New Year’s Eve: a quiet end to 2021

Is it a sign we are getting old that the thought of going out this New Year’s Eve seems very uninviting? Perhaps it’s more omicron caution than being party poopers that keeps us in tonight rather than joining  the masses in Ripon market square being entertained by an Oasis tribute band and other delights! 

There is a lot of pressure put on people tonight to go and party out the year and welcome the new one excitedly. I’m not sure large crowds even outside are sensible. We are already cancelling some church events next week, but I do get why this night is important for people. 

I miss Storrington in West Sussex on New Year’s Eve. We always shared a midnight service at the Parish Church. The Rector, dear Malcolm Acheson, called it New Year Bells. So we’d have a little service at 11.30, then go outside at 11.55 and hear the New Year chimed in at 12. Then he’d get us all back in the church for what he called “seasonal refreshments” which was trying to get us sloshed on his leftover sherry from Christmas! I learnt after year one to walk to this service!!! 

I guess this New Year’s Eve we pause and reflect on what Charles Wesley called in one of his hymns “another various year.” It hasn’t been as any of us might have hoped. We seriously thought Covid would be gone by now. We’ve done our best to keep going and we’ve celebrated high points and moments of joy but it’s been not various really but draining. We’ve still not really been able to get into life here in North Yorkshire but it’s a good place to be and one day this will pass… 

In a few hours time we shall greet 2022, whether outside or with friends or on our own at home. We thank God for another year, good and bad and we hope for ourselves and our world a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year.

21 years ago, I gathered at the church I served in Mossley to herald in the new Millennium. 21 years ago! We had lots and lots of little candles we were asked to light on this night back then at 11.58. With the candles we said a prayer, which is at the end of these musings, which I think is as relevant and urgent to pray this turn of the year as it was then. 

Lis and I along with the cats here wish you a safe night and we hope next year for you will be good whatever it brings. 

Let there be respect for the earth,
Peace for its people,
Love in our lives,
Delight in the good,
Forgiveness for past wrongs

And from now on, a new start. 

 

The Thursday after Christmas: sudden obstacles on the way!

Maybe the Christmas story is all about disruption. What do you think? 

Mary was just getting on with being a teenager… 

Joseph was looking forward to a happy marriage and settled life in Nazareth…

The shepherds were just getting on with caring for their flocks…

King Herod was enjoying being powerful and unthreatened…

The Magi had their lives in the East…

Then God and angels disrupted them… who would have thought a tiny child could cause so much chaos! 

We view disruption negatively. Of course we do! I had a long conversation this morning about whether a party planned for Epiphany evening which is a huge village thing could do ahead. Then events other than omicron made the decision for us. A huge tree came down in the churchyard last night which is now dangerous and can’t be dealt with until next week sometime so we have had to close the church and the churchyard until it’s safe. Photos were taken by the church wardens this morning. 

Then there’s the situation with omicron which seems to be disrupting the country with people off sick. We fear the NHS being overrun soon and Southern are not running any trains. I used Southern a lot once and it was grim! We didn’t have omicron as an excuse then. We don’t like having life disrupted.

But just maybe theologically we need it!  Aren’t we stuck in a rut as grey as the weather? Don’t we need a bit of disruption to stir us up a bit? When you are disrupted by cancelled events, trains that don’t run and fallen trees, you have to make a decision to do something different. Many people are celebrating New Year’s Eve differently; those relying on a train that won’t be running have to get there another way or not go; the congregation on Sunday will have to worship elsewhere. If we embrace the disruption of incarnation properly we will look at life differently. Or at least we should! 

I found this while preparing a service for Sunday when we think about magi on a journey… 

God, I love to worship you when the stars are bright above me.

I love to worship you when the sky is clear, and the breeze just right.

I love to worship you when the journey to Bethlehem is an easy one. Unfortunately, as you know, this journey of life, love, and faith is rarely easy. Now and again, the stars disappear. My feet get blisters, and the journey is far too long and lonely.

On these days, forgive me for giving up quickly.

Forgive me for allowing the dream to die and for taking the shortcut home. I want to be as brave as the Magi.

