Notices
CANDLES – blow out and fire exit to my left through double doors.
MOBILES
COLLECTION : Crisis at Christmas,
SERVICES : midnight here starts at 11, Christmas Day 10am.
INTROIT By choir from the back of church by the main doors.
Talk
Ever had to make a tough decision that’s kept you awake at night? In the following sketch Joseph is faced with an impossible dilemma…
Sketch
J suggests he and M have a picnic
M pops into Tesco for Finest Chocolate Cake, Grapefruit Juice, a tin of Sardines and a jar of pickled guerkins.
On the way to Greville Smyth she complains of back ache. They sit by the ice cream van and J starts asking about wedding venues – Cooper’s Arms or The Robins?
M seems distracted and asks, ‘Do you think God sends everyone messages?’
[ Lately M seems to want to sit down a lot and gets more headaches than usual. J asks again]
‘What about Coronation Chicken or Vol aux Vents?’
Mary responds, ‘Cousin E is expecting…’ as she tucks into her chocolate cake with a pickled guerkin on the side
Mary, I can’t help noticing you seem preoccupied these days – are you sure you’re feeling alright
M ‘Did you know Cousin E is expecting, she ….’
J I’m asking about you – is there anything you’re not telling me?
M Do you have a copy of the Torah with you – the rabbi is always urging us to do bible study? Joseph – do you love me?
J You know I do with all my heart – only God competes for my affections
M Do you trust mew and know that I love the Lord with all my heart and soul and mind as you do?
Mary – what is all this – just tell me what’s really going on
I’m …..err…well you see…..headaches, diet,
You’re diabietic!
M Oh Joseph if only it were that simple. No I’m with child – I’m pregnant.
Mary – How could you – I thought you loved only me and the Lord – why tell me this now, why carry on like everything is well between us when it clearly isn’t?
It is well, I love you and no one else – there is no one else!
J I’m so unhappy, so confused – what’s his name?
J Listen to me – there is no one else
Wait – first you admit to being unfaithful now you start talking nonsense what’s going on ? You’re not the woman I thought you were
[ J storms off leaving M weeping – J calls in to the Cooper’s for a quick lemonade while M goes to the Tobacco Factory for a stiff latte. They each return to their parents homes in Duckmoor and Raleigh
Mary stays up all night praying while J slips unnoticed into the Lady Chapel at St Francis where he cries himself to sleep, too confused to enquire of the LORD. J dreams strange things recalling parts of the scrolls talking about the line of David and his own descendants – in the morning he awakens stiff but aware of having been afraid – yet he also feels oddly peaceful – it passes beyond his understanding. It’s as though a visitor had been to see him but it was probably only the sacristan putting out the OOS – mind you he’d never noticed before that Phil had wings!
J goes around to M’s house
‘Fancy a full English at the Red and White café?’ As J tucks into his black pudding he asks,
What did you mean by asking do you think God sends each of us a message?
M ‘I had a messenger from God visit me and say the most wonderful thing would happen to me
J No way – I had a dream last night and had exactly that – a messenger who said it would be alright for us to marry. Wait a minute – this would make you a virgin with child and I’ve not had time to tell you there’s a census been called and we’ve got to go to Bethlehem straight away – how about that bible study – have you got the i-scroll app on your mobile?
Here it is! IsaiahL – For to us a cild is boren and the govenerment will be upon his shoulder – and this in Micahl – blessed are you Bethlehem Ephratha for from you will come a Saviour who is Christ the Lord
J Holy mother of God – you’re
M Shhhh, shhhh – I know I know. That’s just what Gabriel said.
J Who on earth is Gabriel – I thought you said there was no one else
No silly he’s the messenger like you had he explained how it would al happen
Why didn’t you tell me this before?
Well it’s not exactly the easiest thing to tell you – but we know that where God is involved strange and wonderful things can and do happen
This is astonishing – now whose parents are we going to tell first – perhaps the wedding date needs bringing forwards! I think we need another strong coffee …..
Extraordinary pain of being misunderstood, extraordinary faith, extraordinary knowledge and love of God – no wonder God whose J and M. They risked their reputations because they obeyed God as their Lord and Master
Righteous, courageous yet ordinary like you and me. Matth’ews account emphasizes J’s response not Mary’s but what does it tell us of God? He has a long term plan and chooses to bring it about through men and women from evey walk of life. God sends messages in dreams, by angels and in other ways.
