Advent day 18 - Creator

You will need your smart phone - enabled with the Aurasma app - for this meditation on Freedom from the Traces of Advent team...

Advent Podcast

Advent day 16 - Lighten our darkness...

Do you ever have a really deep seated sense of longing? A yearning, almost an aching? Something tangible, physical.  For some of us it might be for someone we love when we are apart from them. For some of us it might be for a particular place or landscape. For others of us still it might be for a time in the future when things will be different, better, fairer, freer, more just. That sense of just not being complete unless we are there in that place, in that time with that person.

This is the sound that Advent should ring long and deep within our hearts; that insistent tolling, reminding us that with God, the best is yet to come. Things can only get better - and no not in a glib, political, well advertised, slick sort of a way, but one where the fabric of our world is transformed by God and the topography of our innermost souls is transfigured. Change is coming.

The royal purple cloak of Advent, symbolising the coming of God as King and our need of Him because of our brokenness is lightened by the bright beams of hope especially today - hence the pink - rejoice, celebrate, be happy, the change you long and yearn for is coming!

This is the message of John the Baptist to us. But John is significant, not because of what he is, but because of what he’s not.

What is important about John is not his political or religious significance but rather his lack of significance. What is denied about John is extraordinary: he was not the light, he is not the Christ, he is not Elijah, he is not the prophet, he is untrustworthy to untie the sandal of the one coming after him, whilst he baptises with water the one coming after him will baptise with the Holy Spirit, he is not the bridegroom, he must increase so I can decrease. The subordination of John to Jesus shows how important it is that we get their relationship straight. John’s significance is gained only by being one chosen and sent by God to point toward the the One who would bring in God’s long yearned for change.

The other thing we know about John is that he is a witness and gives testimony. This is language of the law court, and in Advent, a trial is underway.  But it is not Jesus who is on trial but us, our world, it’s leaders, our drives and motives, our lives and lifestyles, our choices. As God comes amongst us, returning as a longed for lover, are we still the people He fell in love with at the first moment of Creation?

Did you see the moon on Friday night? Round beautiful and full. It was one of those rare occasions where it feels so close that you could almost reach out and grab it. In areas without too much light polution, the effect was apparently quite stunning – and the amazing thing about the moon, of course, is that of itself it has no light at all.  The moon shines only with the reflected light of the sun.

And here John the Baptist stands as the moon, to the sun that is Jesus.  He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness to that light.  Like Friday’s moon, he shone more brightly that those who had gone before him, but he was not that light.  He bore witness because he too shone with reflected glory….and he was in no doubt that his role in the gospel was not centre stage. In the account we have just heard, John is not called "the Baptist". The emphasis is on his witness.  His calling was to be a sign, pointing the way to Jesus.

Jesus’ coming demands a decision on our part. His signs are too powerful to ignore. He is either at least a prophet or a false prophet who must die. He claims authority which is Gods, and therefore is either a blasphemer and deserves death - or he speaks the truth.

The moon’s light comes from the sun. Similarly John refers us still to Jesus. Like the sun, light, Jesus, shines, and is either welcome as it shows goodness and Godness in our lives; or it is unwelcome as it exposes things in our lives and reveals us as we really are.

John is a witness to the truth of all that God is doing in and through Jesus. We need to decide for ourselves who He is. As we stand on the cusp of a soft focus crib scene - who will this baby grow to be? C.S Lewis put it well...

‘...I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to...’

John’s testimony to who Jesus is, challenges us still to react - who is he? The intrusion of Light into the world will not leave things as they are - we must decide. Our decision puts everything at stake...

Advent Day 11

He was a young man, caught in the web of drug addiction. She was the pharmacist who with genuine love and care dispensed the daily dose of Methadone to people yearning to break free from the effects of drugs. He shared with her his desire to re-order his life, to become free of the paralysing effects of addiction. His spoke of his hope for a new beginning. Suddenly he stopped coming. She wondered about him. Where was he? She watched and waited but he never returned.