 

I want to persevere.

Guide my feet. Show me the stars. Amen.

Dare we be disrupted?

The Wednesday after Christmas: all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order…

The highlight of Christmas television viewing this year was surely a programme now 50 years old: the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show from 1971. It included the immortal Grieg piano concerto by Grieg and Andrew Preview sketch in which is surely the funniest ever exchange of all time:

“You’re playing all the wrong notes!”

“I’m playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.” 

In these last days of a year as we blob out a bit, we reflect on what’s happened to us. It’s been a year of all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order. It’s not been straightforward and at times we haven’t known what to do. I’ve said many times to people no one taught me how to lead churches in a global pandemic, and as we get to the second anniversary of its beginning soon, we still find ourselves unable to plan as we would like to. So we’ve needed and continue to need to be light on planning and flexible when changes are forced on us. 

I’ve made some pastoral phone calls this afternoon and even talking to a few people, it’s clear for most of us life is hard and unpredictable. Outside tonight is a strong wind, some trees are down in our city, and several roofs are unstable. We need in chaos when the script isn’t how we would like it, to know there’s something or someone we can rely on. 

I take comfort that in the Christmas story, the coming of God isn’t straightforward. Jesus is incarnate in mess and confusion, in poverty, in a nation ruled over by a violent tyrant, incarnate as a vulnerable child, a refugee, an outsider. Remember religious people knew how God would come by heart. He came playing all the wrong notes in their view. We know they were the right notes and maybe in a refreshingly new order which was his intention. 

How boring would it be if we were always neat and tidy and we always knew what was going to happen. In my experience, when you expect God’s plan a, he gives you plan b… 

Maybe tonight take heart if life is a bit in the wrong order or it’s chaos for you. Incarnation is about divine presence in all of that, not some pretty, neat, sugary parcel we dare not touch for spoiling it.

I love at the end of that classic sketch Andre Previn goes with Eric’s version of the Grieg rather than arguing. After all, for ten pound more, they could have got Edward Heath!

 

The Monday after Christmas: Pondering

What do you do with these days between Christmas and New Year? We’ve just put the tree up (I believe in the Christmas season so it will be up until February 2 :)) and the cats are pondering how to get the angel down from it! 

Are these days for resting and pondering? There’s a verse in Luke chapter 2 we sometimes miss as it comes at the end of the shepherds’ visit to Jesus. We were told “Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart.” I bet she did! Let’s ponder her journey. Visitation by an angel; explaining sudden pregnancy to Joseph; a nightmare journey to obey a tyrannical census to get home; nowhere to stay; giving birth in poverty and then some dirty shepherds turning up uninvited. There was much to ponder. 

What was God’s plan for Mary? She was the God bearer. But that wouldn’t be easy. Look ahead. Soon to be a refugee fleeing a violent regime to keep safe. Getting exasperated when Jesus at twelve does a runner; counting to ten before speaking when he’s really rude to her in the Temple that day and later when she tries to help him at a wedding; having little news from him while he was travelling about; watching him die on a cross, crucified by pain. And yet, as the church is born, she’s still there. As well as the supreme example of faithfulness, I think of her as a deep thinker… a ponderer of what divine activity means. 

Perhaps we need more pondering time. We rush about. We don’t wait on God. Very few of us stop and talk together asking what God is doing with us or deliberately get some space on our own to think deeply. I wonder where Mary did her pondering.

Like cats sitting by a tree trying to work out how to get the angel down, we need to try and work out where God is in our lives. If he really has become one of us, that takes some thinking about. Maybe a good new year resolution might be to ponder more before we make decisions… now there’s a thought! I have a one item Church Council after my service on 2 January to approve expenditure for a new dishwasher. Imagine what the reaction would be if I sent everyone away to a quiet corner to ponder first!! 

I just plea for a bit more reflection in life because sometimes what’s thrown at us is too much and our head needs time to process stuff going on. If you’re too knackered on a bank holiday to ponder - then let your body, mind and spirit rest - believe me, there will be much to ponder in January! I love what one of the local pubs posted about an hour ago. Perhaps I’m here today if I’m honest and for a few days that’s okay. 

 

The first Sunday of Christmas: In Memoriam: Archbishop Tutu and Janice Long

I was saddened this morning to hear of the passing of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of my heroes really. He oozed positivity and vibrant faith in the midst of often indescribable pain and racial discrimination and injustice. 

In one of my favourite books on the study shelf, Jim Wallis in “God’s Politics”’ reminds us of how Tutu’s optimistic living of God’s Kingdom values works if you really get what God is up to…

“The former South African archbishop Desmond Tutu used to famously say, “We are prisoners of hope.” Such a statement might be taken as merely rhetorical or even eccentric if you hadn’t seen Bishop Tutu stare down the notorious South African Security Police when they broke into the Cathedral of St. George’s during his sermon at an ecumenical service. I was there and have preached about the dramatic story of his response more times than I can count. The incident taught me more about the power of hope than any other moment of my life. Desmond Tutu stopped preaching and just looked at the intruders as they lined the walls of his cathedral, wielding writing pads and tape recorders to record whatever he said and thereby threatening him with consequences for any bold prophetic utterances. 

They had already arrested Tutu and other church leaders just a few weeks before and kept them in jail for several days to make both a statement and a point: Religious leaders who take on leadership roles in the struggle against apartheid will be treated like any other opponents of the Pretoria regime. After meeting their eyes with his in a steely gaze, the church leader acknowledged their power (“You are powerful, very powerful”) but reminded them that he served a higher power greater than their political authority (“But I serve a God who cannot be mocked!”). 

Then, in the most extraordinary challenge to political tyranny I have ever witnessed, Archbishop Desmond Tutu told the representatives of South African apartheid, “Since you have already lost, I invite you today to come and join the winning side!” He said it with a smile on his face and enticing warmth in his invitation, but with a clarity and a boldness that took everyone’s breath away. The congregation’s response was electric. The crowd was literally transformed by the bishop’s challenge to power. 

From a cowering fear of the heavily armed security forces that surrounded the cathedral and greatly outnumbered the band of worshipers, we literally leaped to our feet, shouted the praises of God and began…dancing. (What is it about dancing that enacts and embodies the spirit of hope?) We danced out of the cathedral to meet the awaiting police and military forces of apartheid who hardly expected a confrontation with dancing worshipers. Not knowing what else to do, they backed up to provide the space for the people of faith to dance for freedom in the streets of South Africa.“

I also love this Tutu quote:

On the first Sunday of Christmas we remembered in church this morning the shepherds. They were nobodies, outcasts, a bit smelly, best kept on the hillside away from the town. They were overwhelmed by angel song and an amazing embodiment of good news, they made haste to see it for themselves - God as a child in a manger in a barn.  And then they returned glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard, it was just as the angel had told them. They were the first evangelists of Christianity! I wonder who they talked to on the way back up the hill. 

The shepherds remind me every Christmas of two truths both of which inspired Desmond Tutu to be the servant of Christ he was. First, that the good news of Jesus coming is greater than any power in the world that might threaten to overwhelm us, an example of how this might become enacted theology is surely the story Jim Wallis remembers above. 

Then that no matter who we are, God’s self giving is for us to go and find and see and then share. We can make a difference. Tutu once said “ Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” He made Christianity so simple and then he laughed about it! Glorifying and praising God for all he had seen and heard. 

I was also very sad to read today another person I enjoyed hearing from has passed on. Janice Long was a fabulous broadcaster. She used to be on the radio late at night. She like Tutu made a difference to people cheering them up with her chat and her music choices. She like Archbishop Tutu will be missed. 

Perhaps today we need to pause to think about how we live what we celebrated yesterday. The people who get Christmas, or even have no faith but know we are put in this world to make a difference, understand that how we live matters… on Boxing Day, can we join them? 

Christmas Day: this day is born for you a Saviour…

I love to revisit around Christmas Day a poem by John Shea entitled: Sharon’s Christmas Prayer. It reads: She was five, sure of the facts and recited them with slow solemnity, convinced every word was revelation.

