May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.
Collect
Almighty God, purify our hearts and minds, that when your Son Jesus Christ comes again as judge and saviour we may be ready to receive him, who is our Lord and our God. Amen.
Confession
When the Lord comes, he will bring to light things now hidden in darkness, and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Therefore in the light of Christ let us confess our sins.
Lord God, we confess to you the sin which always confronts us. We are sorry and repent: have mercy on us according to your love. Wash away our wrongdoing and cleanse us from our sin. Renew a right spirit within us, and restore us to the joy of your salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins and restore us in his image, to the praise and glory of his name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God’s Word - Isaiah, chapter 40, verses 1 to 11 :-
Comfort my people; bring comfort to them, says your God; speak kindly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her term of bondage is served, her penalty is paid; for she has received at the LORD’s hand double measure for all her sins.
A voice cries: ‘Clear a road through the wilderness for the LORD, prepare a highway across the desert for our God. Let every valley be raised, every mountain and hill be brought low, uneven ground be made smooth, and steep places become level. Then will the glory of the LORD be revealed and all mankind together will see it. The LORD himself has spoken.’
A voice says, ‘Proclaim!’ and I asked, ‘What shall I proclaim?’
‘All mortals are grass, they last no longer than a wild flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the blast of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass! The grass may wither, the flower fade, but the word of our God will endure for ever.’
Climb to a mountaintop, you that bring good news to Zion; raise your voice and shout aloud, you that carry good news to Jerusalem, raise it fearlessly; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Your God is here!’ Here is the Lord GOD; he is coming in might, coming to rule with powerful arm. His reward is with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he will tend his flock and with his arm keep them together; he will carry the lambs in his bosom and lead the ewes to water.
Mark, chapter 1, verses 1 to 8 :-
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
In the prophet Isaiah it stands written: I am sending my herald ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice cries in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord; clear a straight path for him.’
John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism in token of repentance, for the forgiveness of sins; and everyone flocked to him from the countryside of Judaea and the city of Jerusalem, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. John was dressed in a rough coat of camel’s hair, with a leather belt round his waist, and he fed on locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed: ‘After me comes one mightier than I am, whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and unfasten. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.
Reflection on the Readings
I’ve got to admit, I’m not a great watcher of disaster movies - but it’s clear that enough people are for them to be big budget box office successes. But one thing I can say is that in my experience, whenever in a disaster movie one person says to another at some moment of extremely high tension, “Don’t worry, everything’s gonna be all right,” you just know that something really nasty is going to happen to that person in the next five minutes or so. It happens like that so often, you wonder whether it’s a permanent instruction to the script writers. Anyway, our readings this morning marry these two Advent themes: a sense of impending doom, and the promise that, even so, everything’s going to be all right.
We began with chapter forty of the prophecy of Isaiah - words written to a people who’ve had it rough for many a long year, living as exiles, far from their own land. They’ve been travelling through the darkest of tunnels, but now at last they can see the light at the far end. Comfort my people, the prophet is instructed - let them know that I am acting to bring them home, and that it’s going to be all right.
But turning to our reading from Mark, we find that by then the people, though in their own land, were still unfree. Roman soldiers patrolled the streets, taxes had to be paid to the emperor, and the client kings that ruled there were of the family of Herod, and could not claim David as an ancestor. So people found great comfort in words like those of the prophet Isaiah - comfort my people. They believed that God would act decisively and act soon to secure their freedom - a new world was just around the corner, when God’s messiah would re-establish the rule of David.
And it was in this febrile atmosphere that John the Baptist appeared: a strange but charismatic figure, out in the desert, preaching repentance, claiming that, as Isaiah had promised, he was there to prepare the way, and to announce the new thing that was about to happen, and to tell the people to get ready, to get themselves ready.
At last, a prophet like the prophets of old, so many of the people said. Many people flocked to hear John, to be baptized by him too, as a symbol of their determination to make changes, and to start again. Everything was going to be all right.
But the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah, don’t very often say, “Everything’s going to be all right.” More often, they’re saying, “Everything’s NOT going to be all right” - certainly not if you continue how you are. And John’s teaching was much the same: everything’s going to be all right, he said, BUT you can’t just sit back and let God do it all. You have to change too, and learn how to be his people again. Your lives must enrich the lives of others, and whatever things in your lives that do the opposite, and impoverish the lives of others, you must root them out, and do away with them.
So here we are, in a world that looks more and more like the set for a disaster movie. Interesting to learn a week or so back that someone proposed last year for Coronation Street a story about a pandemic, and it was rejected as far-fetched. But the world of lockdown, with so much on hold, and a lot that’s worrying and scary, is also an opportunity to take stock, and to test out what’s really important, and maybe make, or plan to make, some changes. Because when we’re through this, we don’t have to do all the same things we did before. Everything is going to be all right. The Christ child has been born among us, has journeyed to the cross, has given his all for us, has proved God’s love. But the world will only see him, and find him, if it sees and finds him in us. If our lives give as his life gives; if our hearts love as his heart loves.
Statement of faith -
We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayers -
We ask God to guide us in our keeping of this season of preparation, and that we might be ready to welcome Christ into our hearts and homes this Christmas. On what would normally be the feast day of St Nicholas, we pray for the ministry of the Church to children and families. We pray this week especially for the Christian churches of Spain, and for the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church within the Anglican Communion. We pray for our diocese and for Richard our Bishop, and for all that ensures the safety and protection of children and other vulnerable people in our churches and communities.
We pray for peace wherever in our world there is conflict, and for all who are in need or in fear today. Bless and encourage all who work with children and families in situations of poverty, division and conflict. Pray also today for minority and tribal people who are often exploited or excluded, and for all who are denied access to education, justice or employment.
We pray for all who are ill or in any kind of need or pain, and for their relief and healing. We pray for all who staff our hospitals and health centres, and for their safety and protection. And we continue to pray for our response to Covid and for the continued work to produce a safe and widely available vaccine.
We pray for our families and friends, and for the life of our churches and communities. We pray for families in need, for those not sure how they will be able to afford Christmas. And we pray we may continue to look out for each other in these testing times, and keep safe ourselves.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Blessing -
May Christ the Sun of Righteousness shine upon us, and scatter the darkness from before our path; and may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.
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