Years passed. One day her son invited a friend home for an evening meal. When she opened the door, standing before her was the young man of earlier years. Healthy and well, he now worked as a social worker with others caught in the grip of addiction. He shared how her words, like an arrow, had struck his heart, opening him to reform, freedom and hope.

John the Baptist, the arrow in God’s quiver, waited in the wilderness. At the appointed time he was sprung forth from God’s bow. John pointed a people who lived in dread and uncertainty to a greater power and a greater love revealed in the person of Jesus.

Can you find yourself among the many people who went out to meet and welcome John’s message? What might John say to you?

In what way this week might you become the arrow in God’s hand, the messenger calling people to hope and love and to the reform of social injustices?

Taken from the marvellous and inspiring Sacred Space site

Advent day 10: The Word as as Wordle

Here is the word cloud I made of this Sunday's Gospel read ing which you can read by clicking here

Advent day 9: Bethlehemian Rhapsody

This is doing the rounds on Facebook and Twitter and I thought I would share it here... Enjoy!

Advent II - Sunday Podcast

Advent day 8: The Gospel According to L'Oreal

We live in an immediate world - instant food, instant info available on the internet, instant winners with our lottery mentality. What we want, we want now and we are not prepared to wait for it. We are encouraged to live for ourselves, to live in the now, to live as if no-one else mattered - and we reinforce this mentality when we begin to take seriously advertising stap lines that say things like ‘Because you’re worth it!’

Yet for most of us right at the moment, very little, in reality, is instant. We may not instantly get a pay rise, we may not instantly get a job, we may not instantly be able to afford the new TV or foreign holiday, the bank may not instantly extend our overdraft. Yet we expect our, our nation’s and our world’s ills to be sorted out in the blink of an eye - and we don’t like it much when they seemingly can’t be, because you’re worth it! You and I deserve so much more, so much better. Don’t we. Don’t we?

This morning’s Gospel reading comes from Mark’s Gospel. It’s a very 21st century account of Jesus’ life - it’s short and instant. It doesn’t faff around with stories of angels, babies, shepherds and visiting wise men. It cuts straight to the chase. Mark, almost understanding our need for instant answers even tells us that what he’s about to write is about Jesus, whom he names right at the beginning as the Messiah, the Son of God. This is no slow burning page turner. Mark has shown us the last page of the book right at the beginning - Jesus is God’s chosen one come to transform us and our world.

Then bam! Immediately we are flung into the wilderness with this odd man John the Baptist calling people to repent through baptism. To change their lives, before the coming of another person. We know that this other person is Jesus, who’s coming we are in the midst of preparing for and at this time of year we are in the midst of (frenetically) readying our homes and our lives for Christmas.

John called people then, and us this Advent, to repentance. Repentance is so much more than being really really sorry. It involves imagining something you regret and imagining it as an object in the middle of the road and you are walking towards it. Repentance is acknowledging that it’s there, and then walking away from it, resolving never to go there again. In our immediate world, this is hard as it’s something we cannot rush mostly because it is something we probably want to avoid it altogether. We do not like change. Certainly not this sort of change.  It is much easier to make excuses and continue on business as usual. It takes time and courage to even realise that things could and should be better. This morning, this Advent, John encourages us to change our lives in readiness for the coming of Christ, because it is only He who can change our hearts by the power of His Holy Spirit. Repentance is not walking away in failure thinking we cannot do it. Repentance is profoundly hopeful - it is about acknowledging that where we cannot and when we cannot change, God can.

My experience is though, if you scratch beneath the surface, all of us do want change. We want better homes, lives, cars, jobs, livelihoods, better fitness, better looks, a better world in which to live, better politics, better hospitals, better schools, better relationships with our family and friends and so on - and we want it now. Peace in nations begins with peace in people.  Free nations begins with free people.  Liberation of lands and political systems begins with liberating the human heart, and all of that can only come in time, in God’s time.

John met people in the wilderness - not a desert but a place with few resources, but a place where people had to rely on God, where they met him, often powerfully. In the 4th Century there were many Christians who withdrew to the wilderness to find God. Some of them became wise leaders and were referred to as “Abba”. One such Abba lived high in the mountains and a young man wished to be taught by him and so set off early to find the Abba. He climbed for hours to reach the cave in the mountain and when he arrived he found the cave with few possessions, but amongst them were a water jug and bowl. The Abba didn’t acknowledge him but was silent in prayer so the young man sat down and waited. One hour passed, and then another and then another. He became frustrated and worried that he would have to return home soon before it became dark, so he said “Abba, are you not going to teach me anything?” The Abba arose and poured water from the jug into the bowl and said “What do you see?” The young man looked into the bowl and replied “I see dirty water”. The Abba fell silent again for another hour and then repeated the question “What do you see?” The young man looked into the bowl again and replied “I see my face.”

We can’t do anything about answering John’s call to repentance until we see ourselves as we really are, until we realise that we need God to make us to be the people He and we long to be, deep down.  In doing that, we open ourselves up to the one who is to come, the one whom John didn’t feel worthy to be even in the presence of, the one by whose Holy Spirt even our hearts can be changed - Jesus - who can transform us from the inside out - because He believes we’re worth it. Amen.

h/t to Lesley for some pointers and hints in this sermon....

Advent day 7 - The word as a wordle for Advent II

Tomorrow's Gospel reading from Mark 1:1-8 as a word cloud...

The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

   “I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”—
3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”

 4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

The key to the good news about Jesus the Messaiah the Son of God, begins with recognising that we are not the centre of the universe, that we are not all that matters. As we stumble through the spiritual and emotional wilderness that our lives so often are, we are confronted, by God, with our deepest longings - to be made new, to be better people.

Advent is not self-help in spiritual clothing. Advent is about us getting our house in order as far as we are each able, but God doing the rest.

Advent day 6: Advent begins where we are...

I pinched this post off the marvellous Visual Theology blog - thank you Dave Perry, your photos paint words and your words fire imaginations...

 

 

 

The Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj takes the idioms of classical Graeco-Roman sculpture and gives them a thoroughly postmodern twist by emphasising the fragile, damaged nature of our humanity as opposed to its idealised perfection. As such his representations invite self-recognition, acceptance and empathy in the mind of the viewer. Mitoraj's imperfect marble figures draw us into an awareness of the solidarity of our collective brokenness as individuals. His magnificent Héros de Lumière (Hero of Light), currently on display at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park,  exemplifies this artistic trait to the full.

It is therefore a perfect image with which to begin Advent. It is into this sorry state, this brutal reality, this damaged, broken and fractured sense of self and of the other that our Advent promises speak. Because it is from this place of abject truth that the Advent journey has to begin. Not from some errant and skewed sense of perfection, or from an idealised image of who we are, as individuals, societies or nations. Hero of Light depicts neither fantasy nor illusion, rather it says here is where you are. It is only from here that you can journey to Bethlehem. Depart from anywhere else and your travelling will be in vain; a futile exercise in vanity.

The biblical texts could not be clearer on this point: "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness" (Mark 1:3) and "A voice cries out: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord'" (Isaiah 40:3) both direct us to the startpoint of our Advent pilgrimage. The wilderness and wildness of the human condition in all its fragile, imperfect beauty is where love speaks to us by name. And as God's beloved we are invited to make the promises our own; to take them to heart and believe them. Like this, as this, nothing less than this; from this sacred place of grace we set out again, or maybe for the first time, to discover Christ, the light of the world.

 

Advent day 5

You'll need your Aurasma enabled smart phone to get the most out of today's post... As usual, a h/t to the Traces of Advent team...

30th November (Feast of St Andrew) - Advent day 4

 A shot of Alter Bridge on stage last night at Wembly Arena.

'...On this day I see clearly everything has come to life

A bitter place and a broken dream
And we'll leave it all behind.

On this day its so real to me
Everything has come to life
Another chance to chase a dream
Another chance to feel

Chance to feel alive...'

