Collect and Readings for the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus – Numbers 6.22-end, Psalm 8, Galatians 4.4-7, Luke 2.15-21
The Prayer for today
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was circumcised in obedience to the law for our sake and given the Name that is above every name: give us grace faithfully to bear his Name, to worship him in the freedom of the Spirit, and to proclaim him as the Saviour of the world; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The new year has dawned. Last night, and over the coming days, we will wish each other a Happy New Year. But what will we mean when we offer that greeting to one another?
In classical Greek, the word for ‘happiness’ is makários. But this word, which we also encounter in The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12), can be translated in other ways. Makários does mean ‘happiness’, but it can also mean ‘blessed’, ‘fortunate’ and ‘happier’. When we wish each other a Happy New Year, we need to reflect upon what we really mean. Are we simply exchanging a traditional pleasantry, or are we praying for something more?
In today’s reading, on this feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus, we read of happiness. We read of the happiness of the safe delivery of Mary’s son; the happiness of the shepherds as they found all as it had been told them by the angels; the happiness which bubbled over into glorifying and praising God; the happiness of bringing Jesus to his circumcision and naming. There is a great deal of makários in today’s reading, and not just in the sense of ‘happiness’.
Mary and Joseph’s happiness, like that of the shepherds, can also be counted as blessedness and good fortune. Despite the challenging and humble circumstances of his miraculous birth, Jesus’ coming into the world has brought a level of happiness, blessedness and good fortune that far exceeds our feeble attempts at defining such words. It also shows what we should be wishing upon each other at this turning point of another year. Let us pray that all whom we wish a Happy New Year might know the happiness of a real relationship with the Christ who came to bring redemption for us all.
Let us pray that the whole world might be blessed with the peace, love and light of Christ as we embark upon a new year. Let us pray that our faith might be shown in the happiness and blessedness that shines through our words and actions in the year that lies ahead.
Some things to reflect on:
• What are we really saying when we wish people a Happy New Year?
• How can our faith in Christ make a real difference to us and those we meet in 2023?
God bless and I wish you a blessed and Happy New Year and one in which you will find the hope an joy that Jesus Christ can bring.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for Christmas Day – Isaiah 52.7-10, Psalm 98, Hebrews 1.1-12, John 1.1-14
The Prayer for today
Almighty God, you have given us your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him and as at this
time to be born of a pure virgin: grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by
adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The well-loved reading from Isaiah resounds with hope. It is not wishful thinking, talking about impossible dreams, but rings with utter surety that God has revealed to his attentive prophet, so that the good news can be shared with all the people of Israel. There is a great sense of excitement, like the stirring in the crowd as word gets round the famous and adored person they have been waiting for is about to arrive. Today God has arrived in person to live with the people of his creation, sharing their humanity in order to save them.
The writer of Hebrews chooses this to introduce his whole teaching: in the past God had spoken through his prophets, but from the Incarnation onwards we are looking at an entirely new and dynamic experience, as God speaks to us in person, through Jesus, the Son of God.
The introduction of John’s Gospel helps us to see the extraordinary depth of meaning of God’s ‘Word’, flinging us back to the emerging creation from chaos, and forward to the streams of people through the generations who choose to receive the light of God’s life to transform them and the world they inhabit. Stretched out across it all is the person of Jesus, expressing God’s creative and redeeming love in a way we, as humans, can understand. No darkness can ever extinguish the hope of this light.
Some things to reflect on:
· Do our own words - as individuals, as a society and as a Church – express God’s love? What kind of things do, and what should we aim to change?
· As you look back over the last year, can you discern Jesus’ grace and truth? What are you particularly thankful to God for?
God bless and I wish you a peaceful and joyful Christmas.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for Third Sunday of Advent – Isaiah 35.1-10, Psalm 146.4-10, Magnificat, James 5.7-10, Matthew 11.2-11
The Prayer for today
O Lord Jesus Christ, who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready your
way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at your second coming to
judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in your sight; for you are alive and reign with
the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
John the Baptist’s task had been to prepare people for the coming of the Messiah, and that placed him, with all the prophets before him, in the age before the coming of the kingdom. We recall how John had urged people to sort out their lives, stressing the possibility of judgement as the all-seeing God came among his people in person, and it is easy to see how John’s enthusiasm had polished his hopes into a specific shape. This is something we are all prone to do.
While it helped the urgency and focus of John’s message, the side effect was that when Jesus’ ministry started to look different from his expectation John began to wonder if he’d been mistaken. The frustration and suffering of his imprisonment must have added to the undermining negatives.
What Jesus does is hold up the Isaiah prophecy as a checklist. If these signs of the kingdom are indeed happening, then John can trust that the promised Saviour is indeed at work, even if the style of his ministry is different from what he had imagined. It’s all to do with our expectations. If we get into the way of fleshing these out completely through our imagination, we may find that we don’t recognise the real thing when we see it.
So, it is as well to stay flexible, holding on to what we know for certain and keeping our minds open to details. This is true for us when we try to imagine God, heaven, or the end of all things. They may look like paintings and frescoes of the Old Masters, and they may not. We mustn’t let our expectations become stunted or narrowed by a particular artist’s impression. That is what happened when people expected the astronauts to see God above the clouds and were disappointed. Our great expectations of God will be fulfilled far in excess of anything we might imagine and entirely in keeping with his nature.
Some things to reflect on:
· Look at the ‘checklist‘ of Isaiah 35:1-10. What kind of kingdom does this suggest, and how does it differ from what John the Baptist was preaching (Matthew 3:1-12)?
· How do we sometimes limit God by our narrow expectations?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for Fourth Sunday of Advent – Isaiah 7.10-16, Psalm 80.1-8, 18-20, Romans 1.1-7, Matthew 1.18-end
The Prayer for today
God our redeemer, who prepared the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the mother of your Son: grant that, as
she looked for his coming as our saviour, so we may be ready to greet him when he comes again as our
judge; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Matthew writing for a Hebrew audience is keen to show the Jewish people that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah. He draws attention to Isaiah’s prophecy spoken to King Ahaz and sets out Jesus’ credentials. Through Joseph, Jesus is a descendant of King David; through Mary, this son, born to a virgin, fulfils the ancient prophecy and turns out to be ‘Immanuel’ or ‘God with us’.
It is not unusual for prophecies about short-term, immediate events to turn out to have resonances far in excess of their original meaning. One familiar example is the call of St Francis to ‘repair my Church, which is in ruins’. It was far more than one stone chapel which was eventually ‘repaired’; the whole Church of God became refreshed and invigorated.
The expectant atmosphere of this week’s readings attunes us to God’s way of orchestrating events and working in co-operation with his people. The stage is set, the timing is right, the focused light of all hopes and longings of a generation is about to shine out in the person of Jesus. Typically, we find God delighting in using the ordinariness of good people so that the extraordinary things can be accomplished. Typically, he allows individual people to know their own part in the action exactly as and when they need to know it.
It is because Joseph is expecting God to be God that he prepared to alter his sensible and considerate plan to make no loud accusations about Mary when divorcing her for assumed unfaithfulness. Whatever the dream was, it made him think again. Perhaps Mary had tried to tell him the truth and he hadn’t been able to believe her before. We can only guess at how Mary felt before Joseph changed his mind.
God will still speak to us through our dreams, memories and feelings, if only we take the trouble to notice. They can often be our own personal parables, able to put us in touch with our true selves; enabling us to recognise God’s ways forward which we haven’t been able to see before.
Some things to reflect on:
· What methods have you noticed God using to alert people to repentance or to a new and better way of dealing with a difficult situation?
· How can the transcendent God work in partnership with ordinary people? Where have you seen this happening?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for Second Sunday of Advent – Isaiah 11.1-10, Psalm 72.1-7,18-19, Romans 15.4-13, Matthew 3.1-12
The Prayer for today
O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power and come among us, and with great might succour us; that
whereas, through our sins and wickedness we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set
before us, your bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ your
Son our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, be honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
Before any real changes can take place in our spiritual development, we have to come to the point of recognising where we are and wanting it to be better. All addicts and their families are painfully aware of the necessity to acknowledge the addiction and find it unbearable before there is any real hope of kicking the habit. It is at this point when a situation finally becomes intolerable that we are galvanised into taking action to change things.
Living in exile, the people of Israel became acutely aware of their nation’s need for good leadership, justice, integrity and peace. In this week’s passage from Isaiah we sense their longing, as they look forward to God providing what they know they need. Typically, the prophecy was fulfilled in far greater measure, since the kingdom of justice, peace and love- the kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus -is still growing throughout the entire world.
John the Baptist’s message of repentance once again recovered the urgency for people sorting their lives out, since the coming Messiah was imminent and they wanted to put things right and be ready, much as we might rush around clearing up the house before guests are due to arrive – especially those guests we want to impress, or those who we know will notice the clutter! Often the clearing will be something we know has needed doing for ages; the arrival of guests simply reminds us that it has to be done.
So what about all that spiritual clutter and grime which we know needs sorting? Today the Gospel helps to nudge us into urgent action, recognising that we don’t want things to stay as they are, and the effort of changing whatever needs changing is well worth it. God comes and knocks at the door of our hearts all the time- not just at the end of the world.
Some things to reflect on:
· Does our church’s outreach reflect a belief that God’s good news is for all, or for the few who ‘do it our way’?
· Is Isaiah’s righteous, just and compassionate living realistic, or simply a pipe-dream which can disillusion us?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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