The Perfect Relationship............

Trinity Sunday 26^th May 2013

Proverbs 8:1-4; 22-31

Romans 5:1-5

John 16:12-15

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Trinity Sunday is one of those Sundays during the year that preachers sometimes dread. How to put into words something that is never explicitly mentioned in the Bible, yet is at the very core of our faith and identity. I’m sure also that many people in churches today will be glazing over slightly at the prospect of listening to a sermon trying to explain the seemingly unexplainable……God the 1 in 3 and 3 in 1! It almost sounds like the tagline from a cheesy television advert!

If you are one of those tempted to drift off for the next few minutes then just remember and hold on to this one thought. Simple enough and one that I’m sure we all know at least on a superficial level.

GOD

IS

LOVE

In those three small words we see something of the essence of what the Trinity is!

At the heart of our Christian faith is the affirmation that in Christ we have come to know the triune God. Not “know about” in some kind of distant or abstract way, but actually know! There is one God, and this God is revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The mechanics of how this one God can at the same time be three very distinct persons remains as much a mystery to us as how Christ can be fully present in the bread and wine whenever we take the Eucharist. Yet it is a mystery to which we give our assent each and every time we say the creed.

What really strikes me whenever I think about the Trinity is not whether I understand it or not, because I suspect that I understand it no more than most other people sitting in church today. What sticks out for me is the theme of relationship! In many religions God is characterised as a distant, impersonal figure who seems to do little more than set the world in motion, throw in the odd disaster now and again while at the same time demanding a slavish, unquestioning obedience!

The God who is revealed to us within the Trinity is completely the opposite from that unreachable figure. The God we come to worship today is a God who relates to creation itself, and in particular to humanity as we see in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Relationships are at the heart of our human experience. Whatever shape or form they may come in we all have experience of some kind of relationship in our lives. That of a parent and child or the relationship between husband and wife or life partners. The relationship of shared interest and mutual friendship with those with whom we have something in common. Humanity was created to live and thrive within relationship right from the outset. Simply being with, sharing with and supporting and encouraging one another as we journey through life together.

 Most of us operate best within some form of community or another. The old adage of “No man is an island” is not simply a catchy little saying that most of us have heard over the years. It has a certain truth to it! Few of us are called to the solitary life of a medieval style hermit, and even for those who either through choice or circumstance are often alone there is usually some form of contact with others, hopefully (though sadly not always, of a supportive and encouraging nature).

Our gospel reading today gives us an insight into the relationship within the Trinity. Jesus has just been speaking to the disciples about what will happen once he is no longer physically with them. He speaks of the “Spirit of Truth” (v13), which earlier he had described to them as the “Advocate” (v7) coming to guide them into all truth and pointing the way to him. Going on to say that “All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (v15).

That relationship we see there is not one of competition or superiority. Rather it is a relationship that is grounded in love, for GOD IS LOVE. To know something of the Trinity is to know something of the nature of God, which is pure undiluted love. I suspect if we were to ask the question “what is love?” in this room now we would end up with almost as many definitions as there are people sitting here. It’s tricky to pin down, but I suspect also that most of us would recognise it somehow.

 

The Trinity is God in perfect relationship! We don’t fully understand it and we can’t fully explain it! Yet each time we come to the altar and eat the body and blood of Christ we too are invited to be participants in that relationship.

The nature of the Trinity is just as impossible for us to fully understand, yet through it we somehow get a glimpse into the fullness of what it means to love and be loved. May each of us come to experience that love for ourselves and allow ourselves to be used as vessels by which others may also receive that same love.

+ In the name of our triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

 

 

No More On The Outside........

No More On The Outside……..

Zephaniah 3:14-end

Matthew 28:1-10 & 16-end

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our reading from Matthew’s gospel ends with perhaps one of the most well-known of Jesus’s commands to his disciples. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:19-20)

It comes at the end of a narrative which sees both of the Mary’s, Magdalene and the mother of Jesus visit the tomb of the one who only a couple of days earlier they had seen endure a horrendous and tortuous death by crucifixion. They would have gone to the tomb to weep and mourn for Jesus, grief-stricken and probably at a complete loss as to what to do now!

