The fourth Sunday of Advent - carolled out!

​I think I’m all carolled out! I’ve done three carol services today. Allhallowgate was lovely this morning, there were 20 of us at Sawley this afternoon and Grewelthorpe was full tonight - and it being an Anglican building a large glass of alcoholic mulled wine was handed to me at the end of my day. Here’s an extract from my carol service sermon this year…

There are a lot of songs in the Christmas story. Lots of angel songs. 

Out on the hills above Bethlehem there were the night-time caretakers – shepherds – everyday people going about their normal business, and then totally unexpected, come the angels. And the eyes of those ordinary shepherds are lifted up. Lifted up to something totally beyond themselves. The glory of the Lord shone around them. Immense light which was both beautiful and overwhelming.

And as so often with angels, come the words ‘Do not be afraid’  – and then a proclamation of good news. It is a message not of separation or of punishment, but a message that the God of the universe has chosen to draw close – to come and be with all people – people of all ages, of all backgrounds, of all cultures and experiences; people in mess and pain, and people in joy and comfort. Good news of great joy for all people.

Isn’t that worth singing about?

G. K. Chesterton wrote over a century ago, "The world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder." Here’s how it is. TheHoly Spirit means to break in on you with the surprise of Christmas. The words may be the same every year but to really hear the words and join in the song is life changing. 

I read this week an interview with Noddy Holder’s wife. Noddy Holder of course of the band Slade whose song Merry Christmas everybody comes out every year. He apparently early on Christmas morning turns to her in bed and yells in her ear every year “it’s Christmas!”

 

The Methodist theme for this year from our President and Vice President is our story, our song. They are asking what our story is and what song are we singing. Is it one of despair or of hope. Our call is to sing a new song. As the Irish quote says “ hope is a song sung when everything else says you should stop singing.” 

 

The Christmas song is good news of great joy for all people.

The Christmas song is he has lifted the lowly from their estate.

The Christmas song is in the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high has broken upon us.

 

The story may be the same every year. But its message is as fresh and exciting and vital as it ever was. So we need to keep singing it and listening for it. Let’s be Christmas people. O sing to the Lord a new song for he has done marvellous things.

I’m sure I’m not done with carols yet but I think I have none tomorrow which is good news. I love them but you can have too much of a good thing can’t you? 

The twenty first day of Advent - it’s not about stress!

​The picture the Bible gives us of the first Christmas is one of peace and serenity. You can see it with your mind’s eye: There are the shepherds, gathered around a campfire under a clear, starlit sky, quietly talking among themselves about their flocks, their families, their fortunes . . .

Down in the town of Bethlehem, away from the hustle and bustle of the multitude which has come for the census, a stable has become home to a newborn child, sleeping peacefully in the hay of the animals’ feed-trough, under the watchful eyes of his adoring parents. And even though the night sky would eventually be shattered by the singing of angels, even their message was one of “Peace on earth! Goodwill toward people!”

Why is it then, that our modern culture has taken this sacred season–which has always been meant to be a season of peace and joy and serenity–and turned it into a “season of stress?”

I’ve met so many people who have said it’s been too busy this year with too many things on and that people are tired and stressed because it’s too busy and too demanding. I was in a supermarket tonight which was quiet but the lad on the till told me “it will be hell tomorrow!” Even I am beginning to panic a bit about shopping and stuff and getting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and December 28 and January 4 services all written this week! 

In contrast with the stress we had a blue Christmas service in church this afternoon. There were only seven of us but the peace and honesty that incarnation happens when we aren’t okay was tangible. But you know I’ve even had church say why am I putting services on this week as it is Christmas! 

Maybe just maybe we all need to calm down, what doesn’t happen doesn’t happen. I may forget bread sauce but the world won’t end. Maybe with a few days to go we need to hush our noise and hear the angels  sing. 

The twentieth day of Advent: Christmas as an event

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Has Christmas the power to draw us towards it? Is it an event? I hear stories in the north east of the excitement of the unveiling each year of Fenwick’s window in Newcastle. I’d never heard of Fenwick’s until I moved up here. Betty’s window in Harrogate has a similar effect. 

Today I’ve experienced the pull of Christmas into it. I was a guest at one of the three sittings of Christmas dinner at Holy Trinity school in Ripon at lunchtime. They fed 330 children in three sittings in a military operation. The children were excited about their dinner. Not a sprout in sight I noticed! They were also excited it’s the last day of term and the fact there are six days to Christmas. Meanwhile I don’t know what day it is and people are asking for my hymns for 28 December. I’ve not planned further than a service tomorrow! 

