Cooksmill Green Congregational Church

Thought for the Month of May 2024

 By Danny Lamb

This is the lectionary reading for today, Sunday 5^th May, which is the sixth Sunday of Easter. I would like you to take some time out to read it before I write anything more, to read it slowly, not just with a reflective purpose as to what the words may mean, but also how they may make you feel, and then I’ll join you once again.

The Gospel of John (15.9 – 17 NRSV)

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.

I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

I’m back…. Lectionary readings are of course piecemeal extracts of Scripture, seemingly designed to reflect the liturgical seasons of the church, whilst also providing a universal morsel of theology, that is open for both Christian interpretation and reflection. So, it’s no surprise then that when writing a sermon or perhaps a thought for the month, that this is a good place to go for some divine inspiration, as to what it is that God wants you to talk about, and so that is what I did. Sometimes though, as you pour over the readings, the relevant message is not always clear, it can often require a lot of interpretation to give a more contemporary context, or to seek the revelation of some deeper theological meaning, but that is not the case today.

It just so happens that this is my most favourite piece of scripture, which is quite a statement considering all the amazing content to be found in the Bible itself, but these words of Jesus, according to John, resonate deeply within my desires for the world around me and are the foundations for my Christian purpose in life itself. If I was ever to encounter someone who asked me “what does it mean to be a Christian?” I would by way of explanation, offer up this passage from John as a very simple statement of common purpose, I really don’t think you can read it and not understand what is being asked of us, after all, how can anyone call themselves Christian and not understand their purpose in the world?

These words of Jesus are spoken on the day before his crucifixion, the ultimate sacrifice in the name of the love that He talks of, a sacrifice that only He knows is coming, and whilst we now know that it has a divine purpose, we are offered through this reading, the opportunity to also share in his humanity too, the part of him that allows those there listening and indeed all of us today, to make a human connection with. There is incredible intimacy in the way He speaks, because these are His closest friends and followers, and their time together is at a close. Gone is the master and servant formality, there are no more parables to interpret, no teaching in the manner they have become accustomed to, He has given them everything His Father wanted them to have, what they are hearing now comes from Him personally, this is the language of true friendship and of love, of someone trying to say farewell in the most sincerest and devotional of ways, it is beautiful and moving and it is why I want to be a Christian.

Your thoughts for this month? Do you have a favourite piece of scripture that truly resonates within? One that perhaps motivates, inspires, consoles or reassures you. How have you come to recognise your own Christian purpose in the world?

Should keep you going until June!

Amen.

Faithful God, in whose love we are called to abide,

help us to find ways to offer each other the gift of devoted friendship.

May your Holy Spirit give us the resolve to keep your commandments of love for each other and for the world in which we live.

May the sacrifice of your son, borne out of your love for us all, inspire us to also make sacrifices for others, always seeking each other’s best welfare, bearing each other’s burdens and sharing each other’s joy.

 through the love and friendship of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Thought for the Month April 2024

The most memorable sermon I ever heard? Father Roy went into the pulpit. He proclaimed, “Today is Easter Sunday. Christ the Lord is risen!” The choir sang, “Hallelujah!” Father Roy added, “That is all that needs to be said.” And down he came.

Easter Day is a day of pure joy. St. Paul calls it the time of God’s favour, the day of salvation.

As I was preparing music for Easter, I read through the service booklet we use at Roxwell, and was struck to encounter again only a few pages earlier the set lesson for Ash Wednesday from Paul’s second Epistle to the Corinthians. It was a reminder of how far we have come from the start of Lent, through Jesus’s ministry, culminating in the events of Holy Week and now the Resurrection. Yet this lesson also focuses on the Resurrection as new beginning rather than culmination: as such it demands a response from us beyond celebration and wonder. Paul’s message is an extraordinary one: that we must become the righteousness of God, If we do not, then the sacrifice Jesus made is in vain. So what does Paul mean by this?

