Hopes and Fears for the New Year

During today's service we welcomed Steve and Carrie and shared in Oliver's baptism. 

There’s something very special sharing in the baptism of a little one who is just six months old on the first Sunday of a New Year.  There’s the freshness, the wonder, the joy of the new born right at the start of life: and there’s that sense of freshness at the start of a new year with new beginnings and new things stretching out in front of us.

The other side of the coin is that with a new born and with a new year there are hopes and fears, expectations and anxieties about what lies ahead.  What kind of a world is this little one going to grow into?  What will this year bring for us?  If we’re not careful anxieties can squeeze out the sense of wonder.

I think coming together in church on the first Sunday of a New Year when we share in a celebration of baptism, is a recognition that what is at the heart of the Christian faith has something to offer to us in our hopes and fears, in our expectations and anxieties about all that lies ahead.

Oliver is not quite old enough yet … but it won’t be long before he can begin to enjoy some of the delights of Gloucestershire.  One of the real delights at the turn of the year is to go to Slimbridge as we did a couple of years back.  At the end of our afternoon as dusk was falling we made our way to the wonderful observation room overlooking the lake at the back of the visitor centre.  It was feeding time and the person we were watching was giving a wonderful talk as they were feeding the swans.  But that’s not what I found inspirational that day.  He suggested that those who were interested in looking at the starlings could go out and have a look as they were circling in the sky.

I slipped out and saw something I had seen pictures of but never witnessed for myself.  Masses and masses, thousands, tens of thousands perhaps of starlings swirling and whirling through the sky.  It was simply a magnificent sight.

Overwhelmed by the anxieties and the fears of the world around us, it’s no bad thing to look at the wonderful world of nature and somehow those worries and fears fall into place.

One of the things that appeals to me about the Christian faith is that it is down to earth.   Jesus lived in a world that was fraught with fears and anxieties as much as hopes and expectations.  One of those favourite carols we have been singing speaks of the way the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Christ.  To counter those fears and anxieties, he urged his followers to look to that wonderful world of nature and see in it the wonder of God’s creation.

Matthew 6:25-34

 “This is why I tell you: do not be worried about the food and drink you need in order to stay alive, or about clothes for your body. After all, isn't life worth more than food? And isn't the body worth more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds: they do not plant seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren't you worth much more than birds? 27 Can any of you live a bit longer  by worrying about it?

28 “And why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow: they do not work or make clothes for themselves. But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers. 30 It is God who clothes the wild grass—grass that is here today and gone tomorrow, burned up in the oven. Won't he be all the more sure to clothe you? What little faith you have!

31 “So do not start worrying: ‘Where will my food come from? or my drink? or my clothes?’ 32 (These are the things the pagans are always concerned about.) Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things. 33 Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things. 34 So do not worry about tomorrow; it will have enough worries of its own. There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings.

Cecil Alexander wrote a sequence of hymns to illustrate the different aspects of the Christian faith – that sequence began with a celebration of God’s creation – it’s a hymn that’s special in Steve’s family.

Hymn:  283 All things bright and beautiful

The Christian faith then offers us a set of values that in our baptism service we acknowledge are worth handing on to the little ones as they start out on life; but they are values not just for the beginning of life, but for the whole of life, values to celebrate at the start of the year that are actually there for the whole of the year.

Jesus boiled those values down to two basic principles:  Love God and Love your Neighbour.   Recognise that there is a spiritual dimension to life, and live your life for the good of other people.  In that sermon on the mount, in the very next chapter of Matthew’s gospel he boils it down to one main principle that sums everything else up – do to others what you would have others do to you.

Jesus fills out those basic principles in teaching that addresses all sorts of issues, he lives it out as he brings healing wherever people are hurting.  His is a life of compassion and love for others, a life he maps out for us to follow.

One thing he is continually stressing is the need to care especially for those most vulnerable, those rejected by other people, your neighbour includes the ones difficult to get on with, the ones who are at the bottom of the pile.

His values turn on their head many of the values of the world.  There’s one moment when some of his closest friends are arguing among themselves who is the greatest.  It is a classic argument – it is reflected in al sorts of organisations.  You will spot them in any organisation – those who want to get to the top to have positions of power.  My observation would be that they are the ones who don’t really have what it takes.  The truly inspirational leaders who gain the respect of those in their organisation are the ones who have a commitment to service.