            She said

they were so poor

they had only peanut butter

            and jelly sandwiches to eat

and they went a long way from home

without getting lost. 

The lady rode

a donkey, the man walked, and the baby

was inside the lady.

They had to stay in a stable

with an ox and an ass (hee-hee)

but the Three Rich Men found them

because a star lit the roof.

Shepherds came and you could

pet the sheep but not feed them.

Then the baby was born.

And do you know who he was?

            Her quarter eyes inflated

            to silver dollars.

The baby was God.

The Christmas story, as told by a child: Joseph and Mary journeying on a donkey, no room at the inn, birth in a stable, the star and the shepherds

and, of course, the baby, Jesus who was God. All the elements of the story are there, but, for an adult, it is too easy to miss how incredible it is that God takes on flesh.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us. What a wild and unbelievable statement! The infinite heart, centre, creator, and sustainer of the universe is born as a baby and lives as a human person on this earth and, through that, gives to us God’s power to save. We’ve domesticated the incarnation, but the real Christmas story staggers the mind. Charles Wesley describes it in one of his hymns like this : our God, contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man.

After John Shea has let the five-year-old Sharon tell the Christmas story, he notes her reaction and supplies an apt one-line commentary:

            And she jumped in the air,

            whirled around, dove into the sofa,

            and buried her head under the cushion

            which is the only proper response

            to the good news of the incarnation.

Isn’t that great?

You know, no single historical figure has changed or shaped the world as much as Jesus.  How did he do it?  NOT by becoming King of Israel or any kind of leader in any conventional sense. Luke contrasts the power of Jesus with leaders about at that time. Caesar Augustus and Qurinius the governor of Syria.   When the centre of the world was far away in the mighty imperial city of Rome, he spent what little time he had in the rural backwater of Palestine ministering not to the rich and powerful but to the weak and powerless.  Michael Ramsay, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, put it like this:

“…the glory of Christianity is its claim that small things really matter…..Amidst a vast world with its vast empires and vast events and tragedies our Lord devoted himself to a small country, to small things, to individual men and women, often giving hours of time to the very few or to the one man or woman…..the infinite worth of the one is the key to the Christian understanding of the many.”

Remember this Christmas Day that the God who loves you just as you are is born this day for you. That’s the good news of Christmas that God sends his Son into the world to redeem the world and to save it from itself. He cares enough about us he becomes small and vulnerable to fully share what it’s like to be human. Strip away - if you can - the schmaltzy aspects of the nativity story and what do you have?  A child born in poverty to a mother who endured labour in unpleasant, insanitary conditions and all this in a nation ruled over by a brutally violent and oppressive Roman regime.  

 

Jesus was a man of the people he set out to serve.  He knew their hurts, their needs, their pain. And if we are his church we have to get involved with people where they are too. If God has come down to us then everything has changed. The only response is Sharon’s - whirling round and diving into the sofa. You might like to try doing both this afternoon! 

 

I end with this story encouraging a bit of awe in us as we think about what this day means: some little children in school were re-enacting the Christmas  story. Their teacher wanted them to stage it themselves based on their own made up script. So they had three Marys, two Josephs, six shepherds, two wise men and a cow and a doctor who would deliver the baby. The little boy who was the doctor went behind the manger, picked up the doll and carefully wrapped it in a blanket, then with a big smile on his faces, he turned to the Marys and Josephs and said “Congratulations, it’s a boy! No, no… it is a God.” 

 

So this is Christmas: rejoice and be glad, God has kept his promises to save and bless his people. 

This day is born for you a Saviour, Christ the Lord.

Love has come down - for ever. 

 

Christmas night: the night watch…

What time will you go to bed tonight? It can be a long night if you are excited. You count down the hours until the great day arrives – Christmas morning.

 

But let’s not rush too fast to tomorrow. Let’s think about tonight. When does Christmas start in the story? Well our carols we picked for our Christingle service tonight give quite large clues…

 

On Christmas night all Christians sing to hear the news the angels bring…

 

Silent night, holy night, sleeps the world hid from sight…

 

It came upon a midnight clear that glorious song of old…

 

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie…

 

Christmas, God’s work begins in the dark. At the beginning of all things God was in the darkness and he said “let there be light.” 