Learning sign language for me this year has been profoundly moving and God also uses the language of signs – rainbows, parted water, plagues, prophets, miracles – but what about today? What signs of God are in the world today . We need to help point out to one another God’s activity in the world through ordinary people and ordinary means but which bring about amazing results.
In our community things God does asks us to do – well the less people know God the simpler random act of kindness, honesty, profession of faith at the right time , hospitality to UPFEST and the Arts Trail – these are building bridges into our community
The Pontificate builder of bridges 50k emails on his birthday yesterday – how many will Jesus receive next Sunday – a good deal more than Santa!
JC reputation intact
6 bn bibles
We risk being misunderstood mocked for you belief and blessed beyond imagining and the world through you – as you trust God and not the world – serve him and not bow to the pressures of the masses
Let’s dare to aks God to send us each a message this Christmas and share with others There might even be an angel among us today. If you bring God’s message to others too you also can be on God’s staff team and have saints and angels as your work colleagues – imagine!
What signs of hope are there?
Creation
All creation look up and the sky or beauty all around us testifies to the variety and creativity that God enjoys We are made in that same image.
Creative flair
The creative artistic desire,
Natural love of local intimate, hate of global impersonal
the reconnecting the desire to rebuild communities, hanging around in small local coffee shops and talking communicating laughing with others face to face
Technology a force for good
Ever since nomadic man discovered that planting crops could enable settled communities and that a sharpened flint could be used as a cutting tool and to light fires, technology has been a force for good and evil – it depends in whose hands its placed and their motivation.
– technology serves to help us reconnect to meet up to be in community.
Kindness not survival of the fittest isn’t newsworthy but constant and global
People are generous if they trust where the money is going. People are thoughtful and caring. This never gets into the news – imagine the headline, woman smiles at dog on North Street – man opens door to let someone else go through, child helps friend in park to get onto the slide.
The bible
A force for good and evil throughout the ages – it depends in whose hands it is placed and their motivation
Arc of history
Arc of history used by MLK and adopted by Barak Obama portrays the lot of humanity as being better now than at any point in history – it’s just that the timescale for change can seem interminable.
The longing for a just merciful leader
full of integrity and compassion identifying with the needs of the ordinary person. The Israelites had been waiting for the arrival of their Messiah and were given clues and insights into his eventual return
The freedom to choose or reject God’s love
This Christmas we celebrate the fact that we live in the knowledge that not only did the savior of the world come to be with us, to begin to restore the world but that his love is sufficient to allow us to choose to follow him or not and that grace to empower us with that decision and not make us obedient robots.
Tolerance
The people of Aleppo are desperate for bibles, as indeed thousands in China long denied the ability to express their faith freely. There is a healthy struggle to allow people of all faiths and none to live harmoniously together as they have done for successfully in pockets of history.
I am inspired when intolerance is made intolerable, attitudes are changes towards the marginalized as Jesus urged us all to do – he came for everyone to know God.
Biblical authority
The word of God captured in the bible is not a dusty old irrelevant text just because it was written a long time ago – the fact that it still out sells any other book in the world testified to the truth and enduring power it has to convey a reality that we seek
Hope for me a flawed yet loved child of God
– signs that there is hope even for me a sinner even for me who know I mess up even for me who maybe hasn’t known God very well for ages – perhaps today He is calling you again just to come as you are ……. If that’s you today talk to me afterwards about how you can get to know God for yourself and how much he is longing to get to hear from you and for you to listen to what he has to say……
Use your loaf studying God’s word and praying is good for your health and intellect
We don’t have to leave our intelligence at the door to believe in a God who set in motion the big bang, nor created simple laws which maximize variety of species through a long process which we currently theorize in the language of evolution –
Studies into those who pray….
Technology progress development
– much of this is done by bible believing Christians who see no incompatibility between science and faith in fact the more they study the world the more they realise the fingerprint of a creative genius. Universities began as theological colleges in which students of theology took up other subjects as well to understand the world God has created. Our own Bishop Lee is a microbiologist and the Cambridge Astrophysicist who studies the big bang at its most basic levels of chemistry is also a vicar.
I am hopeful that through the resources God gives us we find ways to improve the living standards of the world’s population.