It’s interesting to see how Jesus counters that desire of some of his followers to be the greatest for the sake of getting into a position of power and authority.

Mark 9:33-37

33 They came to Capernaum, and after going indoors Jesus asked his disciples, “What were you arguing about on the road?”

 But they would not answer him, because on the road they had been arguing among themselves about who was the greatest.   Jesus sat down, called the twelve disciples, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all.” 36 Then he took a child and had him stand in front of them. He put his arms around him and said to them,   “Whoever welcomes in my name one of these children, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not only me but also the one who sent me.”

 But they would not answer him, because on the road they had been arguing among themselves about who was the greatest.   Jesus sat down, called the twelve disciples, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all.” 36 Then he took a child and had him stand in front of them. He put his arms around him and said to them,   “Whoever welcomes in my name one of these children, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not only me but also the one who sent me.”

 But they would not answer him, because on the road they had been arguing among themselves about who was the greatest.   Jesus sat down, called the twelve disciples, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all.” 36 Then he took a child and had him stand in front of them. He put his arms around him and said to them,   “Whoever welcomes in my name one of these children, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not only me but also the one who sent me.”

Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all.

Then he took a child and made him stand in front of them. He put his arms round him and said to them,  “Whoever welcomes in my name one of these children, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not only me but also the one who sent me.”

From its very beginning in 1827 this church has been committed to working with children.  In a couple of weeks our oldest member will be 100 – Alice Brown recalls going to our Winchcombe Street church at the invitation of a friend and starting to teach in the Sunday School in Grosvenor Street.  There was real need among the youngsters living in those tight-knit streets around there at the time – they would often find youngsters throwing stones at the windows, difficult youngsters.  Alice went on to a life-time of teaching and a passionate concern for children and young people.

It was great to see Steve coming along to our children’s club we run jointly with St Luke’s, Transformers  and then to our Cubs on consecutive nights just before Christmas.  It’s interesting to see the priority the police give to working with youngsters – the churches of Cheltenham have been working closely with the police through Street Pastors in what’s sometimes known as the night-time economy and recently we have been working together on daytime initiatives.  I am a Governor at Pittville and belong to Aston House – so named after PC Aston who worked tirelessly among the young people particularly of Whaddon – the police now support the Aston Project which is based around giving youngsters the opportunity as it were to redeem themselves – through doing community service earning treats that can be quite exciting.  This really is getting to the heart of what society is all about: it’s an example of being prepared to put yourself last of all, put yourself as servant of all – a measure of our worth is a society is how we treat facing the greatest disadvantages, not least the children who are most vulnerable -   Whoever welcomes in my name one of these children welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not only me but also the one who sent me.

To see something of God in each other and in the most vulnerable is at the heart of those values that are not just for the beginning of life but for the whole of life, not just for the beginning of the year but for the whole of the year.

The great thing about that Aston Project is the way it gives youngsters an opportunity to make a new beginning, make a fresh start.

That’s where I want to finish with what is so important at the heart of the Christian Faith.   Christ maps out a wonderful set of values to follow – but then he works with those who fail to live up to those values – and is there to give them a second chance.

Take seriously the values of the Christian faith and we are only too aware that we don’t quite live up to them.  In Christ we see the forgiving love of God reaching out to us always there to give us a second chance, to enable us to begin all over again.  And with that forgiving love, there is a strength that can see us through the most difficult times of all, a strength and a power from beyond ourselves.

No matter what the fears may be for this new year – in our individual lives, maybe around health, or work or loneliness, in our family lives or around us in the community the message at the heart of our Christian faith is that we are not alone.  There is a strength to draw on.

Among the last words Jesus shared with his friends he spoke of leaving them a strength, a comforter, a presence of God – unseen yet very real.  A strength we can be aware of in prayer and in the living of our daily lives..

That to my mind is one of the most precious things the Christian faith has to offer and something that’s not just for a little one but for us all, not just for the beginning of the year but 24 / 7 throughout the whole year.

Look, Listen ... and DO something - a Christmas Day Message

The opening words of John’s gospel will be read at services the world over today.  It is one of the great Christmas readings.  It conveys to me a sense of awe and wonder at the immensity of God’s creation and the glory of God that is beyond our capacity to understand.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

It’s one of those things I find so good to do – to go out into the open, up to the hills, gaze at the stars – somehow it puts things in a different perspective, helps you to get things into proportion.  Where I wonder did I get my enthusiasm for the wonders of the universe?  I guess I would have been about 10 when I was given my first astronomy book – it certainly caught my imagination.  The Observer’s Book of Astronomy – and the author?  Patrick Moore.

