Reflection – Sunday 28th December – The First Sunday of Christmas – and for the week ahead:Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son shared at Nazareth the life of a earthly home, help your Church to live as one family, united in love and obedience, and bring us all at last to our home in heaven. (Prayer after Communion) It has been such a joy, in these days of Christmas, to welcome to our churches so many families, united for this festive season. Many of them grew up as part of our church family, and now return with their own children to celebrate Christmas, continuing the familiar traditions of church and home. But we remember, too, those who are separated from their families by distance, misunderstanding or death. We give thanks for our church family, for the love and support and encouragement we share, and pray that we may be channels of God’s fatherly love to all those in need. Revd Rosemary
Scripture:In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ (Luke 1 26-28)Reflection:As we arrive at the 4th Sunday of Advent we are called to focus on Mary, the mother of Jesus - a young girl betrothed to a carpenter living in an insignificant backwater of the Roman Empire. There was nothing in her past that could have prepared her for what the angel Gabriel told her was to happen. She had been favoured by God and she simply had to trust that what she had been chosen for was a blessing. The experience of Mary is there to remind us that God’s blessing has no connection with human standards of acceptability, wealth or comfort - Mary had none of those. We are being encouraged to open ourselves to receive God’s blessings so that we, like Mary, can step out into the world in trust.Lyn Hayes ALM
