It’s almost Christmas.  For many churches that means nativity plays and carol services.  For Dunfermline URC those will come later so this morning presented a bit of a challenge.  How to preach on Christmas… before it’s Christmas.

This is what I came up with.  Your thoughts and comments are very welcome.

Sermon Text (for those who like to read)

When the world was dark
And the city was quiet,
You came.

Christmas is coming.  The end of the exile is near.

Rob Bell says that:

Exile is when you forget your story.

Exile isn’t just about location; exile is about the state of your soul.

Exile is when you fail to convert your blessings into blessings for others.

Exile is when you find yourself a stranger to the purposes of God.

Tomorrow, the 4th Sunday in Advent, I’m going to talk about exile and how God found a most unexpected way to end our separation from him.

no angels
no stars
no shepherds
no wise men

Just God, here, with us
Always

The Something Beautiful Podcast crew have produced a pretty cool crowd-sourced advent episode.  Listeners and regular contributers were invited to read one of the 9 Christmas Bible passages and send in Christmas wishes.  It’s turned out pretty good!  Avril and I read one and all the family read another.  I think our three boys do a particularly good job of shepherds and angels!  Have a listen at something beautiful.

This Sunday is the 4th in Advent.  We’re almost there.  The waiting is almost over…

And yet the lectionary has us at Gabriel telling Mary she’s going to have a child.  It’s as though they don’t want us to get to the birth.

Perhaps all this waiting is important.

Perhaps we’re meant to hang around for a while longer…

wondering…

wishing…

watching…

It’ll be here.  Soon enough.

Or maybe too soon for some.

This week’s sermon almost didn’t happen.  I was really busy and thinking about simply rehashing last week’s offering.  But as I started to rework it I deleted it and started again.  And I’m glad I did.  As usual your comments, reactions and thoughts are most welcome.

This sermon was preached on 14 December, the 3rd Sunday in Advent, at Hamilton United Reformed Church.

A sneaky peek at Sunday’s sermon…

Because of the way we arrange the Christmas story we sometimes forget that John and Jesus are the same age.  Remember John is Jesus’ cousin.  His mother is Elizabeth who was pregnant around the same time as Mary.  When John talks about scanning the crowds he’s looking for a fully-grown Jesus.  He’s not talking about a baby in a stable.  He’s talking about the Messiah, coming, now.

John’s father was Zachariah, the priest.  That means that John would be destined for the priesthood and yet we find him in a very different priestly role.  The holy man not in the synagogue or the temple but out in the wild.

This is our first clue about this Messiah John is raving about.  Jesus isn’t going to be religious in the conventional sense.

But then conventional is never astonishing is it?  Conventional means tried and tested.  Conventional means agreed on, decided, settled.  And that doesn’t seem to describe Jesus to me.  At all.

It’s getting closer.  This Christmas thing.

I’m becoming a bit of a regular on the Something Beautiful Podcast, maybe because I’ll do pretty much anything for a latte and a cake.  Check out this week’s discussion where Thomas and I have a chat about Advent, hope, expectation, disappointment and recontextualisation (Thomas’ favourite word this week), all with the wonderful noises of Starbucks in the background.

Listen to the latest episode here and let us know what you think.  I’m sure some of what we say is not complete nonsense!!!

I ended the service at Drumchapel Essenside URC with these brilliant words from Roddy Hamilton:

let us go out
with quiet boldness,
tender daring,
simmering anger,
impatient justice.

let us go out with provocative peacemaking
into advent,
enough to crack open the moribund and dry faith of the world
in it’s spent and necrotic cravings.

let us go out with a message
that disturbs the world with restless whispers
about god and incarnation,
goosebumps and justice.

let us go out
and muffle our laughter
behind an unnerving truth
heaven-shaped
sharp-edged
waiting to crack it all open
and let the glory through
with a living word:
jesus

Restless whispers.  Goosebumps and justice.  That’s what Advent is for me.

Let the waiting begin.

Christmas is coming

The waiting begins

It should be a time of joy and anticipation and yet the lectionary gives us Isaiah 64:1-9.

7 No-one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.

God is gone

The people wait

Impatient

Fearful

Trusting

that God will return… soon

God is missing… but the rumours persist.

God is missing… but hope remains.

God is missing… but the people keep watch.

The waiting begins

what do you wait for?

Join the Advent Conspiracy!  Give your presence this Christmas!