19^th December saw the fortieth anniversary of the return of the last of the Apollo Missions to the Moon.  It had been a remarkable achievement – and it brought us all a new perspective on planet earth.

Chrstopher Riley, writing in the Observer last week, told of the occasion when Apollo 9 astronaut, Rusty Schweickart was doing a space walk when his camera jammed and for five minutes he had nothing else to do but look 160 miles beneath him at Planet Earth.

Schweickart's mind-expanding view and the epiphany that it triggered led him to vividly appreciate the insanity of humans fighting over borders that were invisible to him from up there. "Hundreds of people in the Middle East killing each other over some imaginary line that you're not even aware of, that you can't see," he recounted. "And from where you see it, the thing is a whole, and it's so beautiful," he remembered of his view of Earth. "You wish you could take one in each hand, one from each side in the various conflicts, and say, 'Look. Look at it from this perspective. Look at that. What's important?'"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/dec/16/apollo-legacy-moon-space-riley   accessed 21/12/12

A wonderful sentiment – but it begs the question how can we make such a difference?

That takes me back to that Christmas reading and the heart of the Christmas story.

. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 

Right at the outset Luke notices something about Jesus that gives us a clue.  Lost in the temple at 12 his parents find him among the teachers and scholars of the day and he is ‘listening’ and asking them questions.

Jesus listens.

One of the many highlights of that remarkable Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games came well after midnight – it moved me to tears.  For the previous week we had been on holiday and we had managed to watch or listen into a remarkable cycle of all of Beethoven’s nine symphonies at the Proms.  The evening of the Opening Ceremony began for us with the remarkably powerful ninth symphony and the ode to joy.  The conductor, Daniel Barenboim, and the orchestra the West Eatern  Divan orchestra.  An initiative of the Jewish Daniel Barenboim and the Palestian Christian Edward Said to  bring together in an orchestra musicians from across the religious divide, Jewish, Christian, Muslim.

The key to playing in an orchestra is to listen to each other.  Not just listen, but actively listen.  One thing I noticed was the way the players engaged not only with the conductor, but with each other – at times in those televised proms it felt as if the  players were in conversation with each other as they played.  Remarkable.

How wonderful after midnight at the end of that exhilarating Opening Ceremony to see Daniel Barenboim as one of those carrying in the Olympic Flag.

That’s it.  The key to breaking down those barriers is to listen.

At this Christmas may we know the blessing of seeing the world from the perspective of the wonder and awe of the immensity of God’s creation.  May we know the blessing of listening and breaking barriers down.

But there’s something more involved in such blessing.

It’s been great opening the windows on an advent calendar in ourhouse this year.  I have been following through Advent a set of prayer meditations put together by the Church of Scotland from the churches of Palestine and Israel – as they appeal to us in churches throughout the world to be active in our support of their commitment to peace and justice in the land of Jesus’ birth.

There’s no 25^th window on my Advent calendar.  There is a 25^th meditation in my book of prayers.

It is an invitation to us all in churches throughout the world from the churches of Bethlehem and Palestine to think again about what blessing entails.

Jesus was in the business of offering blessing to people.

It’s so easy to think of blessing as something passive.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are you when you are persecuted.

Elias Chacour is a remarkable Palestinian Christian, Archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.  He has devoted a lifetime to seeking to bridge the divide and bring Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish, Christian and Muslim together in understanding of each other.

“How could I go to a persecuted young man in a Palestinian refugee camp, for instance, and say, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”  Or “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven?”  That man would revile me, say neither I nor my God understood his plight, and he would be right.

Elias Chacour speaks the language Jesus spoke, Aramaic, Syriac, a language that survives in small pockets in the middle east.

“When I understand Jesus’ words in the Aramaic [they mean something very different], I translate like this:

“Get up, go ahead, do something, move you who are hungry and thirsty for justice, for you shall  be satisfied.

“Get up, go ahead, do something, move you peacemakers, for you shall be called children of God.

To me, says Elias Chacour, this reflects Jesus’ words and teachings much more accurately.  I can hear him saying, “Get your hands dirty to build a human society for human beings; otherwise, others will torture and murder the poor, the voiceless, and the powerless.”

Christianity is not passive, but active, energetic, alive, going beyond despair.”

Come all you Faithful: An Advent Journey with the Palestinian People (Church of Scotland and Christian Aid, 2012)

Christmas invites us to see the world from a new perspective, to listen to one another and above all to get up, go ahead, do something, move to make a difference in the world.

It’s worth reflecting what is it we can do to make just such a difference?

Christmas Communion

Come and see!  Said Andrew to Peter

Come and see!  Said Philip to Nathanael

Come and see … the word made flesh, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,

Come and see … an ordinary man from Nazareth who is a remarkable teacher

Come and see … the Son of God the King of kings

Come and see!

Christmas is almost upon us … and once again we turn to John’s Gospel.

But today the invitation is subtly different.

In some ways the fourth gospel is the most spiritual of the Gospels.  It’s where you find those wonderful I am sayings of Jesus.  I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

I am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through me.

I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

And yet in other ways the fourth Gospel  is the most tactile, the most concrete, the most down to earth.

Nowhere is that more apparent than at the very end when it comes to John’s account of the resurrection.  You can try it for yourself.  Read through chapters 20 and 21 and underline all the words associated with the senses.

Peter and John SEE the empty tomb, Mary SEES a gardener, HEARS him say her name and is the first to carry the Easter Message of resurrection victory when she tells the other disciples, “I have SEEN the Lord”

The disciples see the risen Christ, hear his words, and then are invited to touch his hands and his side.  Thomas won’t believe unless he sees and feel just how real the risen Christ is.  He does just that and Jesus says, Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

And then it’s on the shore that the dsciples smell the aroma of a charcoal fire as Jesus is preparing a meal – and they eat a breakfast of fish and bread.  Sight and hearing, touch and taste, all five of the senses are there as the disciples smell that charcoal fire.

Christmas is about the spiritual coming down to earth.  It’s about the Word made Flesh and dwelling among us so that we too can SEE his glory.  It’s about the sights and sounds of the city of David.

Not so much, come and see … more taste and see!

It’s an age-old tradition in many a church to have a Christmas communion.

It’s what we are going to do today.

It doesn’t fit with the perception of Christmas as the time of festive fun and games.  Remembering a body broken, blood shed for our sakes?  This isn’t the time or the place is it?   Re-living that last occasion Jesus shared a meal with his closest friends?  Not exactly the comfort and joy Christmas should be about?

I had a lovely time with Min King on Friday.  Min arrived in Cheltenham as part of a staff of not much more than half a dozen in what is now UCAS (the Universities Central Admission Service)  and was then UCCA moved from London to set up in Cheltenham where it has remained ever since.  She was as sprightly as ever (above the waist as she told me she has been telling people) and asked to be remembered to those who would remember her.  She was one of many Joan Lee had kept closely in touch with over the years.  We were talking about Joan’s death, and she made the comment so many make – with the shooting of all those children in the States, the awful things that are happening in Syria and so much tragedy, it doesn’t seem like Christmas.

That’s the point … Christmas is exactly about the cruelties of a vicious world and the difference Christ makes in precisely that kind of world.  It is not an escape from its ugliness, but it’s a confrontation with that ugliness.  It was in the squalor of an empty stable, it was in a town that was to experience its own massacre of young children.

And it took two who were long in years and wise beyond measure to say to Mary even as she and Joseph were presenting the child  in the temple that a sword would pierce her own soul too.

So shouldn’t we have put the chairs back for Joan’s funeral and left them there?  Why bother to set the church out around tables once again.  Shouldn’t we have done communion properly.

For Advent this year we have been looking into John’s Gospel to see just who it is whose coming we celebrate at Christmas.

It’s in John’s Gospel that you begin to realise that Communion is more than a simple re-enactment of the last supper.  It was after all, the last supper, the last in a long sequence of meals that Jesus had shared.

Maybe we should remember all the meals Jesus shared with his disciples and those meals he shared with others too.  They didn’t sit in rows with a table in the far distance.  They sat together round a table.  It was about being together being with each other  and being at one – com meaning with each other – and union meaning at one.  Meals that were a coming together as one – a communion.

Meals that got people round the table with each other talking, sharing, being in fellowship with each other – people who didn’t always eat together.

