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The season of Advent – a season of hope

The world often seems somewhat bleak and dismal, especially this year with grey skies and floods, a cruel and destructive war in Ukraine, lingering covid in the community and the cost of living going up and up. But I’m reminded of the Monty Python song that includes the line … if life seems jolly rotten, there’s something you’ve forgotten and that’s the time to laugh and dance and sing.  

Advent is the time of year leading up to Christmas where we are invited to pause and listen again to the promises of God to bring light in the midst of darkness, to bring hope and joy and love and peace. It’s much easier of course to focus on the issues and problems that are right in front of us, but Advent encourages to lift up our gaze and to hear afresh the plans that God has for the world.

For the Jewish people, always living under the threat of more powerful neighbours (a bit like Ukraine), it was fairly natural to look back to the golden age of their history under King David. He was the one who defeated all their neighbours, who established Jerusalem as his capital and who united all the tribes. So when things looked bleak, Israel hoped for God to raise up another King David, another Anointed One (literally another Messiah). This hope took several forms. Sometimes, as in the Isaiah 11 reading, the messianic figure is warlike and will strike his enemies with the rod of his mouth. In other readings, as in the one from Micah, the Messiah is a gentler figure who will shepherd the people and bring peace.

When we look at the world, what do we hope for? We might, for instance, hope for peace and equality and justice. But how will these outcomes come about? Which leader or leaders will bring them to reality? The message of Advent is that God has already shown us the way through the life and teaching and death of the one born as a vulnerable baby in Bethlehem.

From the Minister,

Frontier Services – comfort and generosity

The ministry of Frontier Services goes back to the vision of Rev John Flynn to create a ‘mantle of safety’ for those living in the bush. The work of Flynn is remembered on our Australian $20 note. 110 years on, bush chaplains and Outback Links volunteers are continuing to help and support people living in rural and remote parts of Australia. As the image shows, things have changed from the early days of Flynn. Women bush chaplains as well as husband and wife teams are now a part of the mix, which was once predominantly male. Frontier Services reach now includes indigenous and mining communities as well as isolated farms and stations.

Life in the bush has always been challenging. The last few years have been particularly so with droughts, mice plagues, covid and this year devastating floods through much of eastern Australia. This requires physical, emotional and spiritual resilience to cope. As the reading from Isaiah suggests, God wants to bring comfort to people and make a way through the wilderness. Usually this comfort and compassion comes through human agents, such as the chaplains and volunteers of Frontier Services.

But to bring this comfort to those in the bush needs resources – not just people but also vehicles and fuel. So Frontier Services relies on the generosity of people living in the relative comfort of the city to support those doing it tough in the bush. In the reading from 2 Corinthians, Paul describes such generosity as a grace, a gift of God’s Spirit.

That is why the folk of Croydon and Croydon North congregations are holding a Great Outback BBQ this Sunday to raise some of the resources needed by Frontier Services. So please join us at 11.30 am for the BBQ or jump on line to make a donation towards the inspiring ministry of Frontier Services.

From the Minister, ,

Would you like the good news or the bad news?

When there is a mixture of news to be shared, we’re sometimes asked whether we want the good news or the bad news. In our culture, the bad news is easy to find. Just turn on the nightly television news, open a newspaper, log in to Facebook or go to whatever source you normally get your news from. You’ll quickly find plenty of bad news – from wars and disasters to political scandals and scuttlebutt, from looming health crises to the climate emergency.

Good news is a little harder to find, but it’s there if we have eyes to see it and ears to listen. There is much love and joy and care in the world – within families, between friends, in the local neighbourhood. Natural disasters like the recent floods often bring out the best in people – helping out their neighbours in need.  It’s also good to remember that the sun will come up tomorrow morning however dismal things may seem right now.

This week we are offered two visions of the world from the ancient past – one from the prophet Isaiah and one from Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Both are relevant and both are formative for Christian faith. But they are nearly opposites of each other so we have to work hard to hold them together in tension.

First, the bad news from Jesus … the world is in a mess. There are and always will be wars and conflicts between nations, famines, natural disasters and plagues (e.g. covid). Followers of Jesus can expect, at times, to be persecuted and hated, imprisoned and even killed for their faith in Jesus. These things are all to be expected. What are we to do? Stand firm, trust that Jesus will be with us and not be afraid.

By contrast, the good news from Isaiah is that God has a better plan for the world – to recreate earth the way God intends. There will be peace and prosperity for everyone as well as between nations, people will be rewarded for their hard work and enjoy the fruit of their labours, people will grow old with dignity. There will be joy and delight in living. This is a vision of the kingdom of God that Jesus came to inaugurate. We see glimpses of it here and there – which gives us hope and encourages us to continue to work for good in the world.

Both of these visions are true. Each of them says something important. Which one do you most need to hear today?

From the Minister,