A Call to Prayer for Revival

Yesterday, I emailed this call to various leaders across the Anglican church. If you feel that the LORD is calling you to join us please indicate when and how you will do so in the comments below. 

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? (Psalm 85:6)

It’s good to be Anglican, however, what I’ve observed in my own parish and diocese and during my time serving on the Council of General Synod shows me that we and other mainline churches are in a season of decline in both attendance and finances.

Faithful, intelligent people are doing their best to turn this around with strategies across the church like Fresh Expressions and Vision 2019.

We need to add something to those efforts. We need to embark on a new movement of concerted, united, sustained prayer across the churches across the country. What shall we pray together for? Let’s ask for a revival; an awakening; a spiritual refreshing; an ecclesiastical renaissance; for the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to breathe new life into us and our communities through the power of the Holy Spirit. Canon Dr Max Warren, described as the greatest General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society in the Twentieth Century, defined this kind of revival as

a reformation of the Church for action…a reaffirmation of theology, resuscitation of worship, renewing of conscience, and it is all these within the Church and for the Church. (J Edwin Orr, The Restudy of Revival and Revivalism, (1981), p. iv)

God, the Holy Spirit, has chosen to breathe new life into the church many times through history. The common denominator in the beginnings of such spiritual awakenings is prayer. In the nineteenth century it was concerted prayer, for example, that launched an awakening across the United States which grew churches like St James Episcopal in Chicago from 121 members in 1857 to 1,400 in 1860. This growth was not the result of clever programming but because of a prayer generated spiritual awakening by which hearts were warmed to God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

These events were not only filled churches, society was transformed, social justice happened. For example, one such spiritual awakening,

released the energy of Newton and Wilberforce to attack and subdue the trade in slaves. (The Book of Alternative Services, Introduction, p. 9)

At St Barnabas we have begun gathering for prayer on the second Sunday of each month at 6pm, for at least an hour (Mk 14:37), in the church. We have decided to step that up to every Sunday during Lent. There is also a small group of Lutheran pastors associated with the ELCiC renewal fellowship praying on second Sundays. Although it would be good if at least some of the praying is simultaneous, time zones and schedules make that impossible. The time and day don’t matter so much as that systemic, concerted, united, sustained prayer happens.


SOME RESOURCES
From Scripture

Psalm 85:6 Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? 

Isa 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. 

Hos 6:2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3 Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." 

1 Chr 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

From The Book of Common Prayer

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us thy only begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin:  Grant that we, being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end.  Amen. (The Collect for Christmas Day, p104)

From The Book of Alternative Services

Let us ask the Lord to renew the Church through the power of his life-giving Spirit. (from the Morning Litany, p118)

Eternal Giver of life and light…Renew your Church with the Spirit given to us in baptism, that we may worship you in sincerity and truth, and shine as a light in the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. (The Collect for the Easter Vigil, p329)

Living God, in Christ you make all things new. Transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. (The Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, p352)

Almighty God, your Son revealed in signs and miracles the wonder of your saving love. Renew your people with your heavenly grace, and in all our weakness sustain us by your mighty power; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. (The Collect for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany, p356) 

Almighty God, in our baptism you adopted us for your own. Quicken, we pray, your Spirit within us, that we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. (The Collect for the Sunday between 9 and 15 October, p385) 

Almighty God, grant that we who have been buried with Christ in baptism may be raised with him to newness of life. Renew us by the power of your Holy Spirit that we may live in righteousness and true holiness, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (The Collect for Confirmation, p 624)

PRAYERS FOR THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA'S GENERAL SYNOD VISION 2019


Vision Statement
Will you not revive us again (Psalm 85:6) so that, as we rejoice in you, we will clearly and truly become a people who know, love, and follow Jesus in serving God’s mission.

LORD, HEAR AND HAVE MERCY.

Marks of Mission 
Will you not revive us again (Psalm 85:6) so that, as we rejoice in you, in Jesus' Name, the Marks of Mission will be made manifest in our lives as we

• proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God
• teach, baptize and nurture new believers; 
• respond to human need by loving service; 
• transform the unjust structures of society; 
• advance reconciliation and peace among all people; 
• strive to safeguard the integrity of God's creation.

LORD, HEAR AND HAVE MERCY.