Jesus was in the business of breaking the rules – Jewish rules that limited the people you could eat with for fear of being unclean – no wonder the purists among the Jewish people of Jesus’ day couldn’t get on with the way Jesus bent the rules to eat with tax collectors and sinners.

Jesus was in the business of breaking the rules of the Roman world where you ate only with people of your own status in society – a Roman citizen eating at table with a slave – never … no barriers like that for Jesus.  He got people sitting round the table and eating together.

You don’t get miracles in John’s gospel – he calls them signs … they are filled with significance.

And the first of those signs is at a meal.  No ordinary meal.  A celebration.  A wedding in Cana of Galilee – and the water becomes wine.  The ordinary everyday becomes special and new.  That’s what’s happening here around the table.  We are celebrating something new that’s in the air.  A new way of looking at the world, a new way of looking at each other.  This is special beyond words.

It’s not long before Jesus is breaking barriers down – over water from the well and in the company of a Woman from Samaria of all places.  And then comes the second sign – and again it’s filled with significance as Jesus heals the son of a royal official – whose whole household is changed in their encounter with Christ.  All are welcome in Jesus’ company.

Then comes the third sign.  And Jesus breaks the rules again – healing someone on the Sabbath.

And the next sign.  A crowd who are hungry and a boy with five barley loaves and two fish.  And all five thousand eat their fill.

What’s going on here – we are already half way to Jerusalem and the final week.

Eating with one another.  Sharing a meal with each other.  It’s what you do.  It’s what you need from one day to the next.

And we need the presence of Christ with us no less.   His presence at the table breaks barriers down, brings us together as one, and sustains us for the task he has set for us to do.

I am the bread of life, he says,  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

And the meal is open to all.

Anyone who comes to me I will never drive away.

And then he presses the point home.

His sustenance is not just for a period.  It is for a life time … and more than that it is for eternity.

Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.

The most spiritual of all things – the message of resurrection victory, the message of eternal life that speaks into the sadnesses that can be so acute at Christmas comes down to earth, and is most tangible as we eat and as we drink.

The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

It is as if those meals Jesus shares with his disciples are a foretaste of the body that is going to be broken of the blood that is going to be shed.

Very truly, I tell you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.

Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.  But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.

And so as we prepare to share in communion around the table – face to face with one another – let’s seek that oneness in Christ that is true comm-union.  Let’s break barriers down.  Let’s rejoice in that eternal life that Jesus promises and let’s follow in his footsteps once more.

Nor room at the inn - an all-age Nativity Service

Nativity Service for 16^th December – Café style

People sat around tables decorated for Christmas and we imagined we were in an inn.

Welcome to the Inn …

[get children sitting on different tables in groups – angels, Mary and Joseph, Shepherds, Wise Men,  Herod and the soldiers.]

It’s great to come together and share in something of a party.  It’s what you do at this time of the year – fun and games, crackers to pull, party hats to wear.  Things to make and fun to share.  Presents to sort out, cards to write.  So much to do at Christmas.

Things to do on the tables – a few of our youngsters are going round to take names of people who are here.

Parties and Pantomimes, Santa Claus too.  All those presents – great time.  The fun, the partying.  And all sorts of songs – carols are dances to go with the partying –

Maybe some non-religious carol like The Twelve Days of Christmas

[As I am talking there are three interruptions

1. Someone knocking on the window, someone goes to find out what’s happening – and interrupts me with a whisper: it's a young couple apparently and I suggest sending them round to the back
2. A second interruption – one of our congregation who lives on a farm has arrived in wellies with a bundle of hay saying there are lots of others outside - they too are sent round the back.
3. A third interruption – maybe on the mobile phone - there’s a delivery, three parcels – they are going to get sent back – can we take them in?  Send them round the back! Someone will sign for them there.

Reading of Poem – Mary’s Shopping list – read by two women’s voices - the one voice is in today's world overwhelmed by the busy-ness of getting ready for all the trivia of Chrsitmas.  The other voice is Mary's anxious about the expected arrival of her little one.

Leader

A reminder of how different it was then.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

No room in the inn – packed full because something was going on.  It wasn’t the happiest of things that was happening.  The Romans had taken control of Galilee and of Judea – they placed a cruel, local ruler in charge – his name was Herod.  Herod the Great.

They forced people to return to their home town … so that they could be listed.  And so it was that masses of people

About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. 

People had crowded into the little town of Bethlehem and stayed wherever they could.

Imagine what it would have been like – crowding into every nook and cranny.  What would it be like if people were herding us together … and then counting us up – it’s one thing having polite young people taking our names.  Imagine what it would have been like … forced to give your names, your personal details, so that the Roman state could take control of your lives.

Sheltering, frightened, not sure of what is going to happen next.  Conscious of a big, old nasty world out there.  Held captive.  Lonely,  feeling as if they weren’t in control, in exile all over again.  Faced with a tyranny.  It felt as if they were plumbing the depths of hell.  It’s  along night.

Yet something is stirring, something is moving, something is happening to change things, to change the world – it’s as if the words of the prophets of old were taking hold …

Isaiah

The people who walked in darkness
   have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
   on them light has shined. 

For a child has been born for us,
   a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
   and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 
His authority shall grow continually,
   and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
   He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
   from this time onwards and for evermore.

Carol:  66 O come, O come Emmanuel

Mary came from up in the North, in Galilee – in the village of Nazareth.  There it was that she had sensed it first, the presence of someone there, speaking to her.

[Mary comes to the front – and the angel too …]

Narrator 1

God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth to a young woman engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the young woman’s name, Mary.

On entering, Gabriel greeted her:

Gabriel

Greetings!
You’re beautiful – with God’s beauty,
Beautiful inside and out!
God be with you.

Narrator

She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her,

Gabriel

 “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.

He will be great,
   and will be called ‘Son of the Highest.’
The Lord God will give him
    the throne of his father David;
He will rule Jacob’s house forever—
    there will be no end, ever, to his kingdom.”

Narrator

Mary said to the angel,

Mary

“But how can this be?

Narrator

³⁵ The angel answered,

Gabriel

The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
    the power of the Highest hover over you;
Therefore, the child you bring to birth
    will be called Holy, Son of God.

Narrator

Mary was overjoyed at the wonderful news and couldn’t keep it to herself.  She knew something was happening, something that would change everything.

Mary

I’m bursting with God’s great, good news;
    I’m dancing the song of my Saviour God.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
    on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
    scattered the proud and the boastful.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
    pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
    the callous rich were left out in the cold.

he remembered his people and piled on the mercies, piled them high.

Leader

Everything was ready.  Joseph was ready too.  And then the news came – it shocked them to the core.

Narrator

About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.

^6-7 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn.

[As this reading is being read Mary and Joseph make their journey around the church … and they go out of the door towards the back of the church.]

Leader

What would it have been like? – arriving in Bethlehem to find there was no room – the anxiety, the fear, mounting deep within their hearts.  And then somewhere – not in the warm where everyone was …  but out in the back, out in the cold.

Carol:  Away in a manger

[During carol Mary and Joseph slip back in and return to their table]

Leader

Generous of someone to find that place in the back, out in the cold.  But not quite so generous of the people who had somewhere comfortable, thank you very much.  The inns were full, packed.  And no one wanted to give up their place.

The night was drawing on, darkness had long since fallen.  It was cold outside.  But there was a disturbance.  The comfortable inn was not going to be left alone.

They were rough and ready – they had come down from the hills.  And they had a strange story to tell.

[go over to the Shepherds’ table – and get the shepherds together – and the angels table too – acting out the story as it is read]

Narrator

There were shepherds sleeping rough out in the fields.  They had set a night watch over their sheep.

Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them.

They were terrified. The angel said,

Gabriel

“Don’t be afraid. I’ve got good news for you.  I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Saviour has just been born in David’s town, a Saviour who is Christ the Lord, the Messiah and the Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.”

Narrator

^13-14 At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:

Angels

Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.

^15-18 As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the shepherds talked it over.

Shepherd

“Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.”

Leader

They left, running at full speed.

Was that the disturbance those folk in the inn felt?  What were all these others doing and so late too.

They too went out to the back – [shepherds go out to the back]

 and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger

Carol:  94 While shepherds watched their flocks by night

[during carol shepherds slip back in and go to their table]

Leader

What did the authorities make of it all?  Did they share the delight, the joy.  Or were they unsettled by it all?

Herod and the soldiers were in the palace Herod had built.   Their power was impregnable.  Or was it?

Were the crowds still there?  Were they troubled by the threat the soldiers posed?  Far in the east there were Kings – were they?  Wise Men?  Maybe.  Magi?  Strange word.  Maybe they were scholars, people who studied the skies, and studied the world and its ways.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory— this was during Herod’s kingship—a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked around, “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on pilgrimage to worship him.”

