Sunday's coming!

Christmas Eve Busy time, Christmas, isn’t it! Sometimes you have to work hard just to keep going and keep smiling. So it was good to sit down in front of the TV last night and watch “A grumpy guide to Christmas” – though those who know me well might say I don’t need any tips on being grumpy! But right there in the middle of all that grumpiness there was a profound theological truth – just when you think you’ve finished work for the day. One of the grumpy old men was being scathing about the so-called wise men and their gifts – gold, he said ‘well fair enough coz it’s worth a bit’ ‘and maybe incense is good to get rid of smells’ ‘but what’s with myrrh – that’s what people use on dead bodies: what is he saying there? ‘congratulations on being born,kid – you’re going die?’… Well... yes. The amazing truth of the incarnation – of God becoming a human being in Jesus, is that God was accepting not only the whole risky process of entering this world, and the painful business of learning to liv...

How to tackle this? Every year I try and every year I marvel at the wonder of the true joy of Christmas. At the Christmas eve midnight service tomorrow I will probably use this: The Wicked Fairy At The Manger 
by U.A. Fanthorpe 
My gift for the child:

 No wife, kids, home; 
No money sense. Unemployable. Friends, yes. But the wrong sort –
 The workshy, women, wimps,
 Petty infringers of the law, persons
 With notifiable diseases, Poll tax collectors, tarts;
 The bottom rung.
 His end? 
I think we’ll make it
 Public, prolonged, painful.

 Right, said the baby. That was roughly 
What we had in mind. Whilst on Christmas Day I will use a tatty old wooden orange box to reflect on the amazing contrast of the baby in the stable - the king of heaven made flesh. Of course I have tomorrow morning & most of the afternoon to sort myself out! Hope the mystery is opened to you this Chirstmas, faithful readers! Happy Christmas.

Here's another sermon I'm not going to use (actually from 3 years ago.. I'm going to be using Lythan's very apt reflection on Mary's story instead - it's good to have talented friends! Mary – the voice of a prophet Luke 1: 39 – 45 & 46 -55 I deliberately split this passage up into two to give us some sense of time passing. Often we hear the story of the angel appearing to Mary & rush into this visit to Elizabeth & Mary’s little speech which is sometimes called the Magnificat – as if it all happens in the space of the 5 minutes it takes to read it all. But let’s just pause and think. Imagine you’re a young girl, you’re betrothed to Joseph, a nice reliable carpenter – and one day an angel appears and tells you that you are going to have a baby which will be God in a human form. Your first reaction is not ‘My soul tells out the greatness of the Lord’. Your first reaction is probably shock, disbelief, even horror. The angel tells you that there is anot...

Things have gone a bit pear-shaped this week - the upshot being that I'm not preaching a 'main' sermon this week. Here are the notes as far as I'd got: Well, what are you lot doing here? You’ve come to try to save yourselves have you? – worried that God will put a black mark against your name if you don’t come to church? Or maybe you just had nothing better to do this morning? Or perhaps you’re looking for something that will make you feel more Christmassy? You know, it’s no good just sitting there looking and listening unless you’re really wiling to do something! I bet you’re wishing this sermon wasn’t going to be about John the Baptist – his style is abrasive and his words are hard to hear. And I decided not to call you a brood of vipers! It’s hard at first to understand what John is doing. The crowd he is addressing is filled with the people who have bothered to come out into the desert to hear what he has to say. It feels a bit like the teacher who rants at the mem...

The readings are Zephaniah 3:14-20 Philippians 4:4-7 Luke 3:7-18 This is my VERY busy week, but I'm held in thrall by John the Baptist's words - and the challenge to not just observe the events of Christmas but allow them to work in us and change us. Wondering about 'You brood of vipers!' as an arresting way to start the sermon! (No, I'm not kidding!). I still think John the B is a great antidote to the 'theme park' Christmas we're offered in so many places. I'm wondering quite when I'll find time to write the sermon - but will try to post it here when I do!

Readings for this week are Malachi 3:1-4 Philippians 1:3-11 Luke 3:1-6 Last week's Advent 1 readings were about warnings of the End Times - a reminder that God is in charge of human history, and that the coming of Jesus is part of a larger plan. Advent has a timeless quality, in that it relates to then (the birth of Christ), now (our preparations) and what is to come (God's unfolding plan & eventual kingdom in its fulness). Although (due to St Andrew) I didn't have to preach on it, I tried to think about it, as part of celebrating the whole of Advent. This week I'm not preaching at all (due to some social plans - but also a welcome deep breath before the hectic next few weeks), but again I have wanted to think about Advent 2 as a part of the whole. So Malachi reminds us of the astringent nature of God's message and God's messenger - Refiner's fire & fuller's soap. Luke's gospel tells us of the coming of John the Baptist - possibly a man in ne...