Promises, promises

•December 17, 2009 • Leave a Comment

How good are you at keeping promises?  Do good intentions dwindle with the pressures of life?  Do we make promises just to get out of a situation?  Do we mean what we say, and do all we can to make it happen?

A promise is defined as “a declaration that something will or will not be done”, or “an express assurance on which expectation is based”.

God is an assurance on which our expectation can be based.  God keeps his promises.

God has always made promises to his people: He promised Abram that he will be a father of a great multitude (Genesis 17:4); He promised Israel that they would be his people and they would be his God (Deut 29:10-15); He promised a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34); and in this weeks reading from Micah he makes another promise.  A ruler will come from Bethlehem, and this ruler will lead and care for his people by the name of God.

Israel had a bad history with Kings.  God had never wanted them to have one, but they had badgered him until he let them try it their way.  Some were good, but mostly they led the people astray.  By Micah’s time the destruction of Israel was imminent – yet into that situation God still speaks his promise.  A shepherd will come, and care for the sheep.

In the reading from Luke, we get the first whispers of that promise coming true.  God has kept his promise.  Mary is blessed, and so is her child.  God is coming.

Mary made room in her life for God to fulfil his promises.  I can’t imagine it was convenient for her to be pregnant.  She would have had to endure gossip and being shunned by those who didn’t realise what was going on, her relationship with Joseph was jeopardised; but God asked and she responded.

God promises, God keeps his promises.  In Mary’s pregnancy, the Lord has come, the King is here.  As his King arrives, are we ready to receive him?  Is there room for him in our lives?  Do we allow God to fulfil his promises in us?

Joy to the world – let every heart prepare him room

Posted in Advent, calling, God, Lectionary
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Just waiting…

•December 9, 2009 • Leave a Comment

All good things come to those who wait, so they say, but waiting can seem interminable.  If it’s something we’re fearing, perhaps exam results, a dreaded appointment, or some inevitable consequence, the waiting is filled with nervousness and trepidation.  If it’s something good we’re expecting the waiting just drags on and on. Yet wait we must, because everything comes in it’s own time.

Advent is a time of nearly – but not yet.  We are waiting.  Waiting for the birth of Jesus.  Waiting for his coming in glory.

Not all waiting is good waiting, but Advent is.  The third Sunday in Advent is known as Gaudete Sunday, or Joy Sunday – the joyous anticipation of the Lord’s coming.

This Sunday’s lectionary readings point to joy as an active choice.  Life is not always joyful.  There are trials, difficulties and traumas.  But God is coming.  Not to a perfect Utopian world, but to the reality of life as it is.

Zephaniah gives the call to sing and shout and rejoice.  The King of Israel is with them, there is no need to be afraid.  Judgement is coming – but so is redemption.  The day is coming.

In Philippians again the call is to rejoice.  The community faces challenges – but God is with them, they will experience his peace.  The Lord is coming soon.

In Luke the people want to know what to do, how to behave, and by John’s answers they begin to wonder…  Could he be the One, the Messiah?  No says John, it’s better than that.  One who is greater is coming.

Wait, but while you wait repent.  Do the right thing.

The King is coming.  Coming to where you are.  Coming to this world in it’s joys and in it’s sorrows.  Coming into need, pain, loss, sorrow, oppression, injustice.  Coming to bring – and to be – the Good News.

When I was a girl, I used to get so excited about Christmas, I would be awake at 3am to open my presents.  I was just so desperate to see them come.  I wonder if I get that excited by the prospect of Jesus’ coming? Longing to see him come?

Can we wait, with longing, with hope and with love?  Ready to welcome Jesus, this Advent, this Christmas, and everyday?

There’s a light upon the Mountain

  1. There’s a light upon the mountains,
    and the day is at the spring,
    When our eyes shall see the beauty
    and the glory of the King;
    Weary was our heart with waiting, and
    the night-watch seemed so long,
    But His triumph-day is breaking, and
    we hail it with a song.
  2. In the fading of the starlight we can
    see the coming morn;
    And the lights of men are paling in
    the splendors of the dawn;
    For the eastern skies are glowing as
    with lights of hidden fire,
    And the hearts of men are stirring
    with the throb of deep desire.
  3. There’s a hush of expectation, and
    a quiet in the air;
    And the breath of God is moving in
    the fervent breath of prayer;
    For the suffering, dying Jesus is the
    Christ upon the throne,
    And the travail of our spirit is the
    travail of His own.
  4. He is breaking down the barriers,
    He is casting up the way;
    He is calling for His angels to build
    up the gates of day;
    But His angels here are human, not
    the shining hosts above,
    For the drum-beats of His army are
    the heart-beats of our love.
  5. Hark! we hear a distant music, and
    it comes with fuller swell;
    ‘Tis the triumph song of Jesus, of
    our King Emmanuel;
    Zion, go ye forth to meet Him,
    and my soul, be swift to bring
    All thy sweetest and thy dearest for
    the triumph of our King.

Posted in Advent, hope, justice, Lectionary, love
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Strong soap required?

•December 2, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Preparations are important.  You don’t set off on a Journey without making sure you’ve got tickets, money, petrol and an idea of where you’re going.  If you are going to paint (something I try very hard not to do!) you have to prepare the surface first, smooth it down, remove loose or flaky old paint.  If you’re going to cook something, you need to have all the ingredients (it wouldn’t be the first time I’d had to leave a recipe half way through to go and get something from the shops!)

We are journeying towards Christmas, towards the coming of Jesus – but we are not there yet, we are in a time of waiting.  A time of longing – but not yet.  A time of preparation to receive him. How prepared are we?

Through Malachi God promises that he will “send a messenger to prepare the way for me”, and in Luke that messenger appears.

I love the phrase that the Good News Bible uses.  He (my messenger) will be like strong soap.  The task of the messenger in making ready is to cleanse and purify.  Shown by John the Baptist as preaching that people should turn away from their sins – and bringing the promise that if they do God will forgive them.

If Advent is a time of preparation then, it is a time perhaps for reflection.

I always say to Mr Pamsperambulation, that if you’re going to get something new, you have to get rid of something old to make space for it.  This Christmas, as we prepare to welcome Jesus anew into our lives, is there anything we need to get rid of?  Anything in our lives that would sit most incongruously alongside him?  Any part of us that needs cleansing and purifying?  Anything that we need to let God forgive?

If all that sounds like doom and gloom, it’s not meant to.  It is a positive thing to do. And through this preparation, the whole human race will see God’s salvation.  It heartens me that the word of the Lord came to John when he was in the desert – because sometimes it feels like that is where we are.  We can feel adrift, and in a place of dryness.  But that is where God speaks, where he comes, where the journey can start from.  The journey to hear God, to meet him, and to welcome him into our lives.

So we join in the longing:

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 Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er 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, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times did’st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

John was challenged to get the road ready for the Lord.  We too receive that same challenge.  To get ready for God, because he longs to come.  To prepare the world to meet Jesus – because he is coming.

Posted in Advent, Christmas, forgiveness, God
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