Sunday's coming!

Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11 So now with three candles lit on the Advent ring we have to admit that December the 25 th really is nearly here, and we don’t have much longer to prepare ourselves for Christmas and all that it will bring. Isaiah brings us the promise of the Good News of God’s coming. This will be good news for the oppressed, the broken-hearted, the captive, the prisoner, and those who mourn. Isaiah promises a day of good news for those who long for justice, blessing and joy. Prophesying to people who were probably standing in the ruins of their city, Jerusalem, wondering how they would ever get life back to normal, Isaiah promises that God will come and all will be well. This city will once again be God’s city, this place will once again be God’s place. It might not look like it to the people of God who have returned from exile, but even in the midst of the rubble, God promises he is at work and his messenger is told to declare good news. ...

Isaiah 40: 1-11, Mark 1: 1-8 Today’s reading from Isaiah starts with the words that are the first you hear in Handel’s Messiah: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God”. Of all the things our world needs for Christmas, maybe “Comfort” should be top of the list. The weather finally feels wintry, so I’m sure I’m not the only one who has turned to comfort food, comfy warm clothes & seeking the warmth and comfort of home after a hard day. And if this week, in your warm home at the end of a cold day, you have turned on the radio or the TV, or read a newspaper, you may be more in need of comfort than ever. Tragedies – for families, for whole countries, for the most vulnerable, abound: the terrible story of the death of Charlotte Bevan and her baby daughter in the Avon Gorge; continued suffering in Syria, talk of financial cuts that will take social services down to the lowest level since the 1930s. It seems our world is in a terrible state. W...