23 December 2007

Welcome to St Alban’s Anglican Church 

Today's Scripture (HC) : Isaiah 7: 10-16 Romans 1: 1-7 S. Matthew 1: 18-end

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: Today 6.30 p.m. Carolling Pines & Hospital. Monday 7.30 p.m. Carol Service Royal Crown Room, Hyatt Hotel; Tuesday (CHRISTMAS DAY) 8.35a.m. Matins; NB 9.00 A.M. Christmas Eucharist; Wed to Fri 12.30 p.m. Holy Communion

The 4^th Sunday In Advent

O Lord, raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honour and glory, world without end.

FAITH IN FOCUS: A PERFECT CHRISTMAS?

By now you’re probably fed up with all the adverts to get you to spend your money in order to have "the Christmas you and your family deserve". But is there such a thing as a perfect Christmas?

It might not have seemed so for Mary. She had every reason to dread the days before that first Christmas. A young teenage girl, she had found herself called to carry a baby before being married. What would her family say? How was she going to explain things to Joseph? And what about the neighbours? There would be tongues wagging all over the place and she’d probably be living under a cloud for years to come. Only she and God would ever really understand. And she didn’t understand much.

Joseph probably wasn’t looking forward to that first Christmas either. For him it didn’t look too promising. People would point him out as the husband who’d been the last to know. They’d wonder why he didn’t simply ditch Mary. And he probably had a nagging feeling that these strange dreams were storing up trouble for the future.

Joseph and Mary are good examples of the untidiness of human existence, of how things rarely go according to the way we plan them. It’s strange, isn’t it, that God couldn’t find some perfect situation for his only Son.

Maybe that’s what Christmas is about. Perhaps one of its jobs is to remind us that into our "screwed up" planet, into the bleak complexity of our private lives, into a world where achievements never seem to match up to yearnings, into the higgledy-piggledy days of our existence ... the infant God is born.

God could have chosen some ideal scenario into which to be born. But he chose one that was profoundly human instead. It was all so fragile: Mary had to trust the angel; Joseph had to trust Mary; God had to trust them both.

Christmas is almost upon us and we’re surely not on top of things; in fact, we’re probably dreading some of it. But if this week we were able to realise that the child Jesus offers to keep being born into the jumble of our human lives, no matter how untidy they are, then we would have experienced a great truth. And despite all the stress and strain we would have had a perfect Christmas into the bargain.

WORD OF GOD

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, a name which means "God is with us".

 

(Matthew 1: 23)

WORD FOR TODAY

Joseph had to make some lifestyle changes in order for Jesus to enter the world. We too are asked to make room for Christ in our lives, that his coming among us may renew us in faith and transform us in love. Christmas offers us the chance to find a place of welcome.

WORDS FOR WORSHIP

Lord Jesus, you came among us as an innocent child in the manger of Bethlehem: Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Christ Jesus, each day you continue to come among us in the faces of those in need: Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, you will come again on the Last Day to judge all the living and the dead: Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

By his advent in our midst, may almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.

 

I AM GOING TO THINK A LOT about Joseph during Advent, in the hope that the thinking will remind me that God asks nothing of me that he didn’t ask of Joseph: simply to do the best I can, each day. On many days, that doesn’t seem to be nearly enough. But that awareness reminds me that God doesn’t really expect me to accomplish anything. He simply wants me to give him permission, as Mother Teresa used to put it, to accomplish through me what only he can accomplish. That is a humbling but immensely encouraging reminder. It seems to me to be what Joseph did, even though it made this extraordinary man look quite ordinary--and thereby be able to be imitated by ordinary people like me.

(John O’Connor)

FOURTH WEEK

A virgin is with child

Grace and peace

God-is-with-Us

THIS WEEK’S BIBLE READINGS:

Mo-Christmas Eve: Mal 1:1,6-end, Matt 19:1-12, Rev 1: 1-8

CHRISTMAS DAY: Isa 9: 2-7, Titus 2:11-14, Lk 2: 1-20

Wed-S.STEPHEN: 2Chr 24:20-22, Acts 7:51-60, Mt 10:17-22

Thu-S.JOHN: Exod 33:7-11a, 1 John 1, John 21:19b-end

Fri-H. INNOCENTS: Jer 31:15-17, 1Cor 1:26-29, Mt 2:13-18

Sat : Jonah 1, Coloss 1: 1-14, John 1:1-18

NEXT SUNDAY (SUN AFTER CHRISTMAS DAY): Isaiah 63:7-9, Hebrews 2:10-end, S. Matthew 2: 13-end