Sharing some thoughts

  Some of you may have heard before about a book called ‘Run Baby Run’. It is the story of a man called Nicky Cruz who, in the late 50’s and early 60’s became a gang leader in New York. He tells of the time when he first arrived in the City from Puerto Rico – alone and with very little money.  He wrote ‘Moving on down the street I stopped in front of a Church. A heavy iron gate had been pulled across the front doors and it was fastened with a chain and padlock. I stood in front of the grey building, looking up at the steeple which pointed towards the heavens. The cold stone walls and dark stained glass windows huddled for protection behind the iron fence. The statue of a man with a kind face and sad eyes peered through the locked gate. His arms were outstretched and covered with snow. But he was locked in, and I was locked out…’  For some people there is a feeling that God is someone or something, unreachable, unapproachable…  But Christmas offers us an incredible reminder that God is

  Today in our Church calendar we move into the season  of advent – The first Sunday in advent is  traditionally new years’ day in the life of the Church.  Like any new year, advent is a time of reflection – it’s a time of looking back, but advent is primarily about looking forward, perhaps to the dread of Christmas shopping, if you haven’t already done it, perhaps to the joys of spending time with family, the Christmas parties… perhaps even to new year, Christmas being over, and the chance to start again – to make and try and keep those resolutions once again ! But the looking forward in advent could be much longer term than any of those things, because in advent we look forward to the promised return of Jesus, and on this first Sunday in advent one of the themes of the day is ‘Hope’. In the current economic climate, many people are facing times of uncertainty, some are just hoping that they’ll keep their jobs, many are hoping for more price cuts in shops or on houses or on cars…  All