“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”    Mark 13 : 35 - 37

Readings this week :  Isaiah 64 : 1 - 9; 1 Corinthians 1 : 3 - 9; Mark 13 : 24 - 37

Thought for this week

As the Christmas trees start going up and the lights go on, we start the season of Advent today. For many Christians it is a season of gaps, of waiting and silence. A contrast to the flurry and busyness of the world. It is a time to confront. To listen and to wonder.

We have some hard, apocalyptic Gospel readings in Advent. Today we hear Jesus’ words to ‘Keep Watch’. ‘Stay awake’. A reminder that Jesus came to celebrate and bring life, but also that meant a confrontation with the powers of darkness and sin. We are called to recognise this world is far from how it was meant to be. The disruptive and destructive effect of sin, that brought Jesus to be born in such poverty and disgrace, the light of God Himself shining in the world.

So we are called to confront sin in our own lives, and to draw closer to the grace and holiness of God.

This first Sunday has the theme of hope. Jesus is our hope. He brings the greatest hope for each of us. The hope that fills the gaps in our world, and in our lives. That confronts all that needs to be renewed and transformed. The hope that comes through silence and waiting.

The Advent cry is, ‘Come Lord Jesus!’

Rev Paul

People to pray for :

For peace in the troubled places of the world

For the children in our community hearing about the coming of Jesus

Prayers this week

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light,

now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;

that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead,

we may rise to the life immortal; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Almighty God, as your kingdom dawns,

turn us from the darkness of sin to the light of holiness,

that we may be ready to meet you in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen