Expectations

I wonder how many children yesterday received gifts that were on their wish list to Santa.  I suspect that most of them did.  I can imagine the excitement when opening their presents to see which items on their lists had become reality.  And I think that maybe somewhere there may be one or two who are a little disappointed when they discover that not all on their endless list has been granted.  After all there is a limit to how much parents can spend.  But it does mostly seem to be the case that what is asked for is received, with great anticipation, excitement and joy.  I'm sure we can all remember how difficult it was to go to sleep on Christmas Eve.  We just wanted the morning to be here so we could open our gifts and see if our hopes had been realised.

Of course as we get older, we (well most of us!) don't get quite so excited and are not quite as demanding in what we want to receive.  I'm happy to say that I didn't get anything that was not according to my taste or that I would find useful in some way.  They were all things that I had hoped for so I am one very happy lady today.


In ancient times, the Jewish nation had been promised a Saviour, a Messiah.  They hoped that a great leader would come and free them from the cruel rule of the occupying forces of the Roman empire.  A number of zealots had arisen, and fallen, in the past but they were still a nation that lived under oppression.  The might of Rome was too great for them to overcome.  A Deliverer had been promised and the people waited for many, many years.  

Not quite the mighty warrior the nation had hoped for.

When God did send a Deliverer, the Saviour, it wasn't in the form of a militant person, a sword brandishing warrior who would bring about an uprising against the Romans.  It was the opposite - a baby.  God certainly works in mysterious ways.  When Jesus claimed to have been sent by God and said that God was his Father, he was shunned by many.  How could this be the promised Messiah?  That wasn't what they had hoped for at all.  All that waiting, and for what?  Most Jews were indeed disappointed at the gift that God had given them and couldn't accept Jesus as the fulfilment of God's promise of a Deliverer..

We often have a wish list for God.  Sometimes when we pray it's almost as though we have a 'shopping list' that we reel off to him and expect him to answer our requests in the way that we want.  But God being God often does something quite different.  

Lord help me to see what it is that you want to give me.  Help me not to get disappointed when things don't happen in the way that I want but help me to see that through it all you want to show me your will and purpose for my life.  Thank you for the way that you have guided me and the things that you have shown me and taught me.  Help me never to underestimate that what I don't understand just might be exactly what I need.  Grant me wisdom and eyes to see your gifts for me.  So be it.

Advent - Love and Joy

The third and fourth advent candles stand for love and joy.  John, in the first words of his gospel, tells us that the Word that was at the beginning of creation, became flesh and blood at the birth of Jesus.  He was God in human form and the way he lived and the things he taught were to show us the Father.  Look to Jesus and we see God.  His love is unconditional.  Until that point in time the Jewish nation had laws that they had to obey in order to 'please God' but Jesus shows us that God is love and he loves his creation no matter what.  He doesn't put conditions on us.  He just asks us to accept him, as we are.  We could never earn his love, although some seem to try and feel that if they comply with certain rules then they are more pleasing to God.  

Jesus came to show us that the special relationship that had hitherto been between God and the 'chosen' race of Israel, was now for all.  Again as the well known verse in John's gospel says, 'God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him might be saved'.  It is for everyone, without exception, without condition.  That is perfect love.  Love came down at Christmas!


A very popular song that we sing at Christmas is Joy to the World.  I think that the greatest joy at Christmas is not about the gifts received or given but when families can meet together and enjoy each other's company.  Of course I am well aware that not everyone is so blessed.  Some live alone and have no-one to share with, others live a long way away and are unable to meet up.  But when families can, it is indeed a great joy.  God's family is more than those who belong to a particular religion who might feel that they have the truth and are the sons of the Almighty.  Humanity is his creation.  We are all his children in the sense that he made us all.  Jesus came for all the world.  

God is love and it gives him great joy to share his love with his creation.  He shares his love with us in a special way through the birth of Jesus at this time of year and he also wants to share his joy with us, as we experience joy by sharing with others.  There will indeed be joy in heaven when this earthly family of humanity can live together and enjoy celebrating his love in whatever way they choose and are accepted in so doing.  God did not intend that his human creation should be a dysfunctional family, always arguing and fighting with each other.  His will is that all humanity can share together and enjoy what he has created on this planet, our home in the universe.  He wants us to live as one and reflect his unconditional love to each other.  May you know his love this Christmas and experience the joy of sharing and being together with others as God's big human family.

