2 December 2007

Welcome to St Alban’s Anglican Church 

Today's Scripture (HC) : Isaiah 2: 1-5     Romans 13: 11-end     S. Matthew 24: 36-44

Today's Liturgy: 8.35 a.m. BCP Matins;   9.00a.m. Scripture Study;   9.30 a.m. Holy Communion;   EP 6.00 p.m.

This Week: Tuesday - Friday 12.30 p.m. Midday Prayer.

The 1^st Sunday In Advent

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever.

 

FAITH IN FOCUS: DISTRACTIONS

The story goes that at the time of Noah people gave no thought to their relationship with God. While Noah was preparing to save himself from the Flood, the rest of society was eating, drinking and marrying as if there were nothing to worry about. Then the waters came with a vengeance and they were all swept away. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes, Jesus tells his disciples. So stay awake.

Today, the First Sunday of Advent, is the Church’s New Years Day. It’s a time for taking stock, for new resolutions about how we are cooperating with the Holy Spirit in establishing the kingdom of God on earth. What will Christ find when he comes again?

Some people think Christ will come again in a literal fashion, on the clouds with a trumpet blast to judge the living and the dead. Others are always on the lookout for natural disasters and wars which they say augur the beginning of the end. There are those who think that the world will gradually become a better and better place until the dawn of that day when the values of God’s kingdom will be those of the universe and all its peoples.

But lots of people don’t think anything about the end of the world. They are too distracted with eating and drinking, marrying, doing this and that. They have their little plans and dreams and these don’t ever come into contact with anything as long-term as their role in ushering in the kingdom.

It’s easy for us to become distracted from the fact that as Christians we are called to be signs of God’s kingdom, to embody those values that Christ preached and taught during his stay on earth. We are invited to be the leaven of society, the signposts to a better quality of living and the bearers of good news. Advent is a reminder that we can become so distracted with the mundane goings-on in our daily life that we end up never giving the kingdom a second thought. Or we can stay awake to the signs of its coming among us.

 

WORD OF GOD

People were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and they suspected nothing till the flood came and swept all away. (Matthew 24: 38-39)

WORD FOR TODAY

As another Church year begins today are we on the lookout for signs of God’s kingdom on earth, or are we so bound up in the daily round that we fail to notice? Our salvation is nearer now than when we were converted. "The time" has come.

WORDS FOR WORSHIP

We pray for the advent of the kingdom of God using the prayer that Jesus himself taught us: Our Father ...

WHAT ARE THESE four short weeks all about - this month that climaxes in Christmas? Let me clarify Advent with three memorable verbs. They have to do with the past, the present and the future - with yesterday, today and tomorrow. (1) We remember. (2) We repent. (3) We rehearse. (Walter Burghardt)

FIRST WEEK:

Walk in the light

The time has come

Stay awake and stand ready

 

BOY BISHOPS (December 6th)

There used to be a custom of electing a choirboy as a "boy bishop" on the feast of St Nicholas. The boy held this position, with all its perks, until the feast of the Holy Innocents (December 28th), thus beginning and ending his role on feasts that are connected with children.

St. Nicholas was Bishop of Myra, in Turkey, during the 4th century. When the Muslims arrived at Myra in the 11th century his relics were removed to Bari in southern Italy and put into the specially built church of San Nicola. Always a popular saint, he is credited with being patron of various groups: of children, through his miraculously restoring to life three boys murdered by a butcher; of sailors, through his saving of three of them off the Turkish coast; of young women through his providing three of them with a bag of gold each as a dowry to save them from prostitution (this being the origin of the pawnbroker’s sign of three golden balls). Because of his patronage of children he is known as Santa Claus, a custom originating in the Netherlands and taken to North America by Dutch settlers. In the last century St Nicholas was pushed aside by the commercial Santa and today many people don’t even know of the connection!

THIS WEEK’S BIBLE READINGS:

Mon: Isaiah 25:1-9, Matt 12:1-21, Revelation 19

Tues: Isa 26: 1-13, Matt 12:22-37, Rev 20

Wed: Isa 28: 1-13, Matt 12:38-end, Rev 21: 1-8

Thurs: Isa 28:14-end, Matt 13:1-23, Rev 21: 9-21

Fri: Isa 29:1-14, Matt 13:24-43, Rev 21:22 - 22:5

Sat : Isa 29:15-end, Matt 13: 44-end, Rev 22:6-end

NEXT SUNDAY (SECOND IN ADVENT): Isaiah 11:1-10, Romans 15:4-13, S. Matthew 3: 1-12