The lyrics above are from the Alter Bridge's song 'Metalingus.' Members of the band have been influenced by the teaching of Jesus over the years and, for me at least, this song sums up God's longing and ours made present, raw and real in this season of Advent...

It may not be your cup of tea but it is mine, and here's a live version...

November 29th - Advent day 3

I was re-reading an interview in the New York Times by Arthur Lubow with the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. It got me thinking...

'...Emigrating from the Soviet Union to the West in January 1980 with his wife, Nora, and their two small sons, the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt was stopped by border police at the Brest railroad station for a luggage search. “We had only seven suitcases, full of my scores, records and tapes,” he recalled recently. “They said, ‘Let’s listen.’ It was a big station. No one else was there. We took my record player and played ‘Cantus.’ It was like liturgy. Then they played another record, ‘Missa Syllabica.’ They were so friendly to us. I think it is the first time in the history of the Soviet Union that the police are friendly.” He was joking, but not entirely. Later, when I asked Nora about that strange scene at the border, she said, “I saw the power of music to transform people.”...'

 Elsewhere in the interview, Pärt talks about how for him there is no distinction between religion and life. His music is, and our lives should be, a response, an outpouring to God. And yet, what lies behind religion, the life of faith, in his case his music, opens a door and allows the Divine to encounter us and us to encounter the Divine.

'...“There is a good rule in spiritual life, which we all forget continually,” he said, “that you must see more of your own sins than other people’s.” He remarked that the sum of human sin has been growing since Adam’s time, and we all share some of the blame. “So I think everyone must say to himself, ‘We must change our thinking.’ We cannot see what is in the heart of another person. Maybe he is a holy man, and I can see only that he is wearing a wrong jacket."...'

Advent is a gift. A God given opportunity to stop and reflect. I found myself moved by a sermon a friend, Angi Nutt, preached last Sunday. Her opening words are from John 1 and then she went on to say...

'...The Word Became Flesh and Dwelt among us
Quite literally, “ pitched his tent” among us,
Some translations use “ made his home”
 

The key is presence –God, made man, not on the edges, not watching, but fully present, camped out with us, making his presence known and felt.

Sometimes that presence was welcome, and at other times, less so…
 

I’ve been closely following the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest at St Pauls Cathedral – a protest of presence –tents pitched, people. Making their voice heard, living among those to whom they speak, camped at the banks, at the Stock Exchange. Present. There.

Sometimes this presence has been welcomed by some. At other times they have been clearly unwelcome. Perhaps because of the message, or the way they are. Ragbag tents and canvas universities are not how democracy works here? Or is it?
 
Over the last few weeks we’ve been hearing in the Gospel readings about the Kingdom of God, what the kingdom is like, Jesus’s idea of the Kingdom of God turns things on their heads,
His Kingdom is not about power and pomp and ceremony, it’s not about wealth and majesty.
 
Jesus taught about a Kingdom where God’s love matters, where things are turned on their heads, where the last shall be first and the little children welcomed.
It’s about changed lives, restored relationship...'

Advent is about restoration and renewing. It is a season of hope.

In the days that lie ahead, the church tells afresh of the God who pitches his tent among us, present with us, coaxing, quietly challenging us to change, to live, to love. Advent is about self examination, but only to the end that, we can ensure that our hearts and lives are a place fit to recognise the One who is already amongst us.  It is an opportunity to long for transformation and to know that, in God in Christ, it does, it will come.

November 28th - Advent day 2

I think this just about sums up the season...

Advent Sunday: Podcast

Here is this morning's sermon for Advent Sunday...

Come

Here is the first of a few images made available via 12 Baskets from Traces of Advent .

To use it you will need to use the Aurasma app on your iPhone of Android smartphone. To learn more click here

Advent Sunday 2011

In the hills of northern Spain stands an old church with a very unusual statue of Mary in it.  Down in the crypt she stands - La Madona de la O - the O Madonna or Advent Madonna.  She stands in late pregnancy, heavy with child and full of hope for the future.  Her pregnant fullness quietly announces God’s love for the world.

