Advent - Churches Together SA

They All Found Home

Churches Together Admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 03:14:00 +0000

Luke 1: 26-38, 46-55
The Annunciation and the Magnificat…but something significant is missing!
A snapshot of belonging, joy and finding ‘home’ in this unusual and unexpected year.

Luke 1: 39-45
Soon afterward Mary got ready and hurried off to a town in the hill country of Judea. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby moved within her. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and said in a loud voice, “You are the most blessed of all women, and blessed is the child you will bear! Why should this great thing happen to me, that my Lord’s mother comes to visit me? For as soon as I heard your greeting, the baby within me jumped with gladness. How happy you are to believe that the Lord’s message to you will come true!”

Reflection

I remember the absolute joy of pregnancy, and sharing this news with family and friends. I remember the blessings from strangers and the kindnesses they offered me.
However, Mary could not celebrate or share her news. She was promised but not wed. She faced being an outcast, disowned, disgraced, abused. Elizabeth had lived in constant shame of barrenness, lowering her place in societal eyes, purposeless, unproductive and ‘old’. They both knew the depth of loneliness and isolation brought about by being ‘other’ than society expected. When they met, no wonder Elizabeth and Mary greeted each other with such deep joy. They fully understood the hope and purpose that came to them in unexpected ways.

Coronavirus has left a trail of disruption, loneliness and isolation, spreading fear, disorder and constant change across our community. The Christmas narrative reveals a story of change for the lonely and shamed. The pregnant maiden carrying her secret. The older woman shedding her shame. Joseph disregarding societal expectations and holding Mary in love. Alone they travel, to find no place for them on arrival. Hospitality is shown by a stranger, as they share shelter, and new life, with working animals. Shepherds, humble and deprived, isolated for most of their days, are called to welcome this child and celebrate new beginnings with them as family. Wise Ones who took a seemingly unwise journey, left comfort, wealth, privilege and ease of living, to seek and celebrate with this humble new family.

Christmas speaks to those alone, shamed, ostracised, lowly, deprived, privileged, and all God’s creatures.

Called together by God, they all found home.

Prayer – that we see the otherness….
God who sees those of the otherness,
Open our eyes this Christmas, we pray.
For…
– mothers alone on their journey.
– couples who stand outside the wishes of their community.
– those who long for a family.
– older parents, with their exhaustion mixed with joy.
– those on long journeys, finding no place to belong.
– welcoming creation and generous animals
– poorly paid in society’s necessary jobs.
– the generosity of those with the least.
– the tenacity to follow through on what is significant.
– closed ears to songs of joy ringing throughout life

For the Lost, you call us.
To the lonely, let us stretch out our hands.
With every creature, we find family.
Help us see home in unexpected places.
Grow our tenacity to
do what is just, with kindness,
celebrate the joy we find with all creation,
hear the Spirit singing in our days,
And live in restful peace of a still, calm night.
Amen, Amen, Amen

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“Comfort my People,” says our God

Churches Together Admin — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 03:07:00 +0000

Isaiah 40:1-11
“Comfort my people,” says our God. “Comfort them!
Encourage the people of Jerusalem.
Tell them they have suffered long enough and their sins are now forgiven.
I have punished them in full for all their sins.”
A voice cries out, “Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord!
Clear the way in the desert for our God!
Fill every valley; level every mountain.
The hills will become a plain, and the rough country will be made smooth.
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it.
The Lord himself has promised this.”

A voice cries out, “Proclaim a message!”
“What message shall I proclaim?” I ask.
“Proclaim that all human beings are like grass; they last no longer than wild flowers.
Grass withers and flowers fade when the Lord sends the wind blowing over them.
People are no more enduring than grass.
Yes, grass withers and flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever.”

Jerusalem, go up on a high mountain and proclaim the good news!
Call out with a loud voice, Zion; announce the good news!
Speak out and do not be afraid.
Tell the towns of Judah that their God is coming!
The Sovereign Lord is coming to rule with power,
bringing with him the people he has rescued.
He will take care of his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs together and carry them in his arms;
he will gently lead their mothers.

Reflection

This is the time to speak out! Do not be afraid. It is time to comfort and encourage people. We have a message of hope, so why not share it? Life is about living today, in this moment, and time. Kairos time, God’s time, is beyond our human parameters. Our lifetime is short on earth but we can choose to do something about our footprint we leave behind. We live in the now. God endures forever. Isaiah gets right to the pointy end of living our faith. Our faithfilled life is not about everything ‘coming up rosy’. It is about living in this very real world, every day. There are rocky journey’s where we stumble. It has dark valleys that keep us in shadowlands of uncertainty and sadness. There are times where we ache from the effort of struggling with unfathomable issues and steep learning curves, mountainous in experience. At that time, we are gathered in God’s arms, loved just as we are, cared for and gently carried.
Speak out and do not be afraid, for who does not need compassion? An embrace of loving companionship, with words of hope, offers strength to a depressed spirit. Alone and stumbling, comforting friendship can be the light that helps guide someone to a new way of being. Nurturing and respect brings self-worth, and softens mountainous struggles. The dark spaces become less onerous.
Let’s not be quiet! Let’s proclaim God is with us – Immanuel!

Let us pray with ancient voices echoing across our human experience.

Kairos God,
at every moment, on every path, in every experience,
We are listening to what you are saying.
You promise peace to us, your own people.
We do not want to go back to our foolish ways.
Call to us! Guide us! Nurture us, O Loving Shepherd.
For, surely, we are ready to experience your saving compassion.
And we, who honour you, see your presence remaining in our being and living.
For with you, love and faithfulness meet.
Justice, honesty, decency and peace will embrace.
We reach up from the earth, to you, Shining One,
and know your righteousness dwells here in our midst.
We are rich in spirit and blessed in living.
May our faith be a witness and our living produce rich harvests.
We are guided by the Way of Jesus,
A light that illuminates all that is before us, in us and around us.
We will go with you in our lives every day
and prepare the path of peace for those who do not know the Way.
May it be so! Amen.

