Between Advent 1 and Advent 2....

Really getting into Advent, are you? I get uneasy when all eyes and minds are on Christmas too early and persuaded the Methodist Church in Fiji's Deaconess students to join me in a little gentle campaigning on this topic....

Then new local preacher 'on trial' (Hallelujah!) Claudine asked me for an Advent thought or two for Upper Norwood Methodist Church (UNMC) magazine back in South London. So here are those very thoughts, in case you won't have access to that illustrious journal!

Advent expects…

What a joy it was to see UNMC friends last September when I was over on mission partner furlough in the UK. Thank you so much once again for the warm, warm welcome: similarly at Anerley on the Sunday afternoon for the Circuit ‘do’.  With 28 speaking or preaching engagements in 30 days, all in different parts of the country (and one in Wales – don’t forget Barry Island!) it felt slightly like running a mission partner marathon. But it was a joy. Certainly for me. I hope for the churches and groups too.

And now the joy is Advent joy – combined with Advent hope and expectation and judgement and justice and all those wondrous, weighty Advent themes. Significant in Advent theology and liturgy is the sense of ‘looking to the day when….’ That means never, ever giving up on the possibility that God’s Kingdom, enacted in the present by us in our small, seemingly insignificant ways, can nevertheless surprise people and overturn the world’s values. But also, that God’s kingdom promised for the future means we live joyfully with that mysterious, even mightier hope, that whatever doesn’t get fixed in this life will ultimately be redeemed and reconciled. It doesn’t mean the future hope can relieve us of the present obligations though: no way. We need daily to be Kingdom people hard at work for the Kingdom: playing our part through prayer and action in making the impossible possible.

One of the 2^nd Sunday in Advent readings encapsulates this idea through a stunning vision of ‘the peaceful Kingdom’ given to the disillusioned and desperate of Israel. You may not believe it now, says the prophet; and how could they? But one day…

Wolves and sheep will live together in peace, and leopards will lie down with young goats.
Calves and lion cubs will feed together, and little children will take care of them.
Cows and bears will eat together, and their calves and cubs will lie down in peace.
Lions will eat straw as cattle do. Even a baby will not be harmed if it plays near a poisonous snake.
On Zion, God's sacred hill, there will be nothing harmful or evil.
The land will be as full of knowledge of the Lord as the seas are full of water.

Isaiah 11:6-9       Good News Translation (GNT)

This Advent hope: impossible, yet in God’s greater purposes, pregnant with possibility.

-          Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump will send each other Valentine cards…
-          Every owner of a violent weapon will dig a hole, bury the thing, plant a Xmas tree on top of it and hang baubles…
-          Church folk who’ve been squabbling for years about nothing that really matters, will finally kiss and make up...

Don’t believe it? Well, sorry to disappoint you.
Advent expects it.