These feelings of utter despair are suddenly all turned completely upside down at the appearance of an angel who informs them that in fact the Jesus they sought, who had indeed been crucified was now raised to new life. It’s easy to picture them, standing there, mouths wide-open in astonishment at all that is happening to them…….both the angel and the message. Could this be their grief playing tricks on them in their state of mind? Nevertheless they go, quickly, at the angels behest, with a mixture probably of pure terror and high excitement to pass on the angels message to the other disciples.

 And I say “other” disciples deliberately. We are so used to thinking of the disciples as the group of twelve (now eleven) men who figure so prominently in the gospels that the role of others, often women, can be easily overlooked or relegated to a mere footnote in the story. Yet these two women were no less disciples than the men, and it is significant that it was to the women the angel spoke and Jesus made his first post-resurrection appearance.

And it is significant because just as in his earthly life and ministry as Jesus embraced and welcomed those who were often at the edge of society (and in his day that was very much the place of women), so also in his death and resurrection he chooses to appear first to those who perhaps the chattering classes of the day would somehow look down upon. It almost echoes what he says earlier in Matthew’s gospel in a different context in the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard “So the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matt 20:16). These two women, undoubtedly used to being pushed to one side, ignored or looked down upon were now privileged to be the very first to witness the risen Jesus. And it is they who are given the task of breaking this joyous news to the rest of the disciples. It is ironic perhaps that given the honoured place Jesus gives to his women disciples alongside his male disciples that the church which bears his name has for so long struggled to reflect his full welcome and inclusion for all.

Our first reading, from Zephaniah is a song of joy! A song that speaks of bringing the outcast, the lame, the downtrodden……..the excluded, into the Kingdom of God. It speaks of a God who rejoices over such people with gladness. It’s not of course that he doesn’t also rejoice over those over those whose lives are full of good fortune, but his rejoicing and love are wide and great enough to embrace all who will receive. But there seems to be a particular emphasis in him reaching out to the previously unreachable.

For generations the Jewish people had regarded themselves as the chosen people of God, the elect, who were set apart from others (Gentiles). This “Great Commission” at the end of Matthew’s gospel widens God’s favour to all, not just the select few. Those who had maybe previously thought of themselves as belonging to a select band of specially chosen handpicked elite are told to go and share what they know, bring others into the fold. Include those who had been previously excluded!

Just as he first encountered the women at the tomb and turned their tears into joy and amazement, so we are invited to encounter him also. Just as they ran to share their news of the risen Lord with the other disciples, so we too are invited to join them and share that same news. Whether we share that news literally with the nations, or perhaps with our friends and families or our neighbourhood, we too have a role to play in bringing in those who may somehow not feel as though they belong.

 And perhaps we feel sometimes that is where we are ourselves, sitting or standing on the outside, sometimes ignored…..often overlooked. Yet, it is to you that I would say look at the two women at the tomb who would have felt very much the same and see the difference that their contribution made to the beginning of what would eventually become the church. No more on the outside looking in, but very much on the inside looking out and indeed playing a full role in taking the good news of the Gospel to others.

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

 

Cycling Among the Sheep!

Acts 9:36-43

Revelation 7:9-17

John 10:22-30

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I remember a couple of years ago during the annual Good Friday walk of witness as people made their way along St James’s Street towards the Old Steine, a guy going the opposite way on a bike just shouted as he went past, “Sheep, baaaa”. As far as off the cuff insults go it wasn’t especially original, and I know I have, and I’m sure others here today have been called much worse things. It may be that he thought he was being witty or clever, who knows? What I do know though is that he was a bit late in ascribing the attributes of sheep to those of us who were walking that day……..as we see in today’s gospel reading Jesus had got there first! “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they will follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.” Perhaps the guy on the bike was closer to the truth than he realised!

