Advance posted... a busy but fun day in prospect... afternoon tea with carols and christingles, watchnight at midnight... such an improvement on last year when I sat at home being obedient!

The last of my Advent reflections then.

Psalm 140: 1-3

Job 37: 5 - 13

John 17:15

It is the line from the High Priestly prayer that speaks I think...

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

Sometimes Christains get a bit too heaven obsessed, wanting out of the world, but Jesus wants us in it.  Phrases like 'we are the Body of Christ' trip easily from our tongues but verses such as this one hint at what that means.  We speak of being salt and light, of transforming the world around us.  This little verse, spoken by Jesus on the night of his arrest reminds us that love is incarnated not only by supernatural mystery but also by super, natural Christians, getting on with loving God, their neighbours and themselves.

Tomorrow we will once again celebrate that 'love came down at Christmas' but for now we pause for a moment, to recall the part we play in God's plans.

Not out of the world, but in it

Not avoiding suffering but sharing it

Not shunning the darkness but illuminating it

Not discarding the tasteless but savouring it

Not abandoning the perishing bur preserving it

Do we speak of Christ

Or of ourselves?

Light of the World

Love come among us

Calling us

To love one another

To light up the world

On this Christmas Eve

We ask not to be spared the reality of life

But live life in all its fulness

Amen