It is this Mary, blooming in late pregnancy, that also represents the church as she enters Advent.  We like Mary are anticipatingly awaiting the arrival of her Son.  We, like her, are filled with hope because of the child she will bear.  The Advent church, with Mary, long for justice for the world, through this child whose name means ‘saviour.’  We, like Mary, know that with God this sense of hope and longing has a personal edge that affects us - it brings us into the searing light of God’s judgement, it calls us to change, and yet fills us with pregnant joy that the fulfilled hopes of God and us rest in this unborn child.  As we prepare to greet the Christ child - how should I be?

Hopeful.  Advent is the season where we long for God’s coming to us.  For centuries faithful men and women throughout the Old Testament had watched and waited for God to come and liberate his people - freeing them from oppression, slavery, and occupation.   With the angel’s words to her, Mary knew that generations of waiting were soon to be over.  In this holy season as we anticipate remembering God coming to our world bringing justice and judegement, we need to be hopeful that God has moved the constant battle with evil and suffering, into it’s endgame. 

The coming Christ is the one who can open the gateway closed by God at Eden because of sin and who stands at the door open in heaven inviting us in.  In Advent, Christ is called the Key of David - a symbol of authority at the palace of Jerusalem - and it’s bearer had the authority to admit people into the royal presence.  The key in question was a cumbersome affair carried on the shoulders, and the analogy between key and cross cannot be downplayed.

With the coming of God comes wild hope, but not a crazy utopian dream.  Peace in nations begins with peace in people.  Free nations begins with free people.  Liberation of lands and political systems begins with liberating the human heart.  Advent people are hopeful people, people who know that it is only the coming Christ child who can unlock the doorway to God and the doorway to humanity as God created it to be.

Trusting.  Mary’s words to the angel. “Let it be to me according to your word.’ show a radical obedience to the will of God.  In this holy season, as we anticipate remembering God coming into our world - restoring, healing - we too need to become people who trust God.  As God entrusts himself to his creation in the vulnerability of a helpless baby, so we need to entrust ourselves to his will.  In advent, Mary reminds us that her trust is not a blind acceptance.  All that she had been told would happen had happened.

We need to trust God, as incredulous and unlikely as that might seem.  God is trustworthy and true and does not revoke his promises.  In Christ, all God’s promises already in place.  His first coming at the Incarnation confirmed the reliability of all the Old testament prophesies.  The enduring presence of of the Holy Spirit in his church, by which the endgame has begun, assures us that he will return again.  God’s future has begun, here, now. 

With the coming of God comes a need to trust him, but not a crazy utopian dream.  What Mary knew, we must know.  God has consistently proved himself to be faithful through the pages of scripture and the lives of men and women over the ages, all that Mary heard from the angel she saw fulfilled.  Advent people are trusting people, people who have come to know that trusting God is not a last resort when all else fails, but the place to start. 

Proclaiming.  Mary’s words ‘My soul magnifies the Lord!’ remind that Advent’s purpose is to proclaim God in a world that largely ignores him.  As a tiny baby, that is to say so unobtrusive in his humility, he needs to be magnified to been seen.  In a world that ignores him and yet needs him more and more - the we need to sing the Magnificat in our live all the more loudly.  In a world that gives status dependent on wealth, on body image, on clothing, yet longs for love, forgiveness, healing and hope, we need to proclaim him all the more.

Advent longs for coming of God to us, but it also is the time to remind us that God waits for our coming to him.  At the incarnation he comes to us and will come again at the end of time, in the meantime he watches out like the father of the prodigal son -  waiting to embrace us in eternal love.

Advent calls us to hear the hope of God, to trust Him and proclaim that hope - that things in our world and in our lives will not only be restored, but that God will do a new thing in us and amongst us personally and globally. Advent must be time to cry to God about the injustice of war, of debt, of a climate change, but also to expect, with sure hope, that God will bring a new spring shoot of faithfulness to grow in us, so that through us our world and our lives together can be transformed. Friends I still hope that the world would be a better place and that my life would and could be better - in Advent God reminds me that it will be. That’s not wild hope. That’s certain hope. Amen