 2002), reviewed in depth here:

‘The son of the man’ is the expression Jesus almost exclusively used to describe himself. In Hebrew the phrase simply means ‘a human being’. The implication seems to be that Jesus intentionally avoided honorific titles, and preferred to be known simply as ‘the man’, or ‘the human being’. Apparently he saw his task as helping people become more truly human. (page xi)

On the cusp...

Advent is almost upon us again. It doesn't seem possible that a year has passed since I wrote this daily blog. I am blogging again each day again in this holy season and I hope that what I write hear might prove helpful, thought-provoking and maybe even inspirational.

This Advent we will be exploring traditional themes of hope, joy, peace and love and our worship will be filled with one of themes each week.

I love Advent, because during the season, God reminds me that the way things are can and will be better. This is not a wild utopian hope, but one rooted in human history in a person, in a time and in a place. For the longings and hopes set running in Advent do find fulfilment - not only in the birth of a baby - but in the empty tomb of Easter.

Advent is full of hope, wild hope. Hope that comes and lives amongst us and tears open the grave.

As we wait to begin this season of hope, take a few minutes and have a look at the excellent Church of England page about Advent available here and also their Advent website here.