There are many different portrayals of Jesus throughout the New Testament, but the image of Jesus as the Great Shepherd of the sheep is perhaps one of the most enduring of those images. Those of a certain age will probably have memories of watching “One Man and His Dog”, and the TV image of Phil Drabble will be the closest many of us ever came to seeing a shepherd in action.

The gospel reading echoes also the most well-known of all the Psalms, Psalm 23, which we heard as we began our worship this morning. Both passages speak of a deep sense of belonging and protection. The sheep belong to the shepherd whose very life is dedicated to the nurture and well-being of those he is charged with the care of.

 At the beginning of the gospel reading Jesus is confronted by those demanding that he speak plainly of who he is. “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly”. They had heard Jesus' words and seen his works and still they did not know whether or not he was the promised Messiah or just another rabbi. They did not understand who Jesus was! Sometimes it can be just plain difficult to see the truth when it is literally staring you right in the face! The sincerity of his questioners was in doubt in any case. Most of the times on occasions like this, the questions, rather than being honest and open enquiries, were intended as a trap for Jesus to fall into and implicate himself, giving them the satisfaction of handing him over to the authorities.

So how does Jesus respond? “I have told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep”. Despite the plain evidence in front of their own eyes of Jesus’s ministry of healing and of all that pointed towards him indeed being the promised Messiah, they either could not or would not believe. Of course they actually lived when Jesus himself was around……..we have a span of 2000 years, and centuries of biblical scholarship separating us from these events.

While I was preparing for this sermon I came across a cartoon of a fairly human looking sheep relaxing on a sunbed in a field, iPod headphones on, TV blasting out in front of him, and surrounded by a laptop and mobile phone. Across the other side of the field there was the shepherd calling out to this completely oblivious figure on the sunbed. The caption in the cartoon had the sheep thinking “I wonder why I don’t hear from the shepherd anymore”.

How easy and tempting it is to become so caught up in our own little worlds that we don’t always hear the voice of the shepherd. Would we even recognise his voice? Our time is taken up with plenty of other things that need doing; we bury ourselves in our work or become just bogged down sometimes with lives that seem to get more complicated by the day. We are surrounded by computers, mobile phones and plenty of other things that promise to make our lives happier or easier. We distract ourselves by saying that if we buy the latest iPhone or upgrade the car then life will somehow be better.

 Even here in church it can become so easy to be busy constantly “doing things” that sometimes we can feel a bit like the sheep on the sunbed……..we just have different distractions!

 There are certainly plenty of things that need to be done to keep the work of St George’s moving forward. Whether it’s the clergy, the churchwardens, the PCC, cleaning the church, organising the flowers, helping on the coffee rota……..all important things in themselves. Yet while we are so busy making sure things run smoothly sometimes it can seem as though we don’t always hear the voice of the shepherd. Sometimes there is just too much noise around us to listen out for that call and respond.

When I last preached on Palm Sunday I spoke of taking time during Holy Week to pray, reflect and listen as we journey with Jesus through those few days. Yet, we are called to do just that as part of our everyday journey with him, not only during Lent or Easter, but constantly.

He is our shepherd and we are his sheep, he calls to us and draws us to him. Let us slow down, take time out and listen to what he has to say to us. He can speak to us in a whole variety of ways, through scripture, as we partake of him in the Eucharist or in a still, small voice. Always he calls to us out of his love for us, we simply need to step away for a while from whatever is distracting us, be still and listen.

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

 

 

 

 

 

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday, 24^th March 2013

Isa 50:4-9a

Phil 2:5-11

Mark 14 & 15 (dramatic reading)

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our services on Palm Sunday are rather different from what we are used to on most Sundays throughout the year. To begin with they are actually two interlinked services, the Liturgy of the Palms and the Liturgy of the Passion. We begin with a short gathering up the road at St Mark’s where we remember the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The triumphant crowd lining the streets as Jesus rides through them on a donkey to shouts of “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”. At last, finally the people have come to realise the greatness of who Jesus really is ………..or have they?

As our procession through the streets of Kemptown arrives at St George’s we begin our second service to the familiar words of the hymn “Ride on, ride on in majesty”. As we sing the words of that hymn we get our first glimpse that perhaps that triumphant entry into Jerusalem wasn’t all that it seemed.

“Ride on, ride on in majesty!

In lowly pomp ride on to die;

Bow thy meek head to mortal pain,

Then take, O God, thy power, and reign.”

 

I don’t for a moment imagine that the crowds on that first Palm Sunday, who were actually in town for the great Passover celebration, thought they were cheering Jesus on towards his death. Many of them quite probably just got caught up in the excitement of the day. Yet, as we know all too well, events and circumstances can so quickly and tragically change. The adulation of the crowd was not to last!

We come together today at what is a week of great contrasts. From the ecstatic reaction of the crowd at the beginning of the week, right through to his betrayal by Judas and denial by Peter. We see Jesus in the garden at Gethsemane agonising at what he knows is to come, about to endure the bleakest possible circumstances, while those closest to him slept! In a very human way, as he prays, he pleads to be spared what lies ahead……the torture, the humiliation, the death! Though ultimately he knew that it was not all about him, but rather about the purpose of the one who sent him. He remained focused upon the purpose for which he was sent. If only the disciples around him were able to do the same at a time when he needed their watchfulness and support like never before.

The whole period leading up to Holy Week and Easter has become very sanitised in a similar way to Christmas, with the emphasis very often upon even more consumption of chocolate eggs and the appearance of the Easter Bunny. Yet the reality is in complete contrast to that, a picture of a bleak and forlorn Jesus who at times felt completely abandoned, not only by his friends, but even at one point, by God Himself!

 This Holy Week we are called to look beyond the Easter Egg displays, to focus on something other than how we might plan to spend next weeks Bank Holiday. We are called to walk alongside Jesus not only in the brief excitement of Palm Sunday but also in the days that lie ahead. We are invited to partake of his Last Supper with the disciples.  We are called to keep watch with him in the garden on the night of his betrayal, and the following day to stand with him at the foot of his cross.

Even if time and circumstances make it difficult to come to the services in the next few days (and each of us do come with plenty of other demands on our daily lives), make a point to set aside a short period each day when you are able to focus upon the journey which Jesus makes this week. Take time to reflect, pray and sit with him, whether it is here at church or at home, as the one who rode into Jerusalem in triumph prepares to lay down his life for those who only days before had laid palms down at his feet.

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

The Temptation of Jesus (Lent I)

The Temptation of Jesus

Chapel Royal, Brighton 17^th February 2013

Deut 26:1-11

Rom 10:8b-13

Luke 4:1-13

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

I would like to begin by thanking Fr David for inviting me to share Mass with you this morning.

We are now of course in the season of Lent! It is only a few short weeks since we ended the Christmas season with Candlemas and we now find ourselves entering a more reflective period of time over the next 40 days. Many of us would have received the ashes on Wednesday that help to remind us of our own mortality and are an outward sign of our repentance.

My own background is not one that particularly gave much emphasis to the liturgical year, other than Christmas, Easter and perhaps Harvest! It wasn’t until I came into the Church of England that I came to appreciate something of the richness of the changing seasons. One month we can be celebrating the excitement of Christmas and the incarnation of Christ into our world…….only a few weeks later the mood changes and we come face to face with our own humanity, and it’s not always a pretty sight.

Our gospel reading this morning sees Jesus coming face to face with a very real aspect of his own (and our) humanity. It follows on from the account of his baptism where he had become full of the Holy Spirit. He heads out into the wilderness…..into the middle of nowhere, and we are told that while there for 40 days he fasted. Although it’s not actually spelled out to us, presumably he also prayed. I suppose in today’s understanding he went on a sort of retreat, a time of prayer and reflection as he looks ahead to his future ministry.

You may be familiar yourself with the experience of going away on retreat or perhaps a Quiet Day. Taking time to get away from the distractions that are constantly all around, each of them trying to get our undivided attention. Now multiply that Quiet Day by 40, hold it in the middle of the desert away from anybody else, fast for the entire time………and we begin to get some idea of what it might have been like for Jesus.

 Forty days with no food would be a huge struggle for most of us and Jesus was no exception. At the end of that time he was famished and desperate to eat. He is faced with his own mortality…….ultimately if you don’t eat you will die! A very human and understandable reaction to the situation in which he found himself!

 While there alone in the desert he faced we are told, great temptation. Imagine for a moment standing there, starving hungry in that desolate place, you have maybe had small amounts of water to get you through each day, but no more than that. This was surely the perfect opportunity for Jesus to perform a quick miracle……or two…….or three! No-one need ever know!

Faced with the prospect of somehow “proving” that he was the Son of God by putting God to the test and serving himself or staying faithful to his mission and putting his trust in God, he chooses the latter.

He is offered instant prestige, power and authority over everything if only he will bow down and worship that which is not God. It’s easy perhaps to see everywhere we look how quickly people can often put a false value on power and prestige. How readily some can take to standing on a pedestal basking in the admiration of others. We live in a world that is obsessed by the idea of celebrity. Where very often people seem to have some kind of power and hold over others for no obvious reason except that they are famous. How easy it would be for Jesus to just accept all the adulation that was apparently on offer!

 Earlier this week we heard the news that Pope Benedict was stepping down from his duties and would retire instead to a former monastery to devote the rest of his life to prayer. Surrounded by the immense wealth of the Vatican and looked up to by billions of Roman Catholics for spiritual guidance he chose to set all that grandeur and opulence aside to return to the simple life of a priest.

Our own former Archbishop Rowan chose to step down much earlier than he needed to from his role leading the Anglican Communion to return to the life of an academic. And despite the many issues facing the church many would have seen his role as a powerful and influential one. Yet, it was a role that he willingly laid down.

Not for either of these men the outward trappings of power. Each for their own reasons was able to walk away from them. I wonder how many of us could do so, or would we perhaps have become so attached to the external glitter and gold.

Probably most of us don’t literally bow down to false gods, but how easy is it sometimes for us to give in to the temptation of jumping up onto the pedestal and putting ourselves first. In a world where self-denial is often mistaken for weakness and humility can sometimes be seen as a cop-out we are called to look to Jesus for our example.

 He came and shared in our humanity, and he invites us through the Eucharist in a few moments to share in his divinity. He, like us was tempted……yet unlike us, was without sin. We will continue to sin and give in to temptation, its part of what it is to be human! Yet in him we are offered grace and forgiveness, whoever we are.

Let’s use these weeks of Lent to reflect upon our own faith journey, where we have been and perhaps where we are going. As we can sometimes feel that journey is going through a kind of wilderness, may we know that Christ is right there with us, walking alongside us and very often carrying us.

May we each have a Holy and Blessed Lent.

AMEN

 

 

 

Christingle and the Runaway 12 Year Old!

 

 

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

One of the highlights for me of the many services that we have had over the last few weeks (and this may surprise a few of you) was the Christingle Service on Christmas Eve. Unlike many of those who came it was my first time! This church was literally packed full with more than 500 children, parents, grandparents, relatives and friends. Every seat out there was taken, most of the seats in the balcony were taken, and there were even some sitting at the very top, way back in the “fisherman’s gallery”!

I remember asking Fr Andrew where on earth all these people had come from while we were sat in the office listening to the growing, and expectant crowd just beyond the door. Families travel from within the parish and beyond every year to come to the Christingle Service. For them it is very much a vital part of their Christmas celebrations. In a way I suppose it is almost like making an annual pilgrimage. It may be the only time that many of them come to church, but for that one brief hour or so they come, not out of a sense of duty, but because they want to be here and hear something of the Christmas story.

After the service I asked one young lad, probably about 11 or 12 if he had enjoyed the service, and he replied “It was great, we come every year”!

In today’s gospel reading we hear of another 12 year old who has travelled with his family to take part in a great annual community and religious festival. Jesus has made the pilgrimage with his parents to Jerusalem. It was quite probably something they did every year!

