Hi folks, i hope you are doing ok! This week i want to remind you about two things… See the images for more details – I’m looking for you festive 30 songs of the year… and also next week we have Beer and Carols at Platform Two, i hope that you can join us!
This week we will meet at The Quarry, meeting at 7.30. This weeks blog for advent week is entitled PREPARING FOR THE EXTRAORDINARY: CHANGING YOUR MIND. And it’s written by Pauline. See you on Sunday.
We are here again, in this month of waiting and preparing and moving along towards this mega annual birthday celebration.
Some people love all of it, some like the journey and the extraordinary story that is being retold. Some can’t be doing with the glitter and tinsel and mega bucks that are spent and made in the three months leading up to the event.
May be some like me feel, ok, I would love to do it differently this year, to be in a different place, to do away with some of the stuff and to do something different, to see and hear something new, or something old but in a new way, something that God might be saying to me, and to other followers of Jesus, and to the whole world.
The Christmases I have most appreciated and loved (as an adult) have been those spent in other countries where Christianity was the minority religion, perhaps because the main thing was the main thing! And we did it differently.
On this second week in advent we have some verses in Isaiah 40: 1-11 and Mark1:1-8 to consider….
The prophet brought a message from God to the exiled community of Israel, who were oppressed and captive in Babylon… a message that things were going to change. This was about 600 years(ish) before Jesus appeared. Isaiah’s message was one of hope to a people who after 60 or so years in captivity had maybe just accepted their situation as hopeless and freedom just a dream. Isaiah spoke gently but was also confrontational and challenging and he used images they would understand. Apparently great processional highways for the gods and rulers to triumphantly enter the city were a special feature of the city of Babylon… and as you may remember the Hebrew people had forty years experience of wandering in the wilderness and desert, their stories handed down through generations, so these were equally familiar images. Isaiah was telling them God is more powerful than any imperial power, and that there is a way out… something new is about to happen, something extraordinary, and it did.
So… the story related by Mark in his book borrows this imagery to introduce Jesus and begins like this:
“This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ,”
something extraordinary is happening. The prophet Isaiah wrote about it ages ago saying,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight, raise up the valleys, make the mountains low, the rough ground smooth, the rugged places plain’
Change things! And John the Baptist appears in the wilderness saying, this is the time to step out of the ordinary, to turn around, to go in a new direction. You need to get rid of all the rubbish in your lives, get ready, keep your eyes and your heart open, its about a new start and the one who can make it happen for you isn’t me, he’s coming, in fact he’s here.
John the Baptist was speaking to a people again living under the yoke of oppression, different time different place, different empire, but same oppression and he was reminding them of what had gone before. He was calling them to get ready for something new, to repent or if literally translated to turn around, turn from the old way, to expect change and transformation, to have hope. Get ready for Jesus, who is more powerful than John and more powerful than the Roman empire.
So….. here we are…. reading about straightening highways and turning things upside down in deserts! Every day we are faced with our reality. People are oppressed, nations are at war, cities lie in ruins, the whole environment is at risk, it’s chaotic and a mess! Many people for a variety of reasons are leaving the faith they once had, whatever faith that might be and are in a sort of exile.
We are celebrating the coming of Jesus who taught about a new way of being, a new kingdom of love, his life showed it in action, and his death and resurrection we believe make possible a turning from old stuff to this new way…. not just for individuals but for communities, nations, the environment and the world. It’s extraordinary stuff!
Questions:
What’s the nearest place you have been to a wilderness?
Jesus challenged people to change their minds. Do you find change difficult or easy?
Have you had any new encounters and experiences that have caused you to rethink? (Apparently our brains literally re wire themselves when we learn new things)
What new opportunities to change, rethink and grow do you see in your life and situation?
What for you is the ‘extraordinary’ that is worth a rethink?
Do you think the images of a highway for God, and of transformation of the wilderness places helpful today or not?
Do you have high hopes / firm beliefs that this new kingdom is here and still coming and will come, or do you feel a bit defeated or sceptical or something else?
Peace.
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.