And at night, we have shepherds on a hillside keeping watch over their flocks – some Bible translations call it   the night watch”  It was the time after sunset and before sunrise, the late-night hours, a time of total darkness.

They see their world filled with glory as a bright angelic host appears in the sky above them. Our reading from Matthew has Joseph asleep at night and  another angel in his dream telling him what to do and promising him it would all be okay - he’s to name the child Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. And in the morning when he wakes up his world changes. He does what the angel asked. 

 

I wonder when we wake up in the morning what we will find. I hope we get some surprises. No one expected what happened this night in Bethlehem really, although some wise folk a long time before said it would happen. The night was busy, busier than even Father Christmas getting to us on his sleigh and squeezing down all those chimneys.  Jesus was born during the night watch, at the time when the darkness is most intense.   Jesus is the Light of World.  Jesus is  the true light coming into the world He is “the light that shines  in the darkness” and he will later explain, “I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in the darkness” 

We’ve lit Christingles in church tonight, Christ lights,to remember the light of Christ.  Despite whatever darkness there may be in the world, it will not prevail.  “The darkness has not overcome it”  not in the past, not now, not in the future, not ever.

Jesus is born at midnight to bring light into our troubled world. Yesterday, today and forever. This is the holiest night of the year which just asks us to wait and to hope and to expect and to wonder…

There’s a lovely verse in what we call the Apocrypha, books written between the old and new testaments. In a book called the Wisdom of Solomon it says this:

 

“ For while all things were in quiet silence, and that night was in the midst of her swift course, your almighty word leapt down from heaven, out of your royal throne.”

 

It’s lovely that verse isn’t it? We wait in the quiet of the darkness for God to leap down to us from his throne up above somewhere. 

 

And here’s another:

 

“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”

 

 

It was Christmas Eve and the world stood still - a poem by Tim Carter

 

It was Christmas Eve

And the world stood still

Just for a moment

 

Waiting

Wondering

Hoping

 

Might it be that this time

This time of all times

The promise would be fulfilled

And the wars would end

And the crying cease

And the people join hands in unity?

 

Waiting

Wondering

Hoping

 

Might it be this time

This time of all times?

  

The Thursday before Christmas: O come Emmanuel

In some traditions over the days before Christmas, the Advent antiphons are prayed. All begin with the exclamation “O come…” and today’s is “O come, Emmanuel.”

Ian Black, who is Dean of the cathedral in Newport, South Wales, offers us this prayer: 

O Emmanuel, 

long expected and looked for, 

be present among us. 

In the darkness let your light shine, 

bringing hope to the despairing, 

encouragement to those in danger of losing heart, 

and life to all who walk through the shadow of death.

Come to our salvation

Come, Lord Jesus.

(From 'Intercessions for the Calendar of Saints and Holy Days', Ian Black, SPCK 2005)

To say we cannot come to something isn’t easy. Turning down invitations especially at the moment when we would love to go, is painful. I’m remembering those who have altered plans for the next few days and aren’t coming to people or family who’ve long been expected them. I guess we should be used to changes of plans by now. 

What if God said he isn’t coming? I don’t like hearing parents tell children if they are naughty Father Christmas won’t come. But what if God looked at the world and said “they are too wayward and sinful, what’s the point, I can’t be bothered so I’m not coming despite all the promises I will.”

The good news of incarnation is that despite the world, and despite us and our sin, God will come. It’s called grace. The letter to the Hebrews says talking about faith that “he who is coming will come, he will not delay.”

Two days before Christmas, whatever you face, know that God will come, even if you’ve been naughty, or feel miserable because life is kicking you hard. God will come as a child, vulnerable, into chaos, truly one of us… God will come. 

I remember when I was minister in Newton Aycliffe, we always knew when our MP was about to visit because they would paint and tidy up the town centre. Newton Aycliffe was on the edge of the Sedgefield constitutency, and back then our MP was one Tony Blair, the Prime Minister. God takes us as he finds us you know, he can cope with the mess which is just as well seeing the state of my study tonight! God will come, just where we need him. 

So tonight in our prayers let’s join perhaps with a tradition unfamiliar to us, and pray earnestly and with confidence, o come, Emmanuel… come. 

The Wednesday before Christmas: Remembering what’s it’s all about…

One of my folk sent me an extract from the Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland about John Wesley’s two visits to Ripon. In May 1780 he preached at the chapel on Coltsgate Hill, now sadly derelict. 

2 May 1780. “We came to Ripon, and observed a remarkable turn of Providence. The great hindrance of the work of God in this place has suddenly disappeared, and the poor people, being delivered from their fear, gladly flocked together to hear His word. The new preaching house was quickly more than filled. Surely some of them will not be forgetful hearers!'

The Dictionary entry tells us early Methodists suffered 'much harsh and unlawful treatment' and John Wesley wrote to the Dean of Ripon (who was also a local magistrate) on their behalf on 9 July 1766. Wesley tells us their fear had gone, and now they flocked to hear the good news of Jesus and he prayed that they might not forget

I always love what people say to clergy sorts in the run up to Christmas. Here’s two.

The lady on the till in Sainsbury’s:

“Are you ready for the dreaded day?” (Is Christmas really something to dread?)

A lady in the street: 

“This must be your busy time!” (When people say this I always worry they think I do nothing for 51 weeks in the year!)

I’m not feeling very Christmassy. I think this year is worse than last year with Covid making us very low. But it’s okay not to feel Christmasy, because Incarnation still happens. I need to try not to be in Wesley’s words a “forgetful hearer” when I hear the story again over the next few days. I’m leading worship on Friday and Saturday and Sunday and I will try to hear what God is saying to me this year. 

What’s the message of Christmas for me after another really difficult year, well, that God comes! Wesley clearly created a stir in 1780, can I create one too this Christmas in the churches I’m in? Will people gladly flock together to hear His word? I suggest, fellow clergy readers, we need to know it in our knackered state (you know what? Predictive text wrote that last sentence as we need to know it in our knickers!!!) and we need to be honest in our preaching it this weekend. Here’s the good news we need to remember forever to use Wesley’s brother’s words - he lays his glory by and wraps himself in our clay… I pray over the next few days I might not be too busy or tired to hear this amazing thing for me. It’s as vital a message for 2021 and pandemic weariness and fear (106,000 cases today) as it was in 1780. Even if the numbers who hear it might not be quite as big as Wesley got on his visit here back then! 

The Tuesday before Christmas: the longest night

21 December, today, is the shortest day, so time and light really are against us. Today is the winter solstice and therefore holds the shortest day and the longest night, when the northern hemisphere is tipped as far away from the sun as we’ll get, before we start tipping back again. The world is literally tilting on its axis today.

Christmas Day was traditionally celebrated on this day until changed to the 25thDecember by Pope Gregory in 1552. You see the early church, not knowing the exact date of Christ’s birth because the shepherds and the Kings didn’t keep a diary, determined that the most obvious day was the shortest, so that when the birth came, the light began to return. The Light of the World would surely have been born into the darkness not just of the night but of the whole cosmic cycle. If you are God, who has created the heavens and the earth, and created humanity, and you realise that the only way to save it all from the annihilation of hope, is to come yourself to sort it out, then of course you would choose the darkest day, the day nearest to the pre-creation place of void and formlessness as described in the picture language of the first chapter of the book of Genesis. 

God has loved us so much, so much, that he became flesh, not as part of a nativity scene, but in the simplicity of a birth, without a home. God has come among us, Emmanuel, meaning God is with Us, and we have beheld his glory. What a cosmic decision to be God and then to come here. Flooding the dark with light. And today on a day that’s been dull and gloomy and that’s just the news - we watch for the light. 

The shortest day is followed by the return of more and more daylight and the Light of the World. We shall soon see the promise of his glory fulfilled and the only question for us at yet another Christmas, is how will we respond? Will you be a person of Light, or will you allow times when darkness can take over?