Priorities
Will you not revive us again that (Psalm 85:6) so that, as we rejoice in you, in Jesus' Name, our national church will be faithful and skillful in enabling and encouraging our church’s mission by

• creating structures that work;
• improving and enlivening communications; 
• wisely responding to statistical trends;
• gathering and generously providing financial resources to equip ministry across Canada; 
• building bridges across the Church and beyond.

LORD, HEAR AND HAVE MERCY.

Practices
Will you not revive us again (Psalm 85:6) so that, as we rejoice in you, in Jesus' Name, our national church will be faithful and skillful in

• developing leadership education for mission, evangelism and ministry;
• supporting ministry through the Council of the North;
• walking with Indigenous Peoples on a journey of healing and wholeness;
• working toward peace and justice;
• engaging young people in mutual growth for mission;
• enlivening our worship;
• being leaders in the Anglican Communion and in ecumenical actions.

LORD, HEAR AND HAVE MERCY.


SOME ANGLICAN CONNECTIONS WITH HISTORIC REVIVALS

The “morning star” of the eighteenth century Revival in Britain was Griffith Jones, an Anglican rector, who taught 150,000 Welsh people to read besides preaching the gospel. (J Edwin Orr, The Restudy of Revival and Revivalism, (1981), p. 1)

THE AWAKENING OF 1792 ONWARD

The spiritual preparation for a worldwide awakening thus began in Great Britain…believers in one denomination after the other, including the evangelical minorities of the Church of England…devoted the first…Monday evening of each month to pray for a revival of religion and extension of Christ’s kingdom overseas. (Ibid., p. 10) 

Anglicans successfully promoted abolition of the slave trade. Significant reform was achieved in the prisons…the Sunday School movement…humane service to animals began…benevolence in the missionary movement…Many of the social advances of the times were derived from the awakening. (Ibid., p. 12)

In September 1857, a man of prayer, Jeremiah Lanphier, started a businessmen's prayer meeting in the upper room of the Dutch Reformed Church Consistory Building in Manhattan. In response to his advertisement, only six people out of a population of a million showed up. But the following week there were fourteen, and then twenty-three when it was decided to meet everyday for prayer. By late winter they were filling the Dutch Reformed Church, then the Methodist Church on John Street, then Trinity Episcopal Church on Broadway at Wall Street. In February and March of 1858, every church and public hall in down town New York was filled. ("Prayer and Revival" - J. Edwin Orr)

In 1859, phenomenal awakening was reported in the city and environs of Newcastle-on-Tyne; out of Gateshead came evangelists William and Catherine Booth. (J Edwin Orr, The Restudy of Revival and Revivalism, (1981), p. 29)

One outcome of the movement was to fill the theatres of London with twenty thousand auditors to hear the gospel preached on Sunday evenings. These were attended by the masses, whereas St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey were packed by upper-class and middle-class. The seasonal attendance in special meetings exceeded a million. The Protestant churches of London added 200,000 seats to their accommodations, 60% increase in the revival period, outstripping population gains. (Ibid, p. 30)

THE AWAKENING OF 1904 ONWARD

The Archbishop of Canterbury called for a nation-wide day of prayer. Thirty English bishops declared for the Revival after one of their number, deeply moved, told of confirming 950 new converts in a country parish church. (Ibid, p. 44)

In 1921, a prayer movement began in East Anglia, which led to a remarkable revival…which packed out churches both Free Church and Anglican. (Ibid, p. 50)

GENEral Remarks on the Occasion of an Annual Meeting of Parishioners

This is one of the pictures I chose as part of one of the exercises at the Workshop last Saturday, the one that was supposed to reflect how it feels for me to be a member of my parish right now.

I hear many clocks ticking at this time of my life. 127 years for StB as a parish this year. 100 years for the building. Soon to be 13 years as your priest. 65th birthdays for Jude and I. 300 years since Isaac Watts’ wrote in that great hymn, O God Our Help in Ages Past, from which a few minutes ago we sang these words: “Time like an ever rolling stream bears all its sons away”—daughters, too. Time is rolling on.  Lots of clocks are ticking: biological, emotional, spiritual and ecclesiastical. I realized the other day that this April I will have served you for 20% of my life.