The first point he makes in this lesson is to show endurance in the face of persecution. Reading his list of the hardships faced by the early Christians – beatings, imprisonment etc. – we might feel simply relieved that this is not our lot, and see this as an injunction in respect of those Christian communities in the world which do suffer in this way to pray for them and to support charities and international groups which minister both to them and to others experiencing such persecution. Yet is not to become the righteousness of God more than this? Our church has changed. Once the established church as of right, it has experienced declining influence and membership, deplorable leadership and increasing indifference; more recently moreover, Christian belief in our own country has faced greater hostility, at times with ridicule, with outright rejection. Paul reminds us that this was the story of Christianity from the start, and that we need to do more than sadly accept that this is how things are. We are called to be steadfast in our faith, and to challenge openly the empty wokery, the online bile and intellectual dishonesty that characterise the travesty that is “debate” so often in our time.

Paul’s second point, that we must show patience, kindness, genuine love, is the one that perhaps we may read and take for granted. I listened this week, however, to a funeral eulogy for someone who was a friend to many in the Cooksmill congregation: it spoke of her unfailing gentleness and kindness, how she was loved by everyone, especially the children in her family and those she went to talk to in school, how her whole life was filled with the light of her goodness and faith, shared with all. It was a wonderful eulogy; if, like me (alas…), you sense that no one is going to say anything very similar about you, then Paul’s words are a reminder that to bring Christ’s Kingdom in this world closer, each of us needs to seek to emulate this lovely, saintly lady.

Paul’s third point is that, with God’s help, we need to speak with truth and with knowledge, as he himself did. I just wonder how often we actually talk about what we believe in or, after a service, what has been said in it. We see every day examples of people demonstrating their political or religious allegiances with placards, powdered paint and cans of soup, and TV coverage; we are not necessarily called upon to follow suit, yet we can, to family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, each of us bear witness to our faith and beliefs. Otherwise, what point is there in having them?

So, to become the righteousness of God, Paul’s message is that we cannot refrain from action, we cannot keep it to ourselves. Jesus’s resurrection made this possible; without it, we have nothing, we are nothing. So, this Easter Sunday, Christ the Lord is risen. Hallelujah! That is all that needs to be said.

Thought for the Month March 2024

Giving Up?

How is the Lenten observance journey going? Finding out anything new about yourself or about your relationship with God in the world? Have you ‘given up’ something that you really like, as befits the church’s traditional endurance period of denial, something that a lot of people, (even non-Christians, I’ve found), always do at this time of year because, well, it’s Lent isn’t it, and of course that’s what you’re meant to do? The reason I ask, is that at times, I do wonder if our Lenten observance is at risk of becoming just another annual irreligious contest, no more than a demonstration of one’s own fortitude and resolve in the facing down of your guilty cravings, a bit like a pious version of Dry January? If at the end of it all, you find yourself full of self-reward and haughty achievement for not falling off the wagon for six weeks, I would of course firstly congratulate you, and then perhaps suggest that you ask yourself “why did I do it”, swiftly followed by the more thought provoking “what did it achieve for me?

I have come to realise that this sort of reflection is a very important part of the observance process, in order to provide meaningful value through insight, of what it is that you have actually achieved, not just for the preceding six weeks but for all the weeks that follow and beyond. Perhaps, if we can be honest, some will not bother to enter into it, perhaps the annual Lent ritual has lost any sense of purpose, you’ve run out of observance topics and it seems that a kind of Lenten fatigue has set in, it’s now no more than the run up to Easter weekend? 

I was taught, like many others, that the fasting observance of Lent, represented the endurance and sacrifice of Jesus during His forty days in the desert, qualities which He would again demonstrate on His journey to the cross, and that somehow my chosen denial was being done to emulate both His self-discipline and sacrifice when confronted with temptation. I struggled with this on two fronts, firstly how could my banal denial of sweets, chocolate etc, remotely be on a par with Jesus’ sacrificial endurance, and secondly, when Lent was over, I easily went back to eating them again, and therefore was not really sure what it was that I had achieved, there was something missing in the purpose of my achievement (or failure) that began to gnaw at me year on year, and left me wondering if it was just me feeling like this?