Tonight was the winter wonderland in our spa gardens here. Churches Together sang carols for an hour. Sadly no Methodist folk turned out other than me but there was a decent number to make a good sound. As the hour went on we noticed a crowd gathering to listen and some join in. 

When I read the Christmas story in the Gospels, I notice how many different people are drawn to see what is happening. Shepherds leave their sheep and make haste to see what’s going on, magi later will arrive having been convinced a journey toward thr divine had to be taken, Elizabeth and Mary laugh with joy when they realise they are part of the drama. I’ve been sad this year that so many of my people in churches seem so tired and we’ve done too much they are stressed. But if the Church is so exhausted it can’t do Christmas we have a big problem. 

We need again to have a Christmas in our heart. We need to rediscover the excitement of the story. We need to make haste and go to find it. We need to wonder at its surprise again. As I walked to do the carol singing tonight a little boy told his friend “the real Santa has just rung me up!” He was so excited.

We need Christmas to be something to be talked about and be expectant about and to be happy at what it brings. So as well as a school Christmas dinner and some ecumenical outreach at a city event let me point us to the Christmas chart. The Christmas number 1 announced earlier today is Kylie with her song Xmas. Her fans were expectant at the possibility she’d beat Last Christmas to the top. “Get your Kylie bubbles out!” said one of them. There was genuine excitement she’d got the number 1. 

I am worried we’ve lost the excitement and the wonder. God has huge things  to show us - a great and mighty wonder - and in these last Advent days he just says come and see what I’m up to. I pray we are not so knackered we just want Christmas over and so we miss the Advent of God coming … which is even more exciting than Kylie at number one or even Fenwick’s window! 

The nineteenth day of Advent: Sparkle and Shine

The children at Grewelthorpe School came into church for their carol service this afternoon. It was lovely to have a full church enjoying Christmas. 

They sang Sparkle and Shine from the first of the three Nativity films. I love those films. The third one Dude where’s your donkey I remember rather embarrassingly guffawing at at the cinema! 

Christmas music is a protest against what is now. The angel song broke into the world to announce a new world. This morning at Allhallowgate a large group of more senior age people met to sing carols. They had as much fun as the children this afternoon. Some carols are full of deep theology. I think Hark the herald angels sing sums up best what incarnation means. It’s Charles Wesley’s birthday today! 

Christmas pop and classical music also wish for a better world. As I was driving home from Grewelthorpe in torrential rain this afternoon I had Radio 2 on and DJ Spoony played “We wish you a wombling merry Christmas” by the Wombles. I was word perfect! It brightened my journey through the floods. 

Mind you we all have Christmas carols we loathe. I’ll never choose come and join the celebration because I really loathe it. Someone said to me “you haven’t picked Cradled in a manger meanly in the carol service. I told her I save that for Christmas morning. 

Then there’s Christmas music we’d rather avoid. Forget Whamageddon, I do Cliffageddon. I had  managed to avoid any Cliff Richard until flipping Jeremy Vine played him at 1.55 this afternoon! Great!

 

The eighteenth day of Advent - Nativity

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“ Oh Miss, I don’t want to be Joseph. Miss, I really don’t want to be him, 

With a cloak of bright red and a towel on my head . And a cotton wool beard on my chin. 

* Oh Miss, please don’t make me a shepherd.  I just won’t be able to sleep. 

I’ll go weak at the knees and wool makes me sneeze and I really am frightened of sheep. 

* Oh Miss, I just can’t be the landlord, who says there’s no room in the inn. I’ll get in a fright when it comes to the night and I know that I’ll let Mary in. 

* Oh Miss, you’re not serious - an angel ? Can’t Peter take that part instead ? I’ll look such a clown in a white silky gown, and a halo stuck up on me head. 

* Oh Miss, I am not being a camel ! Or a cow or an ox or an ass ! I’ll look quite absurd and I won’t say a word, and all of the audience will laugh. 

* Oh Miss, I’d rather not be a Wise Man, who brings precious gifts from afar. 

But the part right for me, and I hope you’ll agree, In this play - can I be the star ? 

(From : The Day Our Teacher Went Batty, by Gervase Phinn)

Tonight Christmas became a bit more real for me. When do ministers receive? Our LEP at Grewelthorpe has a youth club which meets once a month after school. They put on a nativity play in church. It’s the first nativity play that’s happened there for at least 20 years! We wanted to see if parents might come as we are trying to get more of our village into church for God stuff not just lunches and concerts and curry nights! 

The children did brilliantly. So did Susan and Jenny who made sure lines were said in the right place and things were moved in the right place and the torch shone on the star in the right place. It told the story simply but powerfully. 

The best bit for me as the minister was to have a church full of younger people than I normally share with. There were 22 children there and 50 adults. Some good conversations were had afterwards about the Christmas story and the Church being present in the village. One lady said to me “you did that scouts thing didn’t you. I’ll tell my husband it’s you on Christmas Day and we might come.” 