It seems like everywhere I turn—here, the EA, people on the street, the Hope Street Church —”I hear you’re retiring this year.” Hope Street even took me off the list for song leading thinking I was going at any moment! Of course Jude and I have been thinking and praying about it. It’s hard not to when the government gets on your case to get your old people’s papers filled out. And, to be honest, depending on how much sleep I’ve had, although we love you all dearly and you’ve become family to us, the prospect of retirement is pretty appealing some days.

But after considerable soul searching and prayer, Jude and I believe the LORD has not told us to stop yet. So, we’re not, for a while.

I’m aware, however, that there can be a danger in this sort of situation. That we all relax into what some call a “lame duck” sort of ministry by which energy dwindles and we stop running for the prize Paul writes about in 1 Cor 9 (v24) anymore (the verse immediately following yesterday’s epistle, interestingly enough).

I want you to know, I haven’t given up. Even though change is in the wind and I may move a little slower than I used to, my commitment to serve my Master, Jesus, and you in His name, has not diminished.

The LORD has things for us to do, new places to go. The God, who was our help in ages past, is also “our Hope for years to come,” as the second line of the hymn goes. He is our hope as we discern what’s what with All Saints and St Ambrose over these next few months. He will be our hope when the time finally comes for me to retire to make room for the priest who will shepherd you into the next phase of your journey “from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18) and on to “our eternal home.” It’ll be sad, when that time comes, but that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. The God who is our Help is carrying out His sovereign will. We wax and wane, get old and die—so do churches—yet “a thousand ages” in His sight are as nothing and Jesus remains “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8).

So here’s the task that faces us. Remember this?

His Majesty's Ship, St Barnabas

…from an Annual Meeting ten years ago. 

As your priest, part of my job is to call us together so we can discern which way the wind of the Holy Spirit is blowing, then I’ve got to encourage you all, even if you are afraid of heights, to climb the ratlines and swing out on the yardarms of your ministries to let down the sails and catch the wind of the Holy Spirit so we can continue our voyage. His Majesty’s Ship, St Barnabas, is built to sail—to go places. We’re not designed to spend our time tied up safe and sound. We’re designed to set sail for “ever rolling streams,” to beat through “stormy blasts” as we each take our turn in standing watch on the voyage of faith. We’re all crew, not passengers. Where is the “somewhere else” we heard about in the gospel yesterday? The “somewhere else” to which God is calling us to follow Jesus this year?

In particular this year—two things:

Revival
I’m committing to call us together to pray for a great awakening, for God’s Holy Spirit to fill StB and all churches with people coming to know and worship and follow Jesus. To pray for our communities for such an awakening that will transform our society so that the evil powers of this world that corrupt and destroy the creatures of God will have a very lean time of it. God has done it before, repeatedly, I intend to pray that He will do it again. Every day in my prayers and together with others from time to time. Next community prayer time: this Sunday, February 12th, 6pm, in the church and every second Sunday of the month thereafter. I hope you’ll join me.

Hat Ministry
How is God calling us to follow Jesus in the future of Anglican ministry in Medicine Hat and area? Is He calling us to change course somehow? In yesterday’s epistle (1 Cor 9:16-23), Paul described how he became all things to all people (1 Cor 9:22), making himself a slave to everyone (1 Cor 9:19). Who is Jesus calling us to be to our sisters and brothers at All Saints and St Ambrose?

As we consider this year’s budget, elect officers and do our business let’s ask the LORD to keep these in our minds.

Come Follow Me - A Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany: with reference to Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Cor 7:29-31 and Mk 1:14-20

Jonah 3:4 On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”
1 Cor 7:29 What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short.
1 Cor 7:31 …this world in its present form is passing away.
Mk 1:15 “The time has come,” he said. 

As someone said, and you’ve no doubt heard me say before, “God is the fastest checkers player in the world. It’s always our move.” Forty more days. The time is short. The time has come. The time is here, now, every day—probably several times a day. To do what? What Jesus says.

Mk 1:15 …Repent and believe the good news!”

Repent. The first word of the Gospel. Change our minds. Redirect our lives. Change course. Without Jesus and his leading, we will end up off course and on the rocks like the Costa Concordia. Stop what we’re doing which we know displeases God. Stop what He is not calling us to do.

Believe. The question, writes CS Lewis in Christian Apologetics[1], is not whether Christianity and following Jesