Collect and Readings for Advent Sunday – Isaiah 2.1-5, Psalm 122, Romans 13.11-14, Matthew 24.36-44
The Prayer for today
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. Amen.
The Church begins its new year on Advent Sunday with the alarm clock jerking us out of sleep. There isn’t even a snooze button. There is rather a sense of urgency as we listen to the readings.
First, we have the vision seen by Isaiah of the last days, with the holy hill of Jerusalem a centre of pilgrimage for people of every nation. It is a picture of two-way traffic; the pilgrims streaming towards the city from all directions, in order to understand and know God better, and the Word of God pouring out from Jerusalem in all directions to teach, explain and transform lives.
From our position in time, we can appreciate the typical and extraordinary nature of such prophecy, since in Jesus the Word of God has indeed been pouring out from Jerusalem to the rest of the world, and to the rest of time during this last age before the end of all. And it is to him that the people come in every generation to have their lives transformed.
The Isaiah passage ends with a summons and an invitation to walk in the light of the Lord, and Paul takes this up in his letter to the Romans. The armour of light that will protect us from evil is the life of love spelt out by Jesus both in teaching and example. So, as we begin our preparation for Christmas, we are reminded of Jesus’ humility in coming to live among us and show us the Way, and also of the future, when he will return in glory as righteous judge.
In the Gospel we have Jesus’ own teaching about the last days and discover that one thing we can be certain of is that the second coming cannot be predicted. No last-minute revision will be possible, then, and the regular coursework format is a more helpful model. We have to live our lives in constant readiness so that we are not taken by surprise. This is partly so that we can be prepared for death or the second coming, and partly so that we can enjoy that quality of eternity which means God is constantly coming to us even while we live out our earthly lives. We need to be ready to receive him at every moment of every day.
Some things to reflect on:
· In what ways is the historical site of Jerusalem still a centre of pilgrimage? Why are so many people drawn to it?
· Why do you think the timing of the second coming is known only to God the Father? How might it affect us if we knew all the details in advance?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for The Third Sunday before Advent – Job 19.23-27a, 15-18, Psalm 17.1-9,
2 Thessalonians 2.1-5,13-end, Luke 20.27-38
The Prayer for today
Almighty Father, whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the King of all: govern the hearts
and minds of those in authority, and bring the families of the nations, divided and torn apart by the
ravages of sin, to be subject to his just and gentle rule; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of
the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
When you have a favourite author, it is disappointing to get to the end of the last available novel that they have written; a friend of mine, with considerable enforced reading time, felt quite lost after the Cadfael books ran out. I have been known to read books several times in quite quick succession because I couldn’t bear to come to the end of the story.
When we set off on the journey of discovery into friendship with God, there is no problem of getting to the end of him or having to break our relationship with him simply because our physical body has stopped working. We can carry on enjoying his friendship, and an ever-deepening understanding of his nature throughout the whole of eternity. There is no end to God, and, through the redeeming work of Christ, there need be no end to us either, so we can look forward to life beyond death and enjoy the prospect of living in God’s company for ever.
The Sadducees had decided that the idea of resurrection wasn’t workable and therefore couldn’t be true. As so often happens, they were judging God’s ways by human limitations. They worked out this complicated problem to make Jesus realise how silly it is to think there can be life after death. Faced with this conundrum he will surely have to admit that they are sensible and right in their belief.
What Jesus does is to show them that they are asking the wrong question. Resurrection life is not a tangled continuation of the earthly order of things, but a new and different experience, just as real but with whole new dimensions of possibility.
It is rather like arguing that caterpillars couldn’t possibly fly. In their present state and with their present limitations it is indeed impossible, but the freshly emerging butterfly proves that flying is a perfectly natural progression from leaf munching. Few of us w would ever guess that a caterpillar could turn into a butterfly, and similarly we have little exact idea of what our resurrection life will be like. What we do know is that it will be fulfilling and rewarding, full of joy, peace and love.
In the meantime, we are to stand firm and stick to the teachings we have been handed down faithfully through the generations in an unbroken line which can be traced back to Christ himself. That will enable us to discern the false rumours from the truth, and we will be ready to enter the glorious heritage of resurrection life in heaven.
Some things to reflect on:
· Why do you think many who would call themselves Christians find it difficult to accept the reality of life after death?
· Think of any remembered references in the Bible that point to life after death being a reality and look up some others using a concordance. Using these, how would you help someone to understand more about heaven?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for The Second Sunday before Advent – Malachi 4.1-2a, Psalm 98,
2 Thessalonians 3.6-13, Luke 21.5-19
The Prayer for today
Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son was revealed to destroy the works of the devil and to make
us the children of God and heirs of eternal life: grant that we, having this hope, may purify
ourselves even as he is pure; that when he shall appear in power and great glory we may be
made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he is alive and reigns with you, in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Gospel for this week makes terrifying reading. The seemingly solid beauty of the temple seems to have triggered in Jesus a vision of the world from outside time. Like a speeded -up film we scan the great cosmic cycles and seasons, natural disasters and human agonies, as the earth labours towards its time of accomplishment.
Amongst the terror, distress, upheavals and ructions are scattered the bright lights of individuals who are unperturbed and faithful those who are not drawn into the panic but remain steadfast, strong as rocks in their perseverance.
We may well wonder how we could ever survive; what hope there could possibly be of us joining the number of those who will win eternal life by their endurance. Certainly, Jesus is anxious to stress that it will not be an easy ride, nor a natural consequence of setting out with enthusiasm on the Christian journey. We can’t take our salvation for granted and then sit back with our feet up.
We are warned of what to expect to enable us to be prepared, and the important truth is that we shall not be doing all this on our own or in our own strength. We will be yoked up with Jesus, sustained by his power and provided with the right words and the necessary courage. Only one second at a time will be expected of us!
There is no way church congregations or individual Christians will be able to shut their doors and hide away from the troubles and threats of the world. Our place is right in the centre of the action, getting involved, and standing up for what is right and just, whatever the personal consequences may be.
Some things to reflect on:
· What are the dangers of spiritual idleness, both personally and corporately, and how can we guard against it sidling into our lives?
· What are the effects of opposition and persecution on people’s faith?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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Collect and Readings for All Saints Day – Daniel 7.1-3, 15-18, Psalm 149, Ephesians 1.11-end, Luke 6.20-31
The Prayer for today
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body
of your Son Christ our Lord: grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly
living that we may come to those inexpressible joys that you have prepared for those who truly love
you; 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.
I am told that there are occasions when people go caving that they suddenly find themselves in huge, lofty underground caverns with the most beautiful rock formations and colours that take your breath away. And they realise that there would be no easy way of seeing these wonders; the tight and terrifying passages that they have just squeezed through are an essential part of the experience.
Perhaps this is a little like the pattern of our spiritual experience, too. We are all chosen in Christ to be saints, and part of the glorious life awaiting God’s chosen ones in heaven is the challenging and often uncomfortable journey towards it. You cannot have one without the other, and the expectation of that promised, but unimaginable destination can actually make us happy to be spiritually crawling through mud or holding our breath through sumps.
Nearly all of us share the forgotten but impressive experience of birth through a narrow and uncomfortable tunnel out into the breadth and light of this world, and many mothers find that the pain of the birthing process is different from other pain because of being positive and full of hope. They are in no way denying the pain but seeing it (at least with hindsight!) in a wider context.
It is in the wider context of eternity that the Beatitudes make sense, and that our attitude to earthly pressures and persecution lightens. Even these times catch the light of God’s love and glory, and so become not just possible to bear but reasons for rejoicing, as they mark out and confirm our route.
As we celebrate this week the many who have persevered on this route and now cheer us on, we catch the excitement again of our calling, both individually by name, and as the entire Church of God.
Some things to reflect on:
· Would you be willing to suffer persecution for your faith?
· Reading the Bible passages for this week, how does the Church of your experience live up to its calling?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
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