So, it became something I just did, like a lot of others I’m sure, because that is what it seemed Lent was for. It wasn’t until later in life that I realised, not only that I was meant to reflect on how it made me feel, on what it had changed about me to make me more Christlike in the world, but also that the responsibility for asking those searching questions lay completely with me and me alone, because the people around you might be prepared to ask whether you managed to sustain your chosen observance, but they will never ask you what you learnt from it and surely that is where we find the value of it all.

There is also the possibility  that we never actually ask those questions of ourselves

either, due to  the transition of Lent into Easter, where as we finish the endurance of the Lenten observance we are immediately thrust into the emotional lows and highs of Holy Week, the painful darkness of Good Friday, the sad stillness of Saturday, before the joyful happiness of Easter Sunday, and it is here that  Lent is somehow quickly put away for yet another year, as all our sermons will naturally speak only of the triumph of the resurrection and the new life that it brings, we bask in its glory before quickly moving on, where we either forget to look back, or choose not to.

The eventual outcome for me was to change my mindset from “what am I going to do for Lent?” to “what is Lent going to do for me?” No longer would I restrict myself to an endurance of denial in order to tick the compliance box, but instead do something more meaningful, still challenging  and with a required need for self-discipline, but also considered, and spiritually beneficial for both me and for my relationship with God, which I now understand to be the fundamental purpose of the Lenten observance. There are also the pillars of prayer and almsgiving to use as preparation for the road to the cross and its promised salvation, so why be restricted to “giving something up”?

We still have a fair bit of this year’s Lenten journey to go and so I truly hope that however you have decided to participate, in whatever observance method you have chosen, that you are finding it worthwhile and fulfilling in its purpose, if not, or you are abstaining due to Lenten fatigue, then there is still time to take a different approach, in whatever way motivates you and one that brings you to an Easter reflection with some benefit, no matter how small, designed to bring you a little closer to Christ and the events of His Passion, a sacrifice borne of eternal love for us all. Amen

Danny

Loving God,
During the sacred season of Lent, bring me closer to you.
Prepare a place in my home and heart for silence and solitude,
so that I may re-discover the grace of a prayer-full life.
Help me to fast from those things that threaten the well-being of
body and soul and remind me of the grace of simplicity.
Enlarge my heart so that I give to those in need and, in so doing,
re-discover the grace of gratitude and generosity.
May this season be a grace-filled time to rekindle
my love for and faith in you.
Amen.

Thought for the Month February 2024

This month’s thought is an extract from an address given at Cooksmill Green Church 11^th February 2024

Boundaries and Freedom

When I heard the news last week about the conviction of the youngsters who murdered Brianna Ghey, the things that were said about them, their motives, I knew I had to think again about today’s service. Sadly, as we know, this is not the only tragic event of this nature to occur in recent times, murders and attacks with teenage victims and teenage perpetrators. But of course it’s not exclusive to teenagers, take the recent acid attack by a 35-year-old man on a mother and her children.

Together with all the other horrific world news we hear, there’s a danger our senses become dulled, our feelings can be reduced to a resigned shrug.

For some years now, some in society have dictated that people must be free, including the very young, who must be allowed to be free, free to express themselves any way they like, free to make choices and so on. Good arguments can be made for this; there can be times and places for such freedoms. But!

Given the dangers (now finally being acknowledged) of some modern social media, even children from loving, caring families – who teach right and wrong – can be vulnerable and subversively led into destructive activities – or become victims to online activity. This, plus the trend for a ‘freedom of thinking anything goes’ culture that’s crept into parts of society, makes the need for boundaries seems ever more important to me.

The balance between freedom and boundaries is tricky, but in a ‘civilised’ society any freedoms must surely be accompanied by responsibilities, responsibilities that need to be taught and learnt. There have to be boundaries of right and wrong, dare I say it, Moral Boundaries! Whilst some morality may be innate, most I would suggest needs to be taught, and the earlier the better. Waiting for lessons given by teachers at school, important though they are, is too late. Teaching and examples, given by parents and/or guardians in the early years is vital, Grandparents, Aunties, Uncles can also play a big role.

Then later on, teachers, politicians, celebrities – especially those with massive on line influence play a key role in shaping people’s boundaries, or lack of. But here in lies a problem. Whose boundaries, morals, rules… should they and we follow? Pharisaic, Rabbinic, Vatican, Church of England Synod, Humanist, New Age…. And who is it that sets these anyway? And what happens to freedom?

There have always been violence and teenage gangs, just look at the Mods and Rockers of the 60s, but there is so much more in the equation today. Harder and more addictive drugs, social media bullying – where cowards can bully and hide, web sites promoting suicide, self-harm, violence and yes, pornography. Much has changed in recent times, the problems that have always been there have been exacerbated. We’re living in a different world

I’m not suggesting for one minute we should go back to Victorian ‘straight jacket’ boundaries, or anything like them, these were no better than the Pharisaic laws Jesus was railing against in our reading. but I fear some in our current generations, young and old, have become products of (and I use the term broadly) the ‘Secularist’ free thinking anything goes influences that have grown in the past few decades, the fruits of which I believe we are now seeing. Given new dangers I’ve mentioned, I ask myself again, within the myriad of influences that secularism encompasses, who is it that sets the moral compass? Who is it in these cultures/traditions, that says what is right or wrong (pure or impure)? We see the danger that sects and cults with their various agendas can bring to the world – and in this, sadly, we cannot ignore those who manipulate religious teachings in the same way.

It seems to me that the Bible and the teachings of Jesus – un-manipulated – are a pretty good start. In the reading from Mark we see how Jesus warns against the manmade manipulation of religious laws (even if a few of them are well intentioned). Jesus tells the Pharisees, and us, that the desire for a ‘pure heart’ is the route to true purity, not how we wash our hands.

So which rules and commands do we follow? Well there are the Ten Commandments of course, another pretty good start point, but Jesus, when asked by a scribe which were the most important, picked just two, he said:

²⁹ “The most important one,” …, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31 N.I.V.)

The remaining eight commands, which Jesus didn’t mention, are all ‘do not’ commands! So why are the first two more important? Outwardly they are so simple and they can set us free. How? Well, if we can truly love God and truly love our neighbours in the way Jesus implies, the need for any ‘do not’ commandments became redundant. They would simply be the default position. Sadly, the implementation of these first two commands is not so simple due to ‘Human Nature’ or ‘The Human Condition’, call it what you will. The need for the ‘do not’ commandments and the boundaries they provide are still needed.

Much as we may not like it, we all need to have, and to understand, boundaries of various types – the dos and the do nots – acceptable to God and to our neighbours, respect, patience, understanding God’s boundaries, not boundaries designed to suit a certain group’s agenda. drawn so tightly they choke out love.

On a positive note, there are voices who call for help for the homeless and hungry, better care for the elderly and disadvantaged, proper care and education of our children, equality of opportunity, tolerance of those with different cultures and life styles, all of which is to be welcomed and encouraged. So please don’t be discouraged by what I’ve said so far.

Teaching boundaries is the responsibility of us all, parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, teachers ‘The Church! And yes even politicians and government. But as we try to set those boundaries it’s worth noting what Donald W McCullough penned an article in ‘Christianity Today’ “Serving a Wild Free God” back in 1955in it he wrote:

God does not always respect the boundaries we create and carefully protect. Drawing lines in the theological sand may serve our purposes, separating good guys from bad guys and can be helpful, because it is hard to know that you’re on the inside unless you know who is on the outside. But God has a studied disregard for anxieties of this sort. Prodigal grace keeps spilling over into alien territory.¹

Does our Love and care spill over into alien territory? To enemy territory?

