Bishop's Blog

Advent Letter From Bishop Robert

Wednesday 7th December 2011 5:38 PM

I once had great fun in a shopping mall giving out leaflets advertising a special Advent act of worship to be held in the nearby city hall.

I know all the tricks we all use to avoid being given leaflets - looking in a shop window, pointedly talking to someone next to us as we walk by pretending not to notice. But what amused me were the people who, when offered the leaflet, "Join us for a great Christmas celebration!" looked down at the handfuls of parcels they were carrying and said, "No room!" or "No hands!" as they walked on.

Now where, I thought, had I heard that expression "No room"?

When I look at all the clutter we all accumulate - ten minutes in a supermarket queue is illuminating: either most people eat a vast quantity of food or the experts are right who say that we throw enormous quantities of food away.

It's going to be tough for many people this Christmas and I hope that our churches will do everything they can to be both generous and anonymous in helping to tackle that. But it seems to me that for most of us, it's still spend-as-usual.

Advent is supposed to be a time to take stock, to ask big questions about our long-term futures - eternity questions - and to thin down a bit in preparation for getting right inside the message of Christmas. Well, that thinning-down is not happening a lot, despite the financial crisis. I think that's a sad sign for any society, but we can at least think about the questions of eternity. There is no escaping those because we will all have to face them one day.

There are some sobering words in St Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians:

"You yourselves know perfectly well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. While they are saying, 'All is peaceful, all secure,' destruction is upon them, sudden as the pangs that come on a woman in childbirth; and there will be no escape. But you, friends, are not in the dark; the day will not come upon you like a thief. You are all children of light, children of day. We do not belong to night and darkness, and we must not sleep like the rest, but keep awake and sober. Sleepers sleep at night, and drunkards get drunk at night, but we, who belong to the daylight, must keep sober, armed with the breastplate of faith and love, and the hope of salvation for a helmet. God has not destined us for retribution, but for the full attainment of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that awake or asleep we might live in company with him. Therefore encourage one another, build one another up - as indeed you do."

God grant you a good Advent to prepare for the coming of his Son,

+Robert Sodor as Mannin

Posted 5:38 PM | Permalink