The bible for why we are here and the basis on which to proceed
Where we need the bible and faith is to retain the sense of priority and direction that will serve to inform our decision making. So for example our starting point is that God gives and takes away – all life starts begins HE allows it and all life is of equal validity. This contrasts sharply with the view I encountered recently which attempts to assign a value to one’s contribution to society and if it falls below a certain level that life should be terminated – bad news indeed even for the abled bodied should they ever fall ill or find themselves in a permanently debilitating traffic accident.
People have always wanted a trustworthy leader
Who sets the standards who writes the laws – Brexit and Trump were a response to the failure of globalization to improve the living standards of the masses. God gives but doesn’t share – that is our responsibility and we see glimpses of that sharing in the work of the Salvation Army and the homeless shelters and the food banks. The gulf between rich and poor seems to be getting greater but the balance of power if shifting away from the traditional heads of institutions and towards the power of the people – populism is a reaction against establishment but there remains to the desire for a true hero, a real leader, someone in whom absolutely trust can be placed. A benign dictator. In ancient times the Israelites insisted on having their own king instead of accepting God as their only leader. They were warned that this wouldn’t end well and that same desire even today to follow anyone other than God still serves us badly.
Belonging
Jesus came to show the world that by belonging to the community of believers, the Holy Spirit who was with Jesus and his mother Mary can also reside in us. As we allow that, a transformation will occur, helping the desires of our heart to change and to see the world through the eyes of the creator. Once we have caught the merest glimpse of the hope that is available to us all, we will want to serve a different master and to please him only – no longer serve ourselves, that most harsh of critics not even serving a political party or a movement but as Joseph so obediently responded to the appearance of an angel in a dream, if we choose God’s calling upon our lives only He can know what could be possible through each one of us.
Guinness Records
reports an estimated 2.5 billion Bibles were printed between 1815 and 1975 and The Economist estimates more than 100m new Bibles are printed every year making a staggering total of over 6 billion in print. By comparison the Harry Potter series – 7 books in all – sold only 400 million copies total
Every day signs
Wi-Fi logo
Battery low
Coffee
Chocolate
Sleep
Peace
Hope
Meaning
Time
What do we crave
, what signs are there that these cravings can be satisfied?
Crave belonging, acceptance, meaning, hope, companionship
Why Matthew write about the birth of Jesus – because it mattered very much to its readers , it was significant to record, it was what they needed to hear.
God with us Emmanuel and Jesus means he saves us – from what?
Joseph’s response is different
to Mary’s – she marvels wonders and ponders asking simply how can this be that the God of the universe would choose her to carry the Son of God. Joseph is a righteous man concerned to do the right by the customs and traditions of his culture but also to divorce Mary quietly for her apparent infidelity – he must have been devastated to think he’d been cheated on but even so he wanted to help Mary and perhaps his own reputation too. He didn’t want to expose Mary to public disgrace as would have been his right.
Joseph was in right standing with his community and with God – he was a righteous man, not self-righteous. How amazing that God chooses two people to carry out his amazing plan.
God trusts humans with his plans
God looked at Mary and Joseph, imperfect fallible humans and trusts them to fulfil His will for them and for the people of Israel and for the world. God looks at them as he did the world when he created it and smiles – what he has created is very good, very good indeed. God looks at each of you made in his image and delights in you, knowing everything about you and longing to spend time with you.
Angels are simply messengers
from God. God sends messages to us all the time, the issue is whether we can read the signs interpret the language and to respond – hearing listening seeing takes practice and familiarity only comes with intimacy.
How do we trust others
, by taking small risks first. Sometimes we trust because we share mutual confidences that would compromise us if others knew about them.
The world puts its trust and confidence in certain inalienable rights such as freedom of speech and the democratic rule of law but even these are known to have their flaws. The prevailing view now seems to be reduced only to this: my opinion and perspective is my truth which cannot be questioned by another. If it’s true for me it’s true enough.
Why then are people indignant that the pre-election or pre-referendum rhetoric the powerful promises are latterly written off as simply post-truth stylized forms of speech – it’s the impression that is given the emotion that is stirred that matters not hard facts.
Trust technology
Do you trust your sat nav your google maps trip advisor to take you to the right destination – North Street exists in two places in Bristol – just off Luckwell but also near Portman Square not far from Cabot Circus. IF I rely on the technology it always chooses North Street the wrong side of the river!
Based on my more local knowledge, my intimate knowledge of the streets near my home I can use my experience to be accurate at select a more unique road, St Francis Road to take me to the correct destination.