From Helen
I am sure that you all had favourite books when you were children. That story that you needed to hear again and again. I had a number of books I really liked. One of my absolute favourites was the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I loved the idea of a wardrobe which disappears into what was a seemingly magical world full of snow and talking animals. This of course is just the beginning, as we then discover in the book that whilst the snow was beautiful it's wasn't great because the magical world of Narnia was constantly in winter due to the evil Ice Queen.
When I looked at our readings this morning I was reminded of Narnia. There is a reason, I promise. This was because in our reading from Isaiah (64:1-9) we heard of people wanting God to intervene, they desperately wanted Him to come and show them the right way to live. They wanted God’s rule to be obvious on Earth. As the people cried out for God they were pleading .. “O Lord, that you would rend the heavens.” They were asking God to come now and to make things better.
This is what we are looking for as we begin Advent. Advent is a bit of a confused time I always think. We are waiting to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas but we are also preparing ourselves to greet Him. There is the idea of Jesus is coming so we need to be ready. Advent is about waiting.
The problem with being reflective and getting ready for Jesus is that there is so much other Christmas stuff going on. After all, in some places Christmas stared at the beginning of November!
At Advent we prepare for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. We are waiting but we are also making sure that we are ready for Jesus. In advent though, we get even more confused between the shops being full of Christmas, us trying to concentrate on the season coming up but also doing justice to the fact that as we wait for Jesus so we are waiting for His second coming.
In Isaiah the people were calling out for God to appear. In our gospel reading (Mark 13:24-37) we heard Jesus talking of the need for us to be ready to greet Him. It all sounds rather scary ! If you are a Dads Army fan you can almost imagine jones going around saying Don't Panic as he makes the situation much worse.
Thing is how would we react? If all we heard about in Marks gospel happened right now how would we react? I don't know if I would be so much a Don't panic character, as let me hide till its over!!
In the gospel we heard the words of Jesus, that we need to stay awake. To be ready, to look for signs around us of Jesus.
There used to be a saying, ‘Jesus is coming- look busy.’ I am not sure what being busy will achieve but I do think that we need to be in a place where we wouldn't be ashamed for Jesus to see us. We don't need to be wondering what we might be doing when Jesus arrives but actually to be in the right place in terms of following Him to the best of our ability.
Back to Narnia for a moment. In Narnia there is a cry like the cry in Isaiah for things to be better. There is the feeling that more needs to happen and so they are all waiting for Aslan to come and have a final battle. I have to admit that as a child I was fascinated by Aslan. He seemed like the best Lion ever. Cuddly, or so I hoped, but also powerful.
Lucy in the story needed to learn about Aslan from Mr and Mrs Beaver. Mr Beaver said,’ If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, then they're either braver than most or else just silly.’ Lucy replied by asking if he was safe. The reply was, ‘ Safe?… who said anything about safe ? Course he isn't safe. But He’s good. He's the King I tell you’
I wonder if the people in Isaiah felt the same, they knew God was powerful. They wanted Him to arrive and make things better showing that they knew He was powerful. But if someone is that powerful then it becomes a bit scary. They recognised that they were like clay in the potters hands ready to be moulded, which could sound frightening, but they also knew that God was their Father, which was a bit less frightening.
Like Aslan, God is powerful, I wouldn't want to say cuddly, but He does love us and is with us.
This means that the second coming of Jesus isn't as scary. Yes, He is powerful but He is good, we know this, we see it and that’s why we worship Him.
When we think of advent then we are thinking of Jesus amongst us, in terms of His birth and in terms of His being with us every day and in terms of Him coming again!
This is amazing. We look to Jesus not in fear that He is going to catch us out but in joy of all that He will bring us. He will make things right, He has done that for us already. The kingdom of God which we talked of last week is here in part every time we try to be more like Jesus. Every time we try to make the world more like Him.
When we look at the world around we want things to be more like the way Jesus would want them. We want to live as people who are showing that there is a better way and that way is to be more like Jesus. As we follow God, we are bringing Him to the world again.
I recently read a challenge for Advent, which didn't involve eating as much chocolate as you can - although to be fair that would be an amazing challenge. This challenge is for us to watch the news and for every item that we see to pray - Let your kingdom come. This is my challenge and I am going to do it. Every time we pray the Lord’s prayer we pray this but I want to be even more intentional that in the world around us that is full of sadness, for every time of bad news to pray ‘Let your Kingdom Come.’
So this Advent and always may we have no fear about the end but trust in the God who loves us and say, ‘Let your Kingdom Come.’ Amen
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