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I am no longer my own but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
But, as with Moses, and Mary, and Peter and so many others, God uses ordinary people in surprising ways. We see it again and again in the Bible, but somehow it is hard to believe that it may be true of us too! I can't tell you how many times I have resisted taking something on for fear that I may not be up to it. At such times we need someone in our community to be the angel who says to us "God is with you, O mighty warrior!"
St Paul offers an alternative way - he invites us in his letter to the Philippians to be people who very deliberately turn our minds to good news. We can expect to live more hopefully if we take his advice: "my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable." (Philippians 4:8)
I am conscious this week that there are numbers of families in our community who are grieving, mourning the passing of loved ones. These can be impossibly hard times for us - we may long for things which cannot be changed to be different, but we have to deal with the reality that faces us. As Christians we genuinely grieve with hope, but it is still so hard to sit with mystery, ambiguity and unanswered questions.
In the gospel reading last Sunday, we saw the old man in the temple in Jerusalem, Simeon, rejoicing at the coming of Jesus. He spoke about God's salvation being revealed and talked of a light being shone for the Gentiles.
At this time of year you might find yourself announcing that you too are not a fan of lists, and especially lists of New Year's Resolutions. You may even feel strongly enough to spray-paint it onto your front wall...
As you prepare for Christmas this year, may you be very conscious of the God who comes close to us in Jesus, the God who calls himself Emmanuel - God with us. And may you be encouraged by the reminder that the light of Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness will never put it out.
I came across an image recently of a woman sitting on a busy commuter train with her little boy on her lap. The Mom is reading a book and the boy is also reading - he’s got a children’s book and he’s completely engrossed in it. The caption on the photo says: “They asked her, ‘how did you persuade your child to read instead of playing with a device?’ She replied, ‘children don’t hear us, they imitate us’.”
This Sunday much of our focus is on our youth and children. In the 09h00 service our children are putting on a nativity play for us as they bring their term to an end and help us to prepare for the coming Christ.
For our family, this week has been full of familiar end of year rituals - school prize-giving ceremonies, carol services and the like. In the church, a similar set of familiar end of year routines are playing out - we are talking about nativity plays, confirmation services and lighting advent candles. The season of advent is upon us and it feels very familiar.