I’m writing an article for our mission area January magazine about the people doing the jobs to keep the church going feeling worn out. I overheard someone say in a coffee shop this morning “why do we have to have all these things in December. It is Christmas.” Seriously! In contrast all the churches I serve have new people attending worship and things like tonight are arenas for encounter and to show people who are just dipping a tentative or enquiring toe in we aren’t that weird. 

I joked with Grewelthorpe friends tonight I should move to the village. I’m back there tomorrow for the school carol service, then on Sunday for the church carol service, then on Monday for carol singing round the village and then on Christmas morning for 9am communion. I’m much encouraged tonight to be the Methodist minister of a church that takes engagement with its community seriously. Tonight was a huge joy and I hope everyone there felt it.

I love this picture I took on leaving in the wet. The light shines on the village from the church. That’s our Christmas call and we did it well tonight —- apart from the dappy minister who thought Mary was a shepherd when chatting to the children afterwards! Call it pre Christmas delirium! I was singing along word perfect to Johnny Mathis in the madness of Yorkshire trading this morning! I now don’t know what day it is… :) 

   

The seventeenth day of Advent - new beginnings

 The poet and Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote a  poem called, “Moonless Darkness”:

Moonless darkness stands between.
Past, the Past, no more be seen!
But the Bethlehem-star may lead me
To the sight of Him who freed me
From the self that I have been.
Make me pure, Lord: Thou art holy;
Make me meek, Lord: Thou wert lowly;
Now beginning, and alway:
Now begin, on Christmas day.

I love this poem because it reminds me that Christmas is about beginnings. It is about the sun rising on Christmas morning, as children eagerly wake up to gather with their family, and perhaps open presents. It is about Jesus being born into this world, the beginning of a new era of how we understand God and God’s presence with us. It is about how God formed this plan of salvation from the very beginning, as we read in the beginning of the Gospel of John. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Christmas is about beginnings.

We human beings love beginnings. I think, on the whole, we tend to like beginnings more than endings. We love the thrill of setting out on a journey, when the bags are packed and the door behind us is secure and there is no way to go but forward. We love the feeling of cracking open a new book, not knowing where it will lead. We love watching sunrises, if we happen to be awake; watching the light fill the sky and flood the world around us with colour. And we love babies. We love the promises they hold. We love the new life they represent. We love the idea of a life without burdens or regrets; a life that is full of hope and possibility.

I was invited to a Christmas lunch today. I was a bit late. I was told “there’s nothing left” when I got there. Christmas hope and possibility never runs out. There are in the story every year new things to discover. It was lovely tonight to be at a concert by our local community choir the Skelldale Singers. All the carols and songs they sang were about longing for change in the world and in our hearts. With Jesus with us every day can be a new beginning. Let’s make sure we journey well in this season. 

The sixteenth day of Advent - comfort

​In the Book of Common Prayer is this sentence: “Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ faith unto all who truly turn to him.” A selection of Scripture passages follows, which are meant to encourage us and give us strength. Which is what the word comfort means in Latin - confirmo.

In Isaiah chapter 40 there is a summons to experience comfort. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” After generations of exile, God wants his people to be comforted. They had been through so much and now was the time for comfort. 

We need comfort after hard times. 

A comfortable sofa after a hard day.

Comforted by friends after upset.

Comfort food and drink - like a coffee after being at hospital this morning.

We sing in the Christmas story of “tidings of comfort and joy.” God comes to us and wraps us securely in his love. In the midst of upset, uncertainty and a mad world, we find comfort that God gives us care and peace right where we are. 

I’ve already reached Christmas delirium! This is shown by me singing Christmas music out loud. Christmas music is all about comfort and joy! I was apparently singing sweet shining Christmas bells this morning! Then in the chaos of Yorkshire pudding this afternoon on the radio of comfort shout and joy through Paul McCartney’s “wonderful Christmas time.”

Tonight I was called to the hospital to be with a dear man who is about to leave this earth. His faith, said his wife, has been important to him. I had a prayer holding his hand which I hope brought comfort to him and to his wife staying with him tonight: I remembered the prayer by heart (just!)

“The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you his  peace.” I hope for him tonight he knows God’s comfort. 

Incarnation is all about God comforting his people by telling them we are never alone even facing death. There is nowhere that God is not. We need comfort every day. We need a celebration to comfort us through the year. But even I was shocked to see Easter eggs with Easter publicity in a shop today! That’s just mad. For now, where is comfort and joy for us? I guess the question is who needs Christmas most? Be comforted, dear readers, for it is soon come.