Emmanuel Church, Bungay, Suffolk

The Minister's Sermons

"Advent Sunday " by Revd Bruce Waldron - 28th November 2004
It's a day when we think about the coming of Christ, but often in the rush of Christmas preparations, we let these events in the Christian calendar slip by without much real significance in our faith journey. So - what I'm hoping to accomplish this morning is to help us think about Advent in a way that might make it a little more meaningful and significant, which is why the Church decided to invent advent in the first place.
In Advent, we particularly remember that God sent Jesus into the world to show us the way to live, to help us understand what God is like, and to know more clearly what God wants from us. People used to live in fear that if they didn't get all the rituals and behaviours right, they would upset God and God would punish them. So they had to do all sorts of odd things to keep God happy and make up for their shortcomings.
Some people still do this, very quietly and a little fearfully, scared that if they do it wrong, God will punish them, scared that when things do go wrong it is because they might have erred against God in some matter. The reality is we all err to some extent, so it's easy for us to find so called reasons to feel like its our fault if misfortune occurs, and to lay the origins of misfortune at God's feet.
Jesus showed us a totally different picture of God. God isn't sitting there ready to pounce the moment we make a mistake. Rather, God is at hand to help us find out how to live so that our lives are as creative and blessing filled for ourselves and for others, as is humanly possible - and maybe even a little more. God already loves us deeply and its very hard to push God away. In fact, God is always working to bring us back to that very close relationship that Jesus modelled, and to which Christian faith is always striving.
So begins the Advent Season. If you are of that kind of tradition that uses liturgical colours, it's marked in the Christian year by the colour purple. That means it's a penitential season - a time for self examination. John the Baptist called out to his audiences "Prepare the way of the Lord. Get ready. Straighten up your ways."
Someone gave me a glass last year with a picture of Jesus standing at the door of a house, knocking. Underneath was the caption "Jesus is coming. Look busy."
Over the last few weeks I've had cause to reflect on that theme. And I like being busy. But sometimes you can get so busy that you forget to pay attention to what sort of person you are supposed to be in all this busyness, and Christmas time can be the worst for getting wrapped up in a mad scurry of jobs.
The way we are is just as important as the things we do. Some of the most busy people I've known did an enormous lot of work and then undid all the good that could have come out of it by the manner of their behaviour with others. Their work turned into a negative rather than a positive because they didn't learn the grace and gentleness that is a vital part of any Christian work. This grace and gentleness comes out of the depth of our relationship with God.
The President of the Methodist Conference sent us Ministers a letter the other day, reminding us how important it was that Ministers didn't get so wrapped up in their function that they forgot who they were supposed to be and how they are supposed to be. As he pointed out, if you get too wrapped up in yourself as someone who does things, then if something goes wrong with your doing you've got nothing left to fall back on. You need roots that aren't embedding in function but in faith and identity as God's person.
It is important to recognize that if we are taking our Christian walk seriously, it isn't just a matter of what we should be doing for God, but the Spirit in which we do it. Do our actions help others to feel loved by God, and by us as God's representatives? Do our words show that we have time not just for the task - but for the people for whom the task is done. Do we take sufficient time to be with God so that our relationships carry the grace, the love and the peace that we are sent out with in the words of the blessing at the end of each Worship Service.
That's one way in which we are being called to prepare for Christmas. It's all about listening and becoming.
That becomes all the more poignant when you think of all the things we have to do for Christmas. There's the present buying, the card writing, the church fayre, the Carols services, the decorations, the Christmas Dinner, the Christmas Parties …. To take some time in the middle of all this and to reflect on our readiness to welcome Christ - the whole purpose of Advent - can get a bit lost. So, could we make a point being a bit intentional in using this Advent time?
I'm indebted to Sheila who provided me with this wonderful poem last week. I was going to use it at tonight's service but it seemed so applicable to what I felt called to share with you this morning, about Advent and Christmas.
Stephen is preaching tonight and I expect he'll have something quite different to say to you. So, here's the poem, written by John Betjeman
	The advent wind begins to stir with sea like sounds in our Scotch fir, Its dark at breakfast, dark at tea, and in between - we only see clouds hurrying across the sky and rain wet roads the wind blows dry and branches bending to the gale against great grey skies all silver pale.
	The world seems travelling into space and travelling at a faster pace than in the leisured summer weather when we, and it, sit out together. For now we feel the world spin round on some momentous journey bound. Journey to what? To whom? To where? The advent bells call out "Prepare!"
	Your world is journeying to the birth of God, made Man, for us on earth. And how, in fact, do we prepare for the great day that waits us there, the twenty fifth day of December, the birth of Christ?
	For some it means an interchange of hunting scenes on coloured cards. And I remember last year I sent out twenty yards, laid end to end, of Christmas cards, to people that I scarcely know. They'd sent a card to me, and so I had to send one back. Oh dear! Is this a form of Christmas cheer? Or is it, which is less surprising, my pride gone in for advertising?
	The only cards that really count are that extremely small amount from real friends who keep in touch and are not rich, but love us very much. Some ways indeed are very odd by which we hail the birth of God. We raise the price of things in shops. We give plain boxes fancy tops - and lines which traders cannot sell, thus parcelled, go extremely well. We dole out bribes we call a present to those to whom we must be pleasant for business reasons. Our defence is; these bribes are charged against expenses and bring relief in Income Tax. Enough of these unworthy cracks!
	The time draws near - the birth of Christ: a present that cannot be priced, given two thousand years ago. Yet if God had not given so, he still would be a distant stranger, and not a baby in a manger
If God had not given so, he still would be a distant stranger, and not a baby in a manger. God doesn't intend to be a distant stranger. God intends to draw near to us, in this vulnerable human being, entrusted to a very young mum, without experience - her first baby. The Church has, through the centuries, created Advent as a time to draw near to the God who has already drawn near to us in Jesus.
So finally, can I encourage all of us to use this Advent Season thoughtfully, despite the Christmas rush. Use it perhaps, in preparation also for the Covenant Service that will occur on the first Sunday in January, and may we all, in using Advent well, find a blessing that extends far beyond the limits of tinsel, decorations and Christmas lights.
In the name of Christ our Saviour and Lord. Amen