You would have thought this would be exciting.  A wonderful message.  Something to rejoice at.

It was actually happening.

One set of people were not amused.  This was a threat to the Roman puppet king, to Herod.  It was a threat that filled him with fear.

Narrator

^3-4 When word of their inquiry got to Herod, he was terrified—and not Herod alone, but most of Jerusalem as well.

The people of that city knew that if Herod felt threatened, they all had good cause to be frightened.

 Herod lost no time. He gathered all the high priests and religion scholars in the city together and asked,

Herod

 “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

^5-6 They told him,

Wise Man 1

 “Bethlehem, Judah territory. The prophet Micah wrote it plainly:

Wise Man 2

It’s you, Bethlehem, in Judah’s land,
    no longer bringing up the rear.
From you will come the leader
    who will shepherd-rule my people, my Israel.”

Narrator

^7-8 Herod then arranged a secret meeting with the scholars from the East.

He had formed a plot.  He had a secret plan.

Pretending to be as devout as they were, he got them to tell him exactly when the birth-announcement star appeared. Then he told them the prophecy about Bethlehem, and said,

Herod

 “Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I’ll join you at once in your worship.”

^9-10 Instructed by the king, they set off. Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time!

¹¹ They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcome, they kneeled and worshiped him. Then they opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh.

[The Wise Men go out the back]

Leader introduces …

Carol:  See him lying on a bed of straw

Leader

During the carol we build up a tableau on the platform of everyone taking part, finishing with the Wise Men who come from the back]

That’s something worth celebrating – great ending to the story.

The shepherds went back singing praises to God and telling everyone all they had seen.

Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the shepherds were amazed.

Narrator

^19-20 Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The shepherds returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told!

[The shepherds return to their places.  And the angels too]

Narrator

Those scholars, however, knew that something was not right … they were fearful of Herod the Great and of those soldiers of his.  Rightly so.

In a dream, they were warned not to report back to Herod. So they worked out another route, left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country.

[The Wise Men return to their places]

Narrator

That left Mary and Joseph … they too were fearful of what would happen next.

After the scholars were gone, God’s angel showed up again in Joseph’s dream and commanded,

Gabriel

 “Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him.”

Narrator

^14-15 Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod’s death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: “I called my son out of Egypt.”

[Mary and Joseph and the Christ child return to their places]

Leader

It was still a dark world.  When Herod realized he had been tricked he was incensed.  It was a devastating time in that small place.

And the Christ child grew

He lived a life of love and mapped out a life for all to live

With love for God and love for neighbour and love for enemy too

He brought healing into a hurting world.

He did not escape the suffering of the world.

He opened up a way through the suffering of the world

Into the glory of God’s eternal love

2000 years on as we meet together here it’s good to party, but it’s good to remember the ones who interrupt our partying.  Not to forget them.

Who is it knocking on our windows?

Who is it with muck on their shoes because they have been in the muckiness of the world? 

Who has gifts to share?

Could it be the children in Kerala state that we are going to be supporting in our Christmas Collection finding a home for someone who is homeless?

Maybe it’s someone closer to home? – someone supported by CCP’s foodshare programme and someone in need of our help too.

What gifts are we going to share 2000 years on? – What charities are we individually going to support this Christmas?  What are those more personal gifts each of us has that we could use for God and for other people in 2013?

Is God Himself knocking on your door to interrupt your life and come closer to you?

Carol:  We’re told he was born at a Bethlehem Inn

Prayer – Leader and Offering

Carol: 600 in the bleak mid winter

Blessing

Come and See Just who God Is

You’ve been waiting for ages and then two come along at once.

What is true of buses may also be true of James Bond movies.

We knew one was to be released in the Autumn, but none of us knew what Danny Boyle had in store for us in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

It was too good to be true … as James Bond made his way solemnly through the corridors of Buckingham Palace, entering the state apartments.  The woman in the salmon pink dress with her back to us, was it Helen Mirren or … and then when she turned round and it turned out to be the Queen herself, that really was the icing on the cake of a wonderful opening ceremony.

But that was not all!

She accompanied James Bond into a helicopter and then we saw her in that same dress leaping in the company of that special agent and parachuting into the stadium.  Maybe that bit was played by a stunt man!!!

But when she took her seat in the same dress that was clever!