With the Psalmist, who sang our faith with us in Ps 85:1-2. 8-13, adapted by Rev Anne Hewitt

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A Newly Sprouted Seed

Churches Together Admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 03:14:00 +0000

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
The Sovereign Lord has filled me with his Spirit.
He has chosen me and sent me
To bring good news to the poor,
To heal the broken-hearted,
To announce release to captives and freedom to those in prison.

He has sent me to proclaim
That the time has come
When the Lord will save his people and defeat their enemies.
He has sent me to comfort all who mourn, to give to those who mourn in Zion
Joy and gladness instead of grief,
A song of praise instead of sorrow.
They will be like trees that the Lord himself has planted.
They will all do what is right, and God will be praised for what he has done.
They will rebuild cities that have long been in ruins.

The Lord says,
“I love justice and I hate oppression and crime.
I will faithfully reward my people and make an eternal covenant with them.
They will be famous among the nations;
Everyone who sees them will know that they are a people whom I have blessed.”
Jerusalem rejoices because of what the Lord has done.
She is like a bride dressed for her wedding.
God has clothed her with salvation and victory.
As surely as seeds sprout and grow, the Sovereign Lord will save his people,
and all the nations will praise him.

Reflection

At Christmas, we look to the new beginnings – the human story of a young couple, a family, local community supporting them, wider community generously welcoming them, and the blessings of unexpected guests. Yet, in this Advent reading, we are reminded that this Christmas narrative is a chapter in the midst of a tome. Isaiah repeats God’s call, an echo of the past, a reminder in the now, and a prophecy of the future. As an adult, Jesus’ echoes this mission as he begins his ministry. This is a timeless call, across the millennia. God calls us to justice and healing kindness. God calls us to comfort individuals and build communities; to work with neighbours as we grow a society built on values rich with purpose and wise living. God calls us to a generative and renewing purpose, that like creation, seeds new hope in unlikely places, to sprout in fertile hearts and minds, so that together, we nourish souls and nurture the cycle of a purpose driven life… continuing a new chapter in this Kairos tome. This Christmas, I wonder where will we seed hope and integrity that echoes God’s calling of a just, valued and loving society? One that welcomes the tiniest outcasts, from unexpected places, with hospitable compassion and healing kindness?

Prayer: A Newly Sprouted Seed
Call to us again, O God,
For we do not hear you in our hearts.
Tell us your story again, O Christ,
For our understanding is fleeting.
Sing to us again, O Spirit,
For we are not in harmony with you.

As delicate as a newly sprouting seed,
Our faith needs tending.
May we nurture the garden of our lives
So that the community of which we are a part,
Flourishes with justice, equity, welcome and hospitality.
May we be satisfied with enough
And generous with open hands.
May neighbours be our family,
And our living be of benefit to all.

Then we will rejoice with you in song, O Spirit,
And tell of your continuing story, O Christ,
Because we hear it deep in our hearts, O God. Amen

1 Thess 5:16-24 Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances.

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Blessings in Christ Together

Churches Together Admin — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 02:50:00 +0000

1 Corinthians 1:3-9 Good News Translation

Blessings in Christ
May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
I always give thanks to my God for you because of the grace he has given you through Christ Jesus. For in union with Christ you have become rich in all things, including all speech and all knowledge. The message about Christ has become so firmly established in you that you have not failed to receive a single blessing, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be faultless on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is to be trusted, the God who called you to have fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Reflection

What a joyful recognition of the delight in being together as God’s family. Paul expresses the love in Christ that is so meaningful in drawing us together ecumenically. The Whole Body of Christ offers relationship, connection and belonging. Significantly, it recognises the different missional roles we each have as individuals and as denominational Churches as we live out our ministries. The diversity across our ecumenical community is a delight and something to celebrate. Too often our human practices focus on making everyone and everything the same, and abhorring differences. Jesus’ prayer ‘that they may be one’ is a prayer of love. It is evocative through love, that what could be seen as dissonance, becomes a recognition of diversity in the body of Christ. Further, of our delighting in our diversity as the whole people of God, because God loves us, sees us, knows us and calls us all God’s children. Paul reminds us that God will keep us firm, is to be trusted, and calls us to share in fellowship/friendship with and through Jesus.
With such an unusual year in 2020, the strength and friendship we have in our ecumenical community has been expressed through pastoral support, creative problem solving, sharing resources, and finding new ways forward together. While we celebrate it at different times in our traditions, in this new Church Year, let us continue to be receptive to each other, to seek to know more about each other, to see Christ at work in each of our communities, and in all our loving, being, thinking and doing, live in the Way of Christ, together as God’s family.

Rev Anne Hewitt

Prayer of Unity
Loving Sustainer and Comforter,
We hear your call to be ‘as One’ in your family,
to grow in our appreciation of the fullness of the whole body of Christ.
We wish to move from dissonance to delighting in our diverse expression,
to seek to understand and work collegially, loving each other as neighbours and family.
Draw us into this new year with hope.
Let our celebration this Christmastide be the advent of a new warmth and togetherness,
as we walk on a shared pathway, in support and with unity.
Amen
Rev Anne Hewitt

Please read more on exploring ecumenism through hospitality, from Rev Anne Hewitt’s Article Same Recipe – Different Flavours … and Delicious Differences! for Seaford Christian Churches Ecumenical Tracks – a quarterly magazine for their five denominations, who all worship and do their missional ministry collaboratively, in this ecumenical space. (see their Facebook page here)

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