 Having celebrated the Passover the family and their group begin to make their way home, and it takes them a whole day for them to realise that someone is missing, yes; Jesus has somehow been left behind! I’m sure parents and grandparents in particular here can understand what would have been going through the minds of Mary and Joseph as they realised that Jesus was missing. Today in a world of 24 hour news and Twitter, search parties would be sent out, the authorities would be informed and Jesus’s face would probably be beamed into our front rooms on the TV.

Mary and Joseph of course had none of the advantages of today’s technology. Probably going frantic with worry they return to Jerusalem and it takes them a further three days before they finally track down their runaway son. I’m sure some of you whether recently or in years gone by have had experience of stroppy and rebellious teenagers or pre-teenagers. And I’m sure also that many of us here in our time were stroppy headstrong teenagers ourselves!

And the response of Jesus when his parents finally find him? “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” He doesn’t seem to be at all concerned about the stress and worry that he has just put his parents through, perhaps a typical 12 year old trait, again, one that I’m sure some here might understand!

And they find him, not running about the streets or causing trouble, but sat in the Temple, listening and learning from the teachers there. Given that it took them so long to track him down, it probably wasn’t the first place they expected to find him!

 In his comments we see the first record in the gospels of the words of Jesus, completely unlike what you might expect to come from someone so young. We see Jesus lay claim to a unique relationship with God, that of God as “Father”, something which of course he goes on to develop over the course of his ministry, and in which we share today when we recall together the words of the Lord’s Prayer.

There is something extraordinary about the certainty and “matter of fact-ness” of Jesus in his response, as though it all made complete sense to him and he couldn’t see what the problem was. There was something within him which drew him to that place and nothing would prevent him from being there!

And it got me thinking about that 12 year old lad who keeps coming every year to Christingle as well as the 500 other people, children and adults who filled this place to the rafters last Monday afternoon. A few hours later of course we celebrated Midnight Mass to another full church, certainly downstairs. And it’s tempting perhaps on occasions like this to think, “Well, where are they the rest of the year?” Yet, even if it is only for that one day of the year there is something that draws them into St George’s and makes them very much a part of our community.

Maybe what draws people in is on the surface, the external things, the orange’s, the sweets, the story of the crib. And at Midnight people come for the music or the atmosphere. But on a deeper level  there is surely a prompting of the Spirit that somehow resonates inside them. It isn’t easy always to put into words what it is that causes people to come to church, yet the doors are open as we welcome our wider community to join with us in our great celebration.

 And so, seeds are sown. Something of the Good News of Christ is heard, and hopefully our 12 year old (as well as everybody else) goes home at least knowing a little more about God’s love for all. And maybe it will take years before anything becomes apparent, if it does.  Not entirely dissimilar to the headstrong 12 year old in the gospel reading, quite certain of himself, yet it’s another 18 years or so before we begin to realise the significance of the seeds that were sown at a young age, and he begins his public ministry.

May we offer a welcome to, and have open hearts and doors to all who come to this place, as like Jesus they enter into the “Father’s House”.

AMEN

 

 

 

Preparing for the Journey: Advent II, The Prophets

Advent 2012 (The Prophets)

Baruch 5:1-9

Philippians 1:3-11

Luke 3:1-6

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

It’s Christmas time again! Yes, it’s that time of year when, wherever you turn, you simply can’t escape the fact that it’s Christmas. Those lovely twinkling lights that are all around town at the moment. Seasonal window displays enticing us to part with our cash or maybe just put it on the credit card and pay it off later. The adverts on the TV helpfully reminding us to go to this store or the other to buy the latest “must have” presents. And of course the annual treat of turning the radio on and hearing Mariah Carey singing “All I Want for Christmas is You”. It’s all a wonderful reminder that we are in the Christmas season!

Except of course that we are not. Not yet! We may be forgiven for thinking that we are, given that everywhere we turn we see images or hear sounds that tell us otherwise. In the church’s calendar, this second week of Advent (not Christmas) focuses on the prophets. Advent is a time of preparation and anticipation, so perhaps to go mad with excitement just now is a bit premature. I know where I work at Sainsbury’s we have been in Christmas mode for some time now, and the looks I get from people when I try to explain that there is actually a distinction between Christmas and Advent are usually quite blank. The only Advent connection that many people make is opening the window on a usually very non-religious Advent calendar and devouring the enclosed chocolate.