I read this week an interesting observation.  When the Bond movie was eventually released was its director                       also having fun and inviting us to make connections with the Opening Ceremony.

The name of the Bond movie Sky Fall took us right back to the leap from the helicopter.  Even the location of the actual Sky Fall took us into the wilds of the Scottish moors that could almost have been in the grounds of Balmoral!!!

I then spotted another link.  And I couldn’t’ help but share it with Matthew and Adam.  Do you remember I set a quiz at a Parade Service asking them to find out the lines of the poem that was to be placed on a wall in the Olympic Village by Tennyson.   Adam Matthew and James button holed me after the service with the answer – and I eventually awarded them a prize of a Gold medallist stamp of Bradley Wiggins and a collage that included the quotation from Tennyson’s Ulysees

That which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

It seemed almost to be her swan song speech when Judi Dench, once more playing the part of M, had to appear before a House of Commons Select Committee.  The speech she gave was strangely moving.

And what should be the quotation she drew on … but those very words from Tennyson.

I have a hunch that wasn’t just coincidence – both Danny Boyle directing the Olympic Opening Ceeremonoy and the director of the James Bond Movie were playing games with us – making connections and references to and fro the same events.

Fanciful? – that’s how good film making works.  It’s how books too are constructed.

And interestingly the Gospels are wonderfully crafted pieces of writing that use themes in such a way.

As Advent unfolds we are turning to John’s Gospel.

There’s something exciting in the air as the Gospel opens.  People come on stage and point to Jesus, the Word of God made flesh and bones, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the teacher, the saviour, the king – so many ways of thinking of Jesus.

This is exciting.  It’s intriguing.  It makes you want to find out more.

Look.  Watch.  See.   Those words are repeated.

And one phrase sticks in the mind.

Andrew to his brother.

Philip to his friend.

Come and see.

Don’t be content with what I have to say.

Come and see for yourself.

It’s not long before Jesus enables someone who is born unable to see, actually to see.

In things Jesus does and in things he says John makes us very aware that there is something worth seeing here.  And we need to see it for ourselves.

Indeed the likes of Philip stick with Jesus – they see him doing remarkable things.  They hear him saying remarkable things.  And they see for themselves.

And then the Gospel story draws towards its climax.

The night of Jesus’ arrest he meets with his friends and they are with him once more.

And he has wonderful words to share with them.  There is a note of calm in Jesus’ voice.  No wonder, those friends sense the mounting anxiety of what is in store.

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.   In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

Notice the sequence of thought.

Calm does away with fear.

Believe in God.  That’s something loads of people do.  In some way.  In some religious form or other.  But Jesus extends an invitation.

Believe in God.    Believe also in me.

It is through Jesus that we then see things in a different way.  And in particular we see God in a different way.

The conversation goes on and then Jesus says something remarkable.  Pay careful attention to the words.

‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

It is significant that it is through Jesus that we come to be able to see God as Father and enter into a relationship with him in the closest of possible ways.

Then Jesus says something remarkable.

If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

What a difference that would make if we could only see God.

This is a running theme through the Gospel.

And by now it is too much for Philip.

He may have told Nathanael, Come and See.

But he still feels something is missing.

Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 

Philip longs to see God.

See Jesus and you see God as he really is.

The focus is on Jesus.

What a difference that makes.

And then it makes a difference to our lives as well.

For then as we see God in this way we too can share in those acts of love that make such a world of difference that Jesus himself did.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

The gospel unfolds further.

Jesus goes to his death.  The grave cannot contain him.  He rises again to life. Track through those resurrection accounts and time and again John emphasises that people ‘see’ for themselves, they hear, the taste, they touch.  This Jesus is real.

Come and see is such a refrain.

Until you get to the very end.

And then comes what for me is one of the greatest lines in the Gospel.

Thomas it is who needs to see before he can believe.

And he does see.  And he does see.

And then Jesus says.

Have you belived because you have seen me?  B lessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to  believe.”

Jesus was real.

So many people Saw.

But we too can share in the presence of God with us – even when we have not seen.  For we too can believe.

Come and see!

He’d said it to his friend.

At first it seemed so clear.

But then the questions started.

And now the questions overwhelmed.

Just show me.

Let me see.

Let me be sure.

Come and see in jesus just who this God is

A Father filled with love,

Such love as the world cannot give

Such love as the world cannot take away.