Advent - Peace

When we think of the word 'peace' we generally think of the absence of war.  When world leaders hold peace talks, it is to try and solve the problems that are behind a particular situation where opposing sides are fighting, usually with deadly weapons.  It seems that there is always a war situation somewhere in the world at any given moment in time; the world is constantly having to tolerate the devastation and knock-on effects caused by conflict.  Can we hope amid all the killings that occur daily, that at this Christmas time there can indeed be peace on earth? 

Of course peace is not only the absence of war and conflict.  I guess most young parents with small children who are healthy, active and boisterous look at their offspring lovingly but sigh 'Oh for some peace and quiet.'  Peace for them is not the cessation of hostilities but a few moments of silence and tranquility, usually when the children have gone to bed exhausted after all their activity during the day.  Or who looks at the sunrise or sunset over still water or a country scene and doesn't get a sense of peace and tranquility?

Above our front door at our home we have the word 'Shalom', which is a Hebrew word meaning 'Peace'.  In Hebrew, however, it has a much wider and deeper meaning than just what we understand as peace.  It is a form of greeting, either of welcome or of farewell but means much more than peace, hello or goodbye.  It has a sense of wholeness, completeness, contentedness, well-being and harmony.  So the greeting the angels gave was more than peace.  They said, 'Peace and goodwill to all men'.  That includes completeness, health, safety, fulness, rest, absence of discord.  

Jesus came as God's answer to a troubled world that had lost its way.  He came as a baby who with his parents had to flee as refugees to Egypt from the fear of death at the hands of a despotic ruler.  After returning to Nazareth as a young child, he lived all his life in a country that was invaded and controlled by the mighty, imperialistic force of Rome. It seems that in 2000 years not a lot has changed in the way that humans treat each other.  Yet Jesus says that he leaves us his sort of peace, not as the world gives but a different kind of peace, a deeper, fuller, complete peace.  It might seem very difficult, if not impossible to imagine peace in the world today but maybe if I follow his teachings, then maybe I can bring peace and harmony in the spheres in which I live and move.  Shalom is more about connectedness, completion and harmony, where everything fits right together.  All creation is connected to each other and to God.  We all have his DNA in our being.  He breathed his life into all of creation.  It is his will that we should all be one in him, living and sharing together, making the world whole.  Jesus came as God's answer to the problems of the world.  His ways are still God's answer.  Peace and goodwill to all this Christmas and always.  Shalom.

Advent - Hope

Last Sunday was the first Sunday in advent when the first candle of the advent wreath was lit.  The light of this first candle represents hope in the darkness.  When everything around is dark, the light of one, even small light changes everything.


I was brought up in a fishing town in the north east of England.  Along the coastline there were a number of lighthouses because of the number of fishing boats that travelled along that part of the North Sea.  I remember as a child, seeing wrecks of large boats that had been destroyed when they hit rocks that they had not seen.  The lighthouse plays such an important role in the safety of those aboard shipping vessels, both large and small.  At the coast where I lived there were two lighthouses, one on each side of the mouth of the river Tyne.  Even in the darkness, the crew of any boat searching for safe harbour knows that if they steer between the two lighthouses, they will arrive at the harbour.  

Once past the lighthouses, they can then see a number of small lights along the banks of the river.  These are known as the lower lights and guide the boat into the harbour in safety.  Out at sea, everything is dark, often only the light of the moon and the position of the stars act as guidance .  So the lights of the lighthouses are crucial in giving hope for a safe arrival in the port.

As we think of this first week of advent and the hope that the light brings, I remember the song we sing:

A light came out of darkness; no light, no hope had we,

Till Jesus came from heaven our light and hope to be.

We are also meant to be light in the darkness of this world, just like the lower lights.  The first verse and chorus of another old song reminds us:

Brightly beams our Father's mercy from his lighthouse evermore;

But to us he gives the keeping of the lights along the shore.

Let the lower lights be burning, send a gleam across the waves;

Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save.

We look at the world today and sometimes feel there seems little hope with so many problems.  We are reminded that Jesus, the light of the world came to a nation that was occupied by the Roman forces and was forced to flee as a baby with his earthly parents to Egypt as refugees.  Yet God was working in the darkness.  His answer is to bring hope to a dark world.  As we light our candles and our trees and put up our light decorations, let's remember that they are not just nice to look at as they twinkle in our homes but they represent hope for a world that seems lost and can't see the way out of the darkness.  Even a small light gives hope.