Category Archives: Advent

Coming back

Jesus is coming back. Pass it on.
A children’s game perhaps?

What about this one? At the Christmas Fair a child of 6 came to the stall of Palestinian handicrafts and looked at a set of beads made from Olive Wood. This item was a beautiful rosary. He took it out of the box and examined it carefully, enjoying the look and the feel of it. He wanted to buy it. So the stall holder promised to look after it for him until he came back. Just as the Fair was coming to an end the child returned with his father and showed him the set of beads that he’d like to buy. The father bought the rosary for his son. He told me, ‘When I was his age I had one, possibly still have somewhere. I know his grandmother will have one.’
The father’s experience of moving away from the faith of his parents and taking just a residual sense of it with him is not uncommon. I meet many people who tell me ‘I used to…’ something or another to do with faith. Sometimes it is their children who bring them back. Quite a few children bought olive wood items from the stall exclaiming in happiness when they discovered where they came from and saying it was for a parent or family member.

Jesus is coming back, and meets us as we meet our children coming towards us with faith to share.

In our coming and our going
The peace of God.

The Carol of the Adverts

As you must have realised the word Advent has only one letter different from Advert. Here’s a little seasonal ditty for those who’s Advent is all about those long awaited seasonal Adverts.

Hark the Christmas advert brings
Quite a lot of Christmas things:
Queues in shops and lots of post,
How to be a heavenly host.
Don’t forget your Christmas pud!
It must be especially good,
Served with turkey and with sprouts,
There’s no room for shopping doubts.
Hark the Christmas advert’s here,
Sing along and give a cheer.

(note the last line could end ‘have a beer’, for those sponsored by the brewing industry)

JAL 24.11.2017
Tune is Mendelssohn

December 24th, O Mary

O Mary:
did you say ‘O my God’
when the journey began?
Did you say ‘O my God’
when you realised the city was full?
Did you say ‘O my God’
when you saw the stable?
Did you say ‘O my God’
when the labour pains started?
Did you say ‘O my God’
when his head was crowning?
did you say ‘O my God’
when the chord was cut?
Did you say ‘O my God’
when you laid him in a manger?
May we who say ‘O my God’ now
at even the slightest thing,
look with you and wonder
as around the world today,
women follow this same journey
to motherhood and beyond.

In our life and our believing
The Love of God

 

December 23rd, O Emmanuel, with us God

O God, we who are not with it, need you with us.
We’ve got lost in a maze of our own making;
Preferring trivia and ephemera, we’ve lost our focus.
We think Justice means when we get what we want;
Mercy we confuse with people being kind to us
And humility has fallen out of the dictionary,
To be trodden underfoot as irrelevant.
We need you with us to restore us to a fuller understanding
Of the way of Justice, Mercy and Humility.

Come and be with us, not temporarily,
But on permanent loan, as a native,
Knowing what being human means from the inside.
That way, maybe we stand a chance
Of doing justice, loving mercy and travelling humbly [1].

In our life and our believing
The Love of God

[1] Micah 6:8

December 22nd, O King of nations

On a clear day,
Maybe we could try some blue sky
Thinking about nations and kings.

Partitioning the globe,
Drawing lines on a map,
Invasion, conquest, uprising:
All of these and more
Feature in the formation
Of human notions of nations.

Kings have been crowned and beheaded,
Lauded and vilified, others abdicated.
If there’s a place where the ideas of human power
Meet and are found wanting it is here,
In the nexus of kings and nations.

Longed for One,
We want you
To transform our global glories,
Our personal power trips,
Our eutopian understandings
Of our common life.

There’s a place, O King of Nations,
Where we live together differently
Because your rule makes the difference
To life lived in the communion of love.
Even so come then Lord Jesus

In our life and our believing
The love of God

December 21st, O Dayspring

Go through the park, on into the town….

Before the light comes we are just shapes
In the darkness, feeling our way.
A wet nose touches my hand
To confirm this as a common path
For early morning companions.
Bare winter boughs are reflected
In leaf littered pond water.
The park gates keep the traffic out
As I step from one world to another.
In the underpass the same graffiti
Urges on one team or another.
The empty cardboard boxes
Have no occupant today.

The people of darkness are needing a friend….

Come then Dayspring,
Brightest of all lights.
Come to the park and the underpass.
Come to the commuters on the 8.08.
Come to our anxious minds and crowded lives.
Come to platforms both busy and bare.
Come through the grey and heavy air.

The light of the world is risen again….

The sky is touched by the first signs.
The bare branches whisper and sigh
Recognising the moment of miracle
And all the birds in every corner sing
To God, creator of the Universe:
Even so, come then Lord Jesus.

The sun still shines on it never goes down….

In our life and our believing

The love of God

Today’s reflection includes lines in italics from the hymn Colours of Day, 572 in Rejoice and Sing, by Sue McClellan, John Paculabo and Keith Rycroft.

December 20th, O Key of David

D for David, the Key of David,

Ray, a shaft of morning light,

Me, the one who needs the key,

Far, a long way out of sight,

So, I’m waiting here in hope,

La, I’ll sing a waiting song,

T, the first letter of Truth,

That will bring us back to D (for David).

Apologies for borrowing this idea from Rogers and Hammerstein!

December 19th, O Root of Jesse

Earth was the only meeting place….

Earth was the only meeting place for the work of toil and seed.
Earth was the only greeting place for the winged one and womankind.
Earth is the only dwelling place for those who search the skies.
Earth is the only birthing place where the newborn one cries.

From a root comes a shoot,
From a shoot comes a leaf,
From a leaf comes all life;
A miniscule molecule making energy from sunlight.

Come then, O Root of Jesse,
Come and be our Son-light,
Born of root and shoot,
Bursting from the earth
To fill the skies.

In our life and our believing
The Love of God

December 18th, O Lord

O Lord, O Lord, O Lord
Our common exhortation;
Save us, deliver us, help us.
O Lord, O Lord, O Lord
Save us from trivia,
Deliver us from lost deliveries,
Help us with our on line dilemmas.
O Lord, O Lord, O Lord,
Save us from the common place complaints,
Deliver from the frequent ditherings,
Help us to get in tune with you.
O Lord, O Lord, O, Lord
Save us, deliver us, help us.
Come down and meet us here.

In our coming and our going
The Peace of God.

December 17th: O Wisdom

Wisdom we need you,
to discern, to distinguish,
but not, as we fear, to judge.
We need to see you on street corners,
in supermarket aisles and at railways stations,
on motorways and in board rooms
in our homes and neighbourhoods.
O Wisdom, only you can help us
to discern the truth and face our fears.
In these days of untruth and of false news:
come to the rubble of the world’s conscience,
that we may distinguish truth
and follow the Way of Wisdom

In our life and our believing
The Love of God