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The great inspiration of Mary

Christmas is nearly here and this week we light the fourth Advent candle, the candle representing love. Not the mushy sentimental love that features in Christmas movies and most nativity scenes but the practical and costly love that is at the heart of the biblical Christmas story.

Mary is both a recipient and a giver of this love. Gabriel greets her as someone who has found favour with God and who is given a unique role as the mother of God’s Son. Nothing in her life to this point would have indicated her readiness or worthiness for such a role. Hence Mary is perplexed but thankful that she has been chosen. Like many others in the gospel story she is a relative nobody just trying to live a faithful life and by God’s grace she becomes a conduit for God’s love to be revealed to the world.

She will of course give birth to Jesus and nurture him in faith as he grows up. She will watch as he begins his ministry of healing and teaching, and she will watch in anguish as he is later crucified. She will be part of the emerging Christian community of faith that gathers after the resurrection. She will love Jesus as only a mother can and will bear the cost of watching her son die.

Like others in the gospel narrative, she is not the central character but one of many characters that point to Jesus and the love of God revealed through him. I wonder how your life and your choices shine the love of God to those around you as you in turn point others towards Jesus.

This week we again have a combined collaborative service prepared by Heathmont, Ringwood, Ringwood North and our two Croydon congregations. You will see and hear from several familiar faces from Croydon and Croydon North. Join together at 10 am in your respective worship spaces or login at the following website https://nruc.online.church/ from 9.45 am.

Click here for worship@home resources.

Church@home, From the Minister

Blessing – and justice

After the year of 2020 that we’ve all experienced, who would like some good news, divine favour, comfort and joy? These are some of the blessings promised in the reading from Isaiah 61. However bleak the situation is facing God’s people on their return from exile in Babylon, God promises great blessing and hope for the future.

Similar claims are made in Mary’s song the Magnificat (so-called because this is the opening word of the song in its Latin translation) … God has done great things for those who fear him (like Mary), the lowly have been lifted up, the hungry fed. Blessings abound!

There’s just one small problem. Nobody seems to have told the leaders and rulers of the nations about these new arrangements. They still rule through military might and oppression, they still hoard most of the wealth, and they’re not about to give up these privileges, whether we’re speaking of the Romans in the time of Mary, the Persians in the time of Isaiah, or the wealthy elite in many countries of the world today. The vision we are offered in Isaiah and in Mary’s song doesn’t seem to match our world’s lived reality. So are these just idle promises? Or is our call to seek justice to turn the world right side up? When Jesus preached on the Isaiah passage (as recounted in Luke 4), his audience were quite happy to accept God’s blessings but far less keen to share them with others. They were also angry that Jesus didn’t stress God’s judgment on their enemies. It seems that our sense of and commitment to justice may not match that of Jesus. Will we accept both God’s blessing and God’s call to seek justice?

This week we again have face-to-face worship at Croydon North this Sunday. For Croydon North people who want to attend, the service will start at 10 am in the worship space as per the old pattern. For Croydon people, the service will be broadcast via Zoom at 10 am in the worship space.  For everyone else, this worship service will be streamed via Zoom in the usual way (fingers crossed that the technology all works as planned). So please come along to either venue or login to Zoom from 9.45 am.

We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy for those on Zoom to have a copy present.

Click here for worship@home resources.



Church@home, From the Minister,

A new beginning

This week still feels like a new beginning – as we will be gathering together for the first face-to-face worship at Croydon in many months. The whole season of Advent is about beginnings – the beginning of the church year, the beginning of the hope and promise of the Messiah, the beginning of the good news of Jesus.

In the reading from Isaiah, God’s people are invited to imagine a new beginning in their relationship with God and in a promised return to their home in Jerusalem. Their past sins will be wiped away and God will prepare the way through the desert for their journey. It will be like a new Exodus for the people.

The opening verse in Mark’s gospel reads ‘The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ’. It’s not immediately clear whether the beginning stands for the whole Gospel to follow or for the ministry of John who is preparing people for the coming of Jesus. Mark identifies John as the voice crying in the wilderness from Isaiah 40:3, indicating that the good news is beginning in the wilderness, at the margins.

I wonder what new beginnings you have experienced this year? Perhaps learning new ways to keep in touch with others? New ways to shop? New ways to worship God at home? Has it felt like a wilderness experience that caused you to trust more in God’s provision?

More exciting news this week as we begin face-to-face worship at Croydon  this Sunday for the first time in over 8 months. For Croydon people who want to attend, the service will start at 10 am in the worship space as per the old pattern. For Croydon North people, the service will be broadcast via Zoom at 10 am in the worship space.  For everyone else, this worship service will be streamed via Zoom in the usual way (fingers crossed that the technology all works as planned). So please come along to either venue or login to Zoom from 9.45 am.

We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy for those on Zoom to have a copy present.

Click here for worship@home resources.

Church@home, From the Minister,