 So, on to the prophets! Those giants of the Old Testament often perhaps seem so stern and foreboding! The popular image of the prophet is often that of a crazy eyed religious zealot making stern pronouncements in the name of a God who seems to be continually mad at the way people have moved away from him. There is the reputation that prophets sometimes have as a sort of divine fortune teller, a divinely inspired Russell Grant, yet to reduce their role to something not far removed from the astrology column of a newspaper does a great disservice to their real significance.

Today’s gospel reading speaks of “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Those words initially taken from Isaiah are speaking of course about John the Baptist whose role it was to declare the coming of Christ and get the people ready for the one who was to come.

Now I’m certainly no building engineer or architect but I’m pretty sure that this wonderful building we worship in today didn’t just appear overnight. Plans were drawn up, the land was made ready and foundations were dug. Each step in the process took time, and if any part of that process had been skipped over the actual building just would not have been able to take place. To just hastily erect a church (or any building) without a very thorough period of preparation would have simply been a recipe for disaster. This church and its community didn’t just come out of nowhere. Just as the church building required much preparation and work, so too did the community which meets here, which today is us.

  Generations of people have gone before us in this place and prepared the way. Their prayers and worship have filled this place. They have been baptised, married and buried from here. And we do the same today, but we could not do so in the same way if they had not already prepared the way before us.

What if Jesus had just suddenly appeared completely out of the blue? What if the Bible we have today consisted solely of the twenty seven books of the New Testament and nothing else? No historical context, no back-story, simply the sudden appearance of a baby in a manger who turns out to be the Son of God! How very different our story would look then. Sometimes that seems to be the way the whole Christmas story is presented to us, as a great spectacular event that seems to come out of nowhere. Yet the whole of the Bible in its many different ways prepares for, and leads up to, the coming of the one who, in the Incarnation, brings God into the messiness of our world.

Over generations the ground was laid and made ready until the time was right for the event that was to change the whole of creation.

I have to confess, I’m not the greatest in the world at waiting for things. There are times like going on holiday, my birthday yesterday.....and yes, even Christmas when I’m like a big kid and just want it to happen now! Occasions like these are among the few times that even now I actually bounce out of bed in the morning at stupid o’clock full of excitement and wanting it to happen now. Loathe sometimes as I may be to admit it, the build-up, preparation and anticipation is all part of what makes these times so special. They don’t just suddenly appear as isolated moments in our life.

Here in this Second Week of Advent we come together not simply as a group of individuals, but as a community. A community on a shared journey of wonder and discovery as we gradually get closer to the moment when God came and dwelt amongst us, sharing our humanity and inviting us to be partakers of his divinity, something we will shortly experience a we meet with Him in the Eucharist.

 Let us not rush that journey. When all around us seem to be frantically looking for instant satisfaction, let us take a moment to slow down and savour this time of waiting. Step away, even if it is only for a few minutes each day from the busyness of our everyday life and be still with our Lord.

 A time of reflection, of anticipation. A time of joy.....and yes, of gradual excitement. Events such as the Beach Hut Advent Calendar on Hove sea-front over the next few weeks are an excellent opportunity to present the Advent story as one of looking forward with hope to our Lord’s coming. May those who visit the beach huts come away with a sense of wonder at the message they hear.

As John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ so let us also prepare ourselves. Let us prepare ourselves to welcome the one who comes to be part of our world and our lives in all its messiness. The crib has gone up and we await His arrival.

If you are visiting us today we invite you to join us over the next few weeks (and maybe beyond) as we make that journey through Advent and towards Christmas together.

May we all in these coming weeks have that sense of awe and wonder as God reaches out and invites us ALL to see and partake of his salvation.

+ In the name of God, Father and Holy Spirit.

AMEN