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Website last updated on 5th Nov 2009. |
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Our Minister
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Telephone Number: 01252 544823
Email: linda.phillips@theinvernet.co.uk
Linda writes (taken from our December 2009/January 2010 newsletter) ...
Dear Friends,
As we begin again our journey towards Christmas, through the weeks of
Advent, the church marks this time particularly by lighting a succession
of Advent candles each week, to remind ourselves of the story. This is
a very old tradition in the church, and there are varying patterns followed,
some with four or five different coloured candles, or the more familiar
four red candles, with one white one to represent Jesus. We shall begin
by lighting one candle on Advent Sunday (November 29th this year), with
these words:
We light this first candle for ourselves, and for all God’s people
who struggle to be bearers of hope in a troubled world.
With this prayer for ourselves we begin our remembering of the Christmas
story, as we seek to renew and strengthen our faith, and celebrate once
again the story of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.
Each following Sunday we will light an additional candle, adding to that prayer for ourselves a reminder of the prophets of the Old Testament, who foretold the coming of Christ, then one in memory of John the Baptist, the prophet whose story is told in the Gospels. On the fourth Sunday we add a candle for Mary, the mother of Jesus, for without her willingness and obedience to God it would not have been possible for Jesus to come into the world. Then on Christmas Day we light the fifth and central white candle, to represent Jesus, who came to us as the Light of the World.
Through this little ceremony on each of the Sundays of Advent we remind ourselves that the birth of Jesus was not an isolated incident, suddenly occurring without warning, but an event long awaited and expected, and one dependent upon human beings in order that it could happen. This is the centre of it all, it seems to me, that the coming of Jesus into the world happened both by us and for us. God didn’t suddenly appear in flash of light and stun everybody into obedience. He came in weakness, as a baby born in a stable, growing up to become a working man caring for his family, before he ever became the travelling preacher and finally the executed criminal, who was then finally revealed to us by his resurrection as God’s Son. There were a lot of people involved in the story whose willingness to co-operate made all the difference to it being possible for Jesus to live and work as he did. And in his dying and rising again he made it possible for everyone to find the love and forgiveness of God, to find new life through faith in him.
We all tend to get stressed out by Christmas, and to complain about the
commercialism, the cost, the pressure, but all these trappings of Christmas
in our society are part of being human. They are part of
our human need to celebrate important occasions, to spend time with the
people we love (even if it includes those we’re not that fond of
as well!), and, perhaps rather regrettably, to make as big a profit as
possible in our business dealings. Perhaps we need to remember that Christmas
is precisely all about being human, both in the birth of a baby and in
the reason that Jesus came to us in the first place. Jesus came to earth
because God has a concern for us and for all of his creation, loving us
so much that he was willing to become human so as to lead us back to himself.
So while we may regret the tensions of the season, let’s still remember
that Jesus came to share with us because we are still God’s loved
children, with all our failings and eccentricities. His coming has blessed
and honoured our humanity, so let’s do our best to remember him
in the midst of the frantic scramble we all get involved in, and find
some quiet moments to remember the reason for the season, rejoice at the
angels’ song, and know again the joy of the birth of a little baby
in Bethlehem in Judea.
May you have a blessed and peaceful Christmas, and be renewed in faith to walk with God into 2010!
With Christian greetings,
Linda