Sunday reflection
Reflection for the second Sunday of Advent.
Driving in the dark recently, I was struck by how many Christmas lights and decorations are up and shining brightly when it’s the early days of Advent and Christmas Day is still three weeks away. Advent is a time of preparation and waiting but, understandably after so miserable a time, many people seem to want to begin the festive celebrations early. Uncertainty still prevails as Omicron gets into circulation but, due to the disruption previously caused by the pandemic, many people are hopeful of having a much better Christmas with their families and loved ones this year.
For some, Christmas will not be the same with so many painful losses and situations that may have changed their lives and expectations permanently. For others, the hope is that the usual Christmas tree, decorations, meal and gifts will be possible once more as families and friends gather to celebrate the day. However, sensible precautions are also being urged with the arrival of Omicron and each family or individual will need to make their own response to their particular circumstances,
However, the difficulties arising with the supply chain mean that there has been concern that there may not be enough stocks of food, toys and gifts to meet the demand. As a result, Christmas shopping has started earlier than ever – although not everyone is disappointed to learn that, due to difficulties in finding seasonal workers, there may be a shortage of sprouts!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas says the song – but what does Christmas look like? The first Christmas was very different, with a child being born to parents away from home and shunned by family members because of the shame brought on them. Nowadays, Mary becoming pregnant before marriage would not be the issue it was then but Joseph was clearly concerned about Mary’s mental health too, with her talk of angels and messages from God. His dismay is understandable – but human help was needed to bring fresh hope to birth and Joseph also had to rethink his own priorities for this to happen. He changed his mind about Mary and, together, they made a positive difference. So, Jesus was born into human care in a place where animals were fed, quickly becoming a refugee when the family had to flee their homeland. That still happens today, with so many people displaced in the world, hungry, in need of help or with mental health issues. Perhaps, together, we too can make a positive difference to similar situations in our own families and
communities or through charitable donations and support?
The experiences we’ve all been through may be making us change our minds about Christmas and what is important to us. Now, as then, fresh hope can be born in difficult circumstances and Love can still find a home when human hearts are open to the challenge. That’s why the Christmas lights and decorations can be a sign of hope at the darkest time of year, despite the gloom and challenges that are ahead. There may be shortages of festive items this year – but, when you think of the love, hope and new beginning at the heart of the first Christmas and still around today, are they actually essential?
With my prayers; pob bendith,
Christine, Guardian.Bishop Gregory’s advent message
https://dioceseofstasaph.org.uk/bishopgregory/advent-message/
. This year, the message is available in video form; and as an audio message in both Welsh and English; as well as the usual letter.
Sunday reflection
Reflection for Stir Up Sunday.
Remembrance Sunday reflection
Reflection on Remembrance
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields, the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.With my prayers; pob bendith,
Sunday reflection
Sunday reflection
Reflection on No!
With my prayers; pob bendith,
Sunday reflection
Bishop Gregory’s Pastoral Letter
THE BANQUET AT THE END OF TIME
A Pastoral Letter for the Teulu Asaph from the bishop: October 2021
One of my very favourite poems is by George Herbert, the seventeenth century Anglican theologian and minister. Entitled “Love (III)”, it is for me an interpretation of the very heart of the Gospel – the Good News that we as Christians are called upon to proclaim.
LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.
‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’
Love said, ‘You shall be he.’
‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee.’
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
‘Who made the eyes but I?’
‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.’
‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’
‘My dear, then I will serve.’
‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’
So I did sit and eat.
Jesus himself spoke about the Kingdom of God as a banquet, a great party, which God would hold at the end of this world, and which would inaugurate the next. In Herbert’s poem, Love (God himself) invites us to this heavenly feast.
However, as set out in Scripture, there is a problem, what theologians name our inherent “sinfulness”. In other words, a flaw at the heart of our being makes every single one of us less than perfect, unqualified for heaven. The subject of the poem – the “I” – knows the problem: he has marred the divine image in his life and he is “guilty of dust and sin”, so that shame (what we might call repentance) will not let him enter the feast.
Yet, where the Bible identifies the problem, the Bible also reveals a solution: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3.16). In the poem, Love takes on the sin and shame of the world: “Who bore the blame?” It is a reference to God’s sacrifice of himself in Jesus upon the cross, where God takes on himself all the pain, fault and cost of human failure (Colossians 2.13,14), and pays the price of salvation, the price of entry into the feast. To pray this poem, and make it our own, is to be a Christian.
The Church’s central purpose is to live into this promise, and to invite others to live into it as well. God longs for us to attend an eternal feast that none of us are qualified to enter, but by his love and grace, by his sacrifice, the way is made open, if we will but accept that the price is paid. It is this exchange which is at the heart of the Gospel, the good news of salvation: it is what salvation means, and it is reflected throughout the New Testament as a description of God’s action in Jesus. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4.10) “If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8.31). What greater invitation could there be?
As we come out of lockdown, and enter again into our mission, which is the purpose for which God sends us into the world, let us remember that the proclamation of reconciliation through the Cross is the heart of everything we believe and do. This is the Gospel of the Lord, and throwing the doors of our hearts wide open to Jesus is the one action, above all else, to which we are called.
Bishop Gregory
Sunday reflection
Reflection for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity.