Categories: anything-and-everything
Date: 11 December 2006 12:11:27
Yesterday morning I was preaching. It was one of those services with a rich variety of people! There were two children being baptised, so lots of visitors with them who would never usually set foot in a church. It was Parade too - so there were Rainbows, Brownies, Beavers, Cubs and their leaders of varying levels of familiarity with God, Jesus, church and all. And there was the regular congregation (except for those who refuse to come to 'Family Services'*). So finding something to say that might be beneficial to old, young, somewhere in between, the unchurched, the de-churched, the re-churched and the committedly churched is always something of a challenge! This is how I attempted to meet the challenge... (well after my 'family service' tangent anyway!)
[*I used to hate the term 'family service' because it always had a sense of being the church gathering for mums and dads with their children all in together... and as a divorcee I didn't fit with the perfect 'family' set-up (not to mention the elderly/single/without children people present)... and so I preferred the term 'all-age worship' when we were all in together. But then I started to see the term 'family service' as reflecting the sense of the whole church family in together (thanks to VicarBoss) and so find it a more acceptable term now - though only when it is understood in this way by all present - which is pretty unlikely! (end tangent)]
Sunday 10th December 2006 (Advent 2)
Family Parade Service with baptisms
John 1: 29-37
[Children all came forward to sit on the step]
We're in the season of Advent at the moment - that's a time of preparation and getting ready. And in my bag this morning I've got some things that we might use for getting ready for different things.
So, I'll need some help from you to see if we can guess what each of these things might be found or dug out to get ready for...
Christmas tree decoration (Christmas)
Passport (holiday)
purificator (baptism)
towel (bath/swimming)
banner (birthday party)
duster and polish (visitors!)
torch (going out in the dark/camping)
There are lots of things we do where getting ready and preparing properly is very important. In the reading that R has just read for us, John the Baptist had been helping people to get ready to meet Jesus. Just before the verses we heard, John was saying, “Make a straight path for the Lord” that means, prepare the way or get ready for the Lord, for Jesus. It's really important that we think and prepare properly before we meet with Jesus, just as those people listening to John did.
Today is a very special day for L and M (and for all of us) because they are being baptised, they're being welcomed into Jesus' family. And because that's a very important thing to do, there will have been lots of preparations. I expect L and M's families will have thought about clothes - what they wear today, and food and drinks - how they might celebrate together after the service. But it was also important that they had time to prepare by thinking about what the service means too, and so will have spent some time with one of the baptism team thinking about the promises they'll make for M and L and thinking about what it means to be a part of God's family. And those kinds of preparations are very important, because by thinking about them we're doing what John the Baptist said, and are ‘Preparing the way for the Lord' - making a straight path for him.
And for the rest of us too, in coming to church to meet with Jesus, preparation and getting ready is important too... The Brownies/Beavers/Cubs have taken care in getting ready and being smart in their uniforms. [they stood and turned to show everyone how smart they were!]
We might not be able to see Jesus here in quite the same way John the Baptist did, but God tells us that he will be with us through the Holy Spirit, so getting ready is important - we might do that perhaps by saying sorry to someone we've hurt or been angry with, or perhaps by just slowing down to think about God in the morning rush to get here?
And there are some other important preparations going on at the moment! One of the things in my bag was a clue to what we're getting ready for both in and out of church at the moment.
[Took out the tree decoration again]
So, it's Advent at the moment and that's the church's time for getting ready for Jesus. We get ready to think about him at Christmas as we remember him being born in the stable in Bethlehem - God coming into the world and living among us is an amazing thing.
How are you getting ready for Christmas? [asked the children] (decorations/presents/nativity plays/advent wreath)?
It's important that in all we do for Christmas we remember Jesus and what it's all about, because what did John the Baptist say?
“Make a straight path for the Lord” “Prepare the way for the Lord”. [yes, they remembered!]
And during Advent we also take time to think and prepare for when Jesus will come back again - not coming again as a baby, but one day returning through the clouds to bring an end to all that's wrong in the world now.
Today we can think and prepare for Christmas, and for when Jesus comes back, but also we can be prepared for meeting Jesus in our everyday lives. It might be helpful for some of us to have a slight variation of that popular car sticker... “Jesus is for life, not just for Christmas!”
So, I think there are two things that John the Baptist can especially remind us of today as we get ready for Christmas and for every day life close to Jesus...
1) Pay attention to Jesus and don't ignore him.
Preparing the way for the Lord, means not missing him in our preparations for baptism, or for Christmas, or in day-to-day life. It means keeping our eyes fixed on him and in the busy-ness of preparations remembering that the most important thing is Jesus, the Son of God, coming into the world to live among us.
and 2) Like John the Baptist - point him out... “Look, here is the lamb of God!”
That was what John the Baptist did - he pointed the people towards Jesus, and we can do that too. We can do that at Christmastime by reminding the people we're with that Jesus is at the centre of our celebrations, “look, here he is” That might mean pointing at the church and coming to worship during the Christmas season or pointing at a nativity scene and remembering the baby who grew up to show God's love in the world.
And we can also point him out in our lives, by living as he has called us to live: “look, here he is” as we love one another, as we seek to serve and to help the poor, as with his help we give glimpses of Jesus through our own lives.
Advent is a perfect season to think about these things, to prepare the way for the Lord and to point him out every day, just like John the Baptist did.
Amen.