We all have a part to play, I pray God will show us each what our part is in setting God’s boundaries which can ultimately set us all free.

STEVE.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’… ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

¹David E. Garland (1996) The NIV application Commentary – Mark Zonondervan

Reading: Mark 7: 1-23 N.I.V.

That Which Defiles

7 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus ² and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. ³ (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. ⁴ When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

⁵ So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

⁶ He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honour me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
⁷ They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.’

⁸ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

⁹ And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! ¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honour your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ ¹¹ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— ¹² then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. ¹³ Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

¹⁴ Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵ Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” ^[16] 

¹⁷ After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. ¹⁸ “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

²⁰ He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. ²¹ For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³ All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Thought For The Month January 2024.

I rather like the round robin letters you get at Christmas time, but pity the poor Corinthians when Paul’s Christmas card popped through the letter box, containing sixteen chapters to get through. Yet by New Year’s Day, they probably thought it worth the trouble: if you are wondering about New Year’s resolutions, then Paul is the man to go to. You want three? His letter can offer at least three hundred. But three of the most extraordinary come in one of the lectionary readings for January (Revised Common Lectionary 1 Corinthians 6v, 12v-end); they still have remarkable relevance today.

Paul tackles first here a major problem for the early Christians. If the faith was spreading beyond its Jewish roots, which – if any – of the old Mosaic laws were still valid in the new religion? And if one jettisoned the dietary rules and male circumcision and all the rest, what laws then should one follow? Paul’s answer sounds simple, but is profound: all things are lawful, but not all things are beneficial. Every Christian has to apply to everything he or she does or thinks the test: is this, in the light of my Christian faith, the right thing to do or think? It is not an easy task – when we look at the war in Ukraine, for example, should we feel pleased when Ukraine scores a major hit against the Russians in their own territory, or should we deprecate the loss of civilian life? Should we support their ambitious aim to recover Crimea or push for compromise that would probably simply give Putin a chance to re-arm? As Christians we are called upon to engage with these moral questions and to think through our responses. So, first NYR from Paul: elections coming up in 2024 in both UK and US. Make an informed moral decision on whose concern for justice and compassion deserves your vote rather than on who will give you the best deal.

Next, the NYR many of us will be considering after Christmas: the Diet. Paul’s condemnation of over-eating has nothing to do with health or aesthetic considerations, but rather that gluttony is – like drug addiction, alcohol abuse, compulsive gambling and the rest of the so-called “deadly” sins – a failure of self-control. Paul focuses in this passage on the physical, but what he says could equally apply to such destructive mental obsessions as morbid self-pity and the illusion that one’s internet posts are self-evidently worth reading and writing and repeating. God wants our response to his love to be that of our whole person, and that cannot happen if part of that personality is dominated by such cravings and delusions. So second NYR from Paul: ration what is vexatious to the soul along with what is calamitous to the waistline.

Thirdly, Paul reminds the Corinthians of what Genesis says about a couple becoming “one flesh” – never one to mince his words, he daringly identifies this as happening through the sexual act rather than through the rite of marriage. Whatever the implications of this for the Church’s teaching on remarriage of divorcees or same-sex marriage – and they are, I would argue, profound – Paul’s emphasis is clear on the need to enter any such relationship “not lightly or selfishly, but reverently and responsibly” – there is not, nor should be, such a thing as “casual” sex. Even clearer, and the third NYR from Paul, is to think about your partner and what it means for him or her to be not just with you but at one with you. And, in 2024 (at least!) to act accordingly.

Finally, Steve Randell in his talk at Roxwell on New Year’s Eve reflected ruefully that many NYRs don’t outlast the January sales. Our redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ must count as the bargain of all centuries. But Paul’s letter reminds us: terms and conditions apply!

David

Paul’s First letter to the Corinthians, chapter 6 (extracts)

“All things are lawful for me,” you may say, but not all things are beneficial. I will not be enslaved by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,” you may say, but God will destroy both one and the other. Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

An Advent Thought for The Month

Happy New Church Year! Yes, it’s that time again as we leave one church worship year for another, and as always, that must mean we have entered the season of Advent, which just like its Lenten cousin, requires us to stop, reflect, and prepare ourselves for what is to come, though I would argue that both reflection and preparation should always remain a constant, always a part of our natural Christian life cycle.

The difficulty that the Advent observance has, much like the Lenten one, is that it’s competing with so many other seasonal secular preparations, which are of course time-consuming distractions, and that can mean that sometimes we really do struggle to come to a stop, let alone find time to reflect or prepare. So therein lies your first Advent thought, to ask yourself, when will you make the time to stop for God, both physically and spiritually?

Scripture as always will give us the tools for reflection and preparation, our Advent readings will as always build a sense of expectation about the arrival of a saviour, the long-awaited Messiah that will bring justice and salvation to the righteous. We find ourselves listening to a narrative of anticipation for a God that will bring about a better world, one of safety from persecution, free from poverty, devoid of conflict, a fair and just world for all peoples of all nations. It is a narrative of saving expectations set in the distant past, but one that we still earnestly yearn for in the here and now, and one that nurtures both our persistent waiting and sense of hope for a future arrival, one that will set the world to rights. Advent is all about expectation.

Expectations though should be tempered with caution because everything is rosy when they eventually do become reality, but think about how you might feel when they don’t actually materialise? It would only be natural to experience emotions such as disappointment, anger or doubt, which in turn might lead us to become very disillusioned by the experience?  A great example of this is found in one of the central figures of the Advent story, that of John the Baptist. Now here is someone who resolutely knew that the Messiah, the Savour of all, had arrived at a world that desperately needed Him, and not only that, but he also knew exactly who it was, having no doubts at all when declaring Jesus to be that very person. John, like those around him, had a very fixed expectation of what the Messiah would be, a leader who would vanquish the oppressors of his people, set all the wrongs to right and would have the power of the Almighty to use as and when needed, everything that Jesus was never going to be. Skip a little further into his story and you will find John languishing in a prison cell, waiting for the spectacular release that never came, and when all those negative feelings that I just mentioned came bursting forth from the greatest of prophets, it led John to ask Jesus “are you the one or is there another”? The doubt and disappointment caused by his fixed expectations, was so powerful as to actually overwhelm his most stoic of faith. If it can happen to him, then what of us?

Well in this season of preparation for an arrival, being called to be watchful and ready, within an atmosphere of building anticipation, we might indeed, as individuals, ask what our own expectations of God are in the here and now, and like John, what might they be for the future? When Christ comes again what would it take to convince you of his arrival? Would you, like John the Baptist, be able to recognise Him, would he meet your own expectations, would you also be looking for the spectacular and would you come to doubt Him if it were not so? I suppose like John it depends on what you imagine Him to be. As you take time to reflect (Yes, I know Christmas is just around the corner but do make the time), consider just how fixed are your expectations of God, and are they in fact actually limiting your experience of Him in the world right now. Jesus sent a message back to John to tell him to not look for the spectacular show of power that he was expecting, but to open his eyes and look at what was actually happening around him, the world may appear broken to him but because of Jesus’ ministry, people were being healed, loved, comforted and given hope. He wanted John to see that there is power to make change through these things too, which can be equally spectacular in its results. Should we not do the same?

Well, there are a few thoughts there for you to start off your Advent journey, hopefully a little challenging, hopefully a little reassuring too, comforting in that God is always with us, sometimes in the most simplest of form, so let’s not pigeon hole him through fixed expectations of the spectacular, but look for Him, as we must always look for Him, amongst the good things that still happen around us, in the faces and actions of those who show us love and friendship, those who make unselfish sacrifices for us and others, for the blessings that we do have and not the ones we cry out for.  Stop, reflect and prepare.

To all whom these words reach, I truly wish you a peaceful Christmas and a very hopeful 2024, whatever your circumstances may be, know that the love of God is always with you, even if sometimes it’s hard to see.  Amen. 

Danny