21 December, today, is the shortest day, so time 21 December, today, is the shortest day, so time and light really are against us. Today is the winter solstice and therefore holds the shortest day and the longest night, when the northern hemisphere is tipped as far away from the sun as we’ll get, before we start tipping back again. The world is literally tilting on its axis today and light really are against us. Today is the winter solstice and therefore holds the shortest day and the longest night, when the northern hemisphere is tipped as far away from the sun as we’ll get, before we start tipping back again. The world is literally tilting on its axis today

The Monday before Christmas: being lanterns

I’ve decided, as I’m not at all feeling Christmasy, to write a reflection and post it every day from today until 6th January, whatever comes into my head. How is the Christ event relevant for 2021?

I came across this quote earlier today from the best Advent book ever written:

“It is not your glory but his, you have to consent to be transparent, to be the lantern, not the light, like John the Baptist...Are you prepared to let the joy of the Lord radiate to others through you?" 

Maria Boulding, The Coming of God

I always choose Cradled in a manger meanly on Christmas morning. There’s a verse in that hymn which asks God to make a Christmas in our hearts. We want positivity in this season. We want love and joy and peace. We don’t want Boris to ruin it with more restrictions. We want Christmas to make a difference to our sorry lives even for a few hours. 

Tonight, in the first of these reflections, I remember those who in my life have made a difference to me by knowing Christ in their hearts always and passing him on through gentle authentic Christian care and evangelism. Being the lantern to point me to the light. 

Who would be on your list of lanterns, I wonder? 

We live in a world that likes to be noticed and affirmed for what it does. But genuine Christian presence is not about being praised for how much we do, but how we are leading others to consider whether Jesus and his teaching is for them. Remember John Wesley said once “I came into the town and offered them Christ.” He also talked about “commending the Saviour.” How are we letting the joy of the Lord radiate to others through us, as others have done that to us?  I watched  an episode of One Foot In The Grave on the I player earlier tonight. Victor and Margaret Meldrew are in a train. He thinks she’s said something he didn’t quite hear:

“I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Oh, I thought you were going to say “for God’s sake stop moaning or something.”

We are good at negative comments. Why can’t we be more positive and optimistic? Radiating joy spreads joy, being miserable spreads misery. The coming of God makes a difference and like the saints who’ve helped us on our journey, we are called to shine the light to lead others to the one true light that the darkness can never put out. Know this tonight: by being a lantern you never know what difference you can make. It isn’t about our glory but the glory of God. The herald hasn’t always got it easy. The bearer of a lantern may find objectors who snuff the light out. John the Baptist in the end lost his head! But his call prior to death never was extinguished.

I leave you tonight with an old hymn. May we this week, be lanterns… and may we share joy a bit…

God make my life a little light

Within the world to glow;

A little flame that burneth bright,

Wherever I may go.

God make my life a little flower

That giveth joy to all,

Content to bloom in native bower.

Although the place be small.

God make my life a little song

That comforteth the sad

That helpeth others to be strong,

And makes the singer glad.

God make my life a little staff

Whereon the weak may rest,

That so what health and strength I have

May serve my neighbours best.

God make my life a little hymn

Of tenderness and praise.

Of faith, that never waxeth dim,

In all His wondrous ways.

Learning from Mary

Passage for reflection: Luke 1: 26 - 38 

It was fun on Thursday morning to be at the nativity put on by the nursery which meets in our Harrogate Road church. There were a lot of characters dressed up, all the biblical ones in the Christmas story plus a few snowmen, Santas and Christmas puddings. The most excited child in the thing was a little girl playing Mary. She danced about and was loving every minute of being Mary for a while. 

On the fourth Sunday of Advent, the focus is on Mary. Was she as excited as the little girl playing her, or was she frightened or overwhelmed by what was being asked of her? After all, we think she was barely a teenager if even that old. Her life was going along quietly, betrothed to an older man called Joseph, settled in Nazareth and looking forward to settling down with little drama. 

