Already the first week of Advent draws to its close. 

Children (of all ages) have opened a quarter of the 'windows' on their Advent calendars.

More and more windows twinkle with light as trees are put up in homes across the land.

Works Dos are in full swing, with the annual warnings about inappropriate behaviour and the dangers of too much wine...

Quarter of the way there, and yet, to me anyway, it seems as remote as ever: I lack any sense that Christmas is about to happen.

Yesterday our lunch time reflection, centring on Elizabeth & Zechariah reminded us that Israel had been waiting against a background of perceived divine silence lasting around four centuries.  The promises seemed as remote as ever.  As I pondered this, I was reminded of this lovely Advent hymn:

Earth was waiting, spent and restless,
with a mingled hope and fear;
and the faithful few were sighing,
'surely Lord the day is near;
the desire of all the nations,
it is time He should appear.'

Still the gods were in their temples,
but the ancient faith had fled;
and the priests stood by their altars
only for a piece of bread;
and the oracles were silent,
and the prophets all were dead.

In the sacred courts of Zion,
where the Lord had his abode,
there the money-changers trafficked,
and the sheep and oxen trod;
and the world, because of wisdom,
knew not either Lord or God.

Then the Spirit of the Highest
on a virgin meek came down,
and He burdened her with blessing,
and He pained her with renown;
For she bare the Lord's anointed,
for His cross and for His crown.

Earth for Him had groaned and travailed
since the ages first began;
for in Him was hid the secret
that through all the ages ran-
Son of Mary, Son of David,
Son of God, and Son of Man.

Walter C Smith (1824-1908)

Our reflection leader yesterday shared really interesting information about the Jewish priesthood at the time of Zechariah - how there were around 20,000 priests, divided into groups, each serving in the Temple for a week a year, along with extra duties at festivals.  The drawing by lot of the priest whose turn it would be to offer the incense became far more significant in that context.  There must have been hundreds of priests patiently doing the day to day work, and feeling it would never be their turn to offer the incense.  The "spent and restless" feeling may well have been as real for them as it can be for us today... exhausted by the daily round, restless for arrival of Christmas.

Boundless God, it is not just earth that is waiting, spent and restless

It is us, the people who try to follow Jesus and spend ourselves in what we hope is his service

We fill our time with preparations and yet there is so often a void within - we are indeed spent

We try to pause, to reflect, to centre ourselves as activity lures us on - we are in fact restless

But You rested

If only once in all eternity

If only to make a model for us to emulate

Still my restless body

My busy mind

My overfull heart

Take away anxiety and activity

Just for a moment

And let me pause

To savour the promise

Of Emmanuel, God with us...

Amen.

Four little maids from uni are we

Sitting on the rev's settee

Sharing food and company

Four little maids..... are we!

Actually there were eight of us, seven students and me, gathered together to make Christmas in a fairly C20/C21 traditional British style.  That's British that reflects Northern Irish, Scottish and assorted English expressions thereof.  That's British that catered as best we could for diverse dietary needs.

And of course there were Christmas crackers, which our two overseas students had never seen or heard of before.  But they entered gamely into the nonsense, sported their golden paper crowns and tucked in to their food. (bother, I threw away the crowns - should have  kept them for Get in the Picture; cannot retrieve them they are buried under food scraps!!)

My fridge is groaning under the weight of leftovers.  Later today I will be consigning to the freezer enough 'Christmas Dinner ready meals' to last a very long time, and working out how to combine leftover cauliflower and broccoli into flavoursome soup for fressing (as I still have a vat of tomato to eat my way through!)

A great evening... even if (or maybe evidenced by the fact that) it was actually 2 p.m. when I finally got to bed...

In a couple of hours I will be hosting a Christmas dinner for some of the students who are part of our community at the Gathering Place.

I have spent most of my afternoon preparing food - and worrying in case there is anything nasty lurking in any of the meat and how long must I cook it for to be totally sure any bugs are dead...  And wondering if the vegans will be OK with what I've chosen for them and what the overseas students will make of Brussels sprouts or Christmas pudding or mince pies (vegan, gluten free, soy free...) and so on, and so forth...

It has been fun, and I am looking forward to the evening (and grateful, so grateful, for the dishwasher!)

It has been a hectic day, a hectic week, and its far from through yet, and so it does me good to stop, if just for a few moments, and allow the fun and the festivity, the anticipation and the merriment to seep into my being, just a little bit more.

For sure, Advent is a time of preparing.  For sure this blog post has an important message.  But there has to be time for festivity too, doesn't there?

We will have fun, the students and I, and we will dine royally... and that somehow seems good.

Generous God,

There are, it seems, two risks with Advent:

That we fail to notice it at all and fill our time with decadent frivolity,

Or that we are zealously penitent to the exclusion of enjoyment.

Help us find the middle course

That enjoys feasting with family and friends

Whilst fasting from negativity and selfishness

Amen

Among the other blogs for Advent is this one by the newly retired Principal of the college where I trained for ministry.  Richard Kidd is using the medium of poetry to express thoughts arising from the lectionary readings.  Worth a look-see.

Today's PAYG opened with a beautiful recording of the Kings College Choir (which we all know means Kings Cambridge) singing Thomas Tallis Spem in Alium - which can be loosely translated as 'all my hope on God is founded'.  The reading was one of Isaiah's beautiful visions of restoration - the feast for all nation of food "rich and juicy" and "fine strained wines", of the removal of the veil of mourning, the shroud of death, an end to sorrow and shame (Isaiah 25:6-8).  The focus of the reflection was on shame, which was helpful, but I found myself drawn to hope amidst sadness and death...

A couple of days ago I had an email from a friend.  In the summer she buried her mother, and now her ftaher has been diagnosed with cancer.

Yesterday another friend told me that a school friend of theirs had died suddenly over the weekend, at the age of 52.

This morning I heard that a four year-old child had died after being in an accident on a railway level crossing.

The sadness and the sorrow are easy to identify, for they are all around us and touch our daily lives.

So where is hope in all of this?  And what is hope anyway?

Not wishful thinking, clearly, since it cannot change the reality of frailty and finitude, cannot undo what is irrevocably done.

Nor can it be other-worldly, an over emphasis on 'better places' or 'altered states' that deny the reality of anguish, sorrow and grief.

Hope is something other, something not ultimately definable, something tenacious that allows us to cling on, if by our fingertips, to the possibility, the promise that there, is more than just here and now: more than life measured chronologically or by academic or sporting achievement, more than wealth or health, more than pie in the sky when you die...  The possibility, the promise, that one day God will tenderly wipe the tears from our cheeks, kiss us better, and welcome us, with everyone else, in the new creation.

All my hope on God is founded... In Christ alone my hope is found... Spem in Alium... whatever hymn/song, whatever language, this defiant assertion continues to sustain frail and failing Christians through the inevitable storms of life.

It makes no snese to me, Lord,

That babies and children die before they have a chance to live

There is no rhyme of reason to the sudden end of life by accident or disease

No hint of justice that same families suffer over and over again

Yet I choose to hope in you:

To believe, against all odds that the promises are true

That you will prepare, are preparing, maybe have prepared

For all a future free of sadness or shame, regret or remorse, death or disaster

Lead me onwards, step by faltering step,

On the upward climb

That leads to fulfilled hope

Amen