Christmas is coming

As sure as December brings Christmas it also brings our annual carol and activity service. It was last night and there were lots of people of all ages. After the service was over we had the opportunity to join hands and make rings then walk round the Christmas tree singing Christmas carols. After that there was a great spread of treats to eat and drink.

As three elderly ladies were preparing to leave after the refreshments they commented how nice it had been to be all together and to see so many children. I couldn't agree with her more!! One time when I was chatting to one of these ladies I asked how long she had been coming to this church. This caused her to think hard and you could amost hear her working it out in her head. I don't know how long I had expected her to say but her answer took me totally by surprise, in fact it left me momentarily speechless. (Leaving me speechless as many people know is quite a difficult thing to do!) The lady replied that she knows for certain she was attending weekly in 1936 and she probably started here the year before when she moved to the area for her first job! That is 75 years this year, amazing!

Being and doing

As I finished reading the parish magazine from my former church I sighed as I laid it to one side, somethings don't change I thought. It can be both a good thing and a bad thing that nothing changes. Change should not be something we bring about for it's own sake. When we make changes in a church, in business or in our lives it is a good thing to spend some time thinking about what the motives for that change are.

Some change is both necessary and desirable, it moves us forwards towards our goal. We do however need to be clear over as many of the consequences of change as possible. Bill Hybels has said for many years that the local church is the hope of the world and I agree with him. The church and the Christ  followers who belong to it are called to be different. We are called to be salt and light in the world. We are in the world but not of the world as Jesus says in John 15:19. We are en-route to eternity but we have a job to do as we journey. The English  Archbishop Temple said "the church is the only organization that exists for the benefit of its non- members."

Change in the church should be driven by the need for us who belong to it to be better followers of Jesus and therefore to be able to reach out as salt and light into the world with the intention of bringing new people into a relationship with the Lord Jesus. Change in the church is often a heated subject and I feel relatively safe as I write this as we are not planning any big changes in the near future.

I believe the church is about bringing people to Jesus and then helping them to know Him better and live closer to Him. It is good for us all occasionally to spend some time reflecting over what we do and why we do it, as well as how it enables or hinders us in living out what Jesus has called us to be and to do.

Coming ready or not!

Advent is a time of preparation, preparing for an event and the event is remembering that Jesus came into the world. The king of the universe became a tiny helpless human baby whilst at the same time still being God. It is hard to get our heads round the incarnation, fully God and fully human at the same time and on top of that a baby! We do not understand it, I am not sure we are supposed to fully understand it. God incarnate, God amongst us. Not only that it happened 2000 years ago but it is still happening now. Christians when they turn to Christ receive the Holy Spirit as a seal of belonging. Part of God, the third part of the Trinity lives within us. God is still in the world in us. This is heady stuff that we can spend time thinking about, meditating on it and as has occasionally happened through history arguing about.

Advent is a time of preparation. A time to prepare our hearts and minds to once again be ready. Jesus in his teaching also promised that he would come back, we do not know any of the facts around is return, not the date or time, Jesus himself says he does not know when but that it will happen. Only the Father knows when. The words of Isaiah, so often read in church during advent, are as relevant today as they ever have been:

Prepare the way for the LORD;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

This text is quoted in the New Testament by Matthew in chapter 3 about John the Baptist but it is also relevant to us today. Are we ready for the glory of the Lord to be revealed both in our lives and in or world?

Christmas is coming whether we are ready or not. Christ has come and is coming again, are we ready...or not?