Have you ever noticed that so many people have different traditions associated with Christmas.
Every person seems to have the things that their family does just to make Christmas special.
For my mum its having lamb and turkey for Christmas dinner!
I think we all want to make Christmas that little bit more special.
Why?
Its how we think it should because its how we all remember Christmas.
Think about the favourite part of Christmas for yourself,
and you will immediately think back to some incident or tradition or other.
Much of the desire to make Christmas special is recapture that special time in the past.
It’s the same in all our Christmas services, we tend to look back at favourite Christmas carols and services in church and the memories they inspire.
Advent is the time of preparation –
it’s the time when we get ready for Christmas
and the celebration of the birth of Christ.
And in our theology and worship we do exactly the same,
We look back to the events of those days in Bethlehem when Jesus was born,
we hear again the prophesies of Isaiah and the story of the virgin and the stable
and the shepherds and the angels and so on.
Ministers will speak in services about how God fulfilled his promises to God’s people
How Jesus came in the fulfilment of prophesy and promise,
And how therefore the promises of God are trustworthy.
All of this is vital and true,
Our faith is built upon a granite stone of reality in the coming of the Christ-child.
But!
But we make a mistake if we think that our faith is just looking back to the past and drawing strength from what happened at Bethlehem.
You see advent is also the time of waiting and preparation not just for the celebration of the Christ Child,
It is a reminder to us as Christians that we also are in a time of waiting.
Our position is so similar to that of God’s people in the Old Testament.
They were living at a time when they found it hard to recognise God at work,
When society at large seemed indifferent to God’s ways,
And when they felt increasingly weak and under threat.
Every person seems to have the things that their family does just to make Christmas special.
For my mum its having lamb and turkey for Christmas dinner!
I think we all want to make Christmas that little bit more special.
Why?
Its how we think it should because its how we all remember Christmas.
Think about the favourite part of Christmas for yourself,
and you will immediately think back to some incident or tradition or other.
Much of the desire to make Christmas special is recapture that special time in the past.
It’s the same in all our Christmas services, we tend to look back at favourite Christmas carols and services in church and the memories they inspire.
Advent is the time of preparation –
it’s the time when we get ready for Christmas
and the celebration of the birth of Christ.
And in our theology and worship we do exactly the same,
We look back to the events of those days in Bethlehem when Jesus was born,
we hear again the prophesies of Isaiah and the story of the virgin and the stable
and the shepherds and the angels and so on.
Ministers will speak in services about how God fulfilled his promises to God’s people
How Jesus came in the fulfilment of prophesy and promise,
And how therefore the promises of God are trustworthy.
All of this is vital and true,
Our faith is built upon a granite stone of reality in the coming of the Christ-
But!
But we make a mistake if we think that our faith is just looking back to the past and drawing strength from what happened at Bethlehem.
You see advent is also the time of waiting and preparation not just for the celebration of the Christ Child,
It is a reminder to us as Christians that we also are in a time of waiting.
Our position is so similar to that of God’s people in the Old Testament.
They were living at a time when they found it hard to recognise God at work,
When society at large seemed indifferent to God’s ways,
And when they felt increasingly weak and under threat.
In those circumstances it was difficult to hold onto the promises of God.
They were waiting for their messiah,
They were waiting for God to come,
They were to prepare themselves.
Like them we also have promises to hold onto,
For Jesus himself promised that he would return,
The apostles all had as one of their central themes the belief that Jesus would return,
And when Jesus returns in all his glory,
Then God’s kingdom will be a reality in our experience.
The fact is we do not know when the end will be,
But we do know what it will be,
It will be the return of the king of heaven,
It will be the return of Jesus Christ.
As Christians who live in the present time we also are called to look forward to that return of Jesus,
We have lost touch with that element of looking forward in our faith
We concentrate only on looking back,
There is so much uncertainty about Jesus return,
Its easy to look back at the things that have already happened
Than to look into the unknown
But just as God fulfilled those promises to his people in the Old Testament with the birth of Christ,
So he will be faithful to his promises to us now,
The time of waiting will come to an end and Jesus will return.
The story of God’s people in the Old Testament,
Is our story,
Just like them we have our prophesies and promises to guide us.
They are all in the bible – though they do not tell us when and where,
Rather they say when God is good and ready!
It might be 100 years from now,
It might be 1000 years from now,
Or it might be tomorrow.
God’s promise is that Jesus will return,
And God shall keep his promise just as he did with the birth of the Christ child.
Advent is the time of waiting for us,
But not just waiting for Christmas,
We are in a whole generation of waiting,
We are waiting to see Jesus revealed,
We are waiting to see Christ burst in upon this world with all his glory and all his love,
And all the wonder of heaven,
We are in the time of waiting! Amen
They were waiting for their messiah,
They were waiting for God to come,
They were to prepare themselves.
Like them we also have promises to hold onto,
For Jesus himself promised that he would return,
The apostles all had as one of their central themes the belief that Jesus would return,
And when Jesus returns in all his glory,
Then God’s kingdom will be a reality in our experience.
The fact is we do not know when the end will be,
But we do know what it will be,
It will be the return of the king of heaven,
It will be the return of Jesus Christ.
As Christians who live in the present time we also are called to look forward to that return of Jesus,
We have lost touch with that element of looking forward in our faith
We concentrate only on looking back,
There is so much uncertainty about Jesus return,
Its easy to look back at the things that have already happened
Than to look into the unknown
But just as God fulfilled those promises to his people in the Old Testament with the birth of Christ,
So he will be faithful to his promises to us now,
The time of waiting will come to an end and Jesus will return.
The story of God’s people in the Old Testament,
Is our story,
Just like them we have our prophesies and promises to guide us.
They are all in the bible – though they do not tell us when and where,
Rather they say when God is good and ready!
It might be 100 years from now,
It might be 1000 years from now,
Or it might be tomorrow.
God’s promise is that Jesus will return,
And God shall keep his promise just as he did with the birth of the Christ child.
Advent is the time of waiting for us,
But not just waiting for Christmas,
We are in a whole generation of waiting,
We are waiting to see Jesus revealed,
We are waiting to see Christ burst in upon this world with all his glory and all his love,
And all the wonder of heaven,
We are in the time of waiting! Amen