She hadn’t counted on an angel visiting her breaking into her world and causing her to suddenly change her world. We see in the Church, looking back at this meeting between the angel and Mary, her being the supreme example of obedience to God’s will, but imagine this… being told you are going to bear God’s son, no warning, no thinking time, just heaven meeting earth through a message that is urgent and exciting and revolutionary. 

When Mary hears the word of the Lord, we read that she was very perplexed. She was confused, bewildered, mystified and also rather nervous. This young girl, faced with a message from God that she is really special, feels confused; and the confusion rises when she gets the news that she is to be the person to bear the saviour of the world, a child who will be ‘holy... Son of God’. And this, not in the ordinary way children are conceived, but by the action of the living God. No wonder she is confused.

What Mary then hears are words of assurance - ‘Do not be afraid’. Have no fear. Or to put it more positively: Be confident and trusting. Be confident in the Lord who has favoured you, who will look after you, who has entrusted to you the greatest task in the world, to bear the son of God, and who will look after you in that. So Mary is to trust that the good purposes of the living God will be the answer to her confusion.

But there’s another lesson for Christmas 2021 in this meeting I think. The angel reminds us that no matter who we are, God can use us. We don’t need to know how it will work out, it just will, for we are told nothing is impossible with God. I love the passage after the annunciation where Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth. She is also amazingly with child by divine will. The two women reflect on their blessedness and then we hear Mary sing the most radical song of praise naming what God is always up to - including everyone in his party (or gathering or cheese and wine or zoom quiz) ! 

I’d like to quote directly Nadia Bolz Weber from her “ The Corners” blog: 

“When we think about the Annunciation, this scene between the angel Gabriel and Mary, we think of the faith it took for her to believe that she would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit and that her son, the illegitimate child of an insignificant girl, really would have a throne and a kingdom. But I wonder: If I had been in her place, which would be harder for me to believe: The part about a virgin giving birth to a king? Or the part where the angel said I was favoured? I mean, if an angel came to me and said, “Greetings, favoured one,” I’d be like, you’ve got the wrong girl. 

But here’s where Mary had some real chops. She heard outrageous things from an angel and she didn't say “Let me see if I get any better offers” She didn't say “Let me get back to you” said, she heard outrageous things from an angel and said “Let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Mary trusted the word from the angel, telling her that she was favored. And maybe that trust is what made her favoured.

We have no idea what Mary was like before the angel visited her, but here’s what I’m thinking: I seriously doubt that she made herself into a girl whom God could favor because she took the advice of her youth rabbi and lived the way she should. I mean, nowhere does it say that the angel Gabriel just waited and waited until he found a girl who had diligently worked on her virtues hard enough that she had made herself worthy to be the Godbearer. I mean, if the way God seems to favor prostitutes and tax collectors and adulterous kings over the smug, righteous, and powerful is any indication, then I think it’s safe to assume that it is God’s nature to look upon young peasant girls with favour. 

Because God’s just like that. 

So maybe the really outrageous act of faith on Mary’s part was trusting that she had found favor with God.  This, it seems to me, is a vital and overlooked miracle of the Annunciation story. Yet instead, we prefer to focus on what virtues we think Mary must have had so that we can cultivate them in ourselves and maybe make our own selves worthy of God. 

Hail Mary full of virtue, the Lord is with thee?

No. Hail Mary, full of GRACE, the Lord is with thee, the prayer goes.

Grace.  The one thing you simply cannot earn.

I think that this is exactly what Mary understood: That what qualifies us for God’s grace isn’t our goodness – what qualifies us for God’s grace is nothing more than our need for God’s grace. 

I hope so. Because I just can’t manage to muster up a yes to what seems like God’s conditional maybe toward me.

But God’s yes about me, for me, and toward me? That’s different. 

That’s a useful miracle.

So, I won’t say that I hope this season is merry. I won’t say that I hope it is happy and bright. But I will say this: I hope you hear a divine “yes.” this season. 

In other words, may your soul feel its worth.“

You know what, this Christmas we need to know we are worth something. And if we respond even with the same struggle as Mary, then like Elizabeth says to her we will be blessed among people. Won’t we?