Friday 13th December 13:55  

w/c Sunday Dec 15th 2024

Dear Friends,

No doubt most of us are in full swing with our preparations for Christmas whatever that might look like for you.
At our churches we are singing our hearts out at carol service, having fun with oranges at Christingles, and preparing for crib services.
As the church all over the world prepares for Christmas, Advent reminds us that we aren’t doing the ‘same old thing all over again’.
We are waiting expectant for Emmanuel – God with us, for hope to be inspired in us, for the light of the world to come and shine into our personal darkness, and in the darkness of our world.
Rev Gina

Thought for the week  Isaiah 35

I’m straying from our usual lectionary readings and looking at one of the alternatives, because it is a “stonking” reading.
It is a vision of God’s people ransomed and healed, safe and walking with God in a desert blooming with new life.
It could be dismissed as pie in the sky if you don’t read it carefully, because it is a passage of utter realism when you do.

God in Isaiah is not a cuddly God, nor is He distant or angry.
He is a God who holds justice and love, tenderness and power together closely. We often want a God of judgement to deal with others who have hurt us, and a God of love to deal with our own shortcomings. We want a God of power to change everything instantly, but a God of love to respect our free will. Isaiah says it isn’t an either/or, it is both/and.

Isaiah pictures a road for God’s people, a place of safety. But a road implies movement on our part. The future isn’t only God’s work, its our too.
It’s a road for God’s broken and fallible people “No traveller, not even fools, shall go astray” – there is hope for us all! It’s OK to be part of God’s people and get it wrong.
The point is that it is those who know their need of God, their need for healing and redemption, who walk on this road.
It is a road for you and me.

Have you noticed that Isaiah says it is the desert that blooms and is transformed. Most of us don’t want to stay in a desert – we want to get out.
But the people stay in the desert and see it transformed.
Faith and waiting with God are not a pass to another reality, but a transformation of what we know.
This is a path that holds healing but also judgement, a path that allows us to come face to face with who we really are and the truth of our world, yet know the power of God’s redemption, love and grace.

This is the path we are invited to tread in Advent as we acknowledge the truth of the world Christ was born into.
A world full of oppression, selfishness, greed.
And our own contribution to this messed up world – our own sin and brokenness.  
But Advent is also a time to acknowledge and give thanks for what God is doing in our own lives, and in our world if only we will look; and to hold on to that hope of a future more glorious than we can imagine.

Advent calls us to examine our response to Christ, our willingness to let Him work within us, to let His light shine in our personal darkness, and in the darkness of ort world.
It is His light that can bring healing and new life, His power and love that offers us all hope for the present and the future.

Notices and Diary

• Christmas Grotto at St Petroc’s on Sat 14^th Dec 10-12.30

Wed 18th Dec               St Petroc’s Morning Prayer at 8.30am

                                    Thought for the week at 10am by zoom and telephone

                                    St Petroc’s hosting South Brent Primary school Carol service at 6.30pm

Fri 20^th Dec                   Morning Prayer at 9am by zoom and telephone

                                    Landscove hosting Landscove Primary school Carol service at 2.40pm

 Know you are in my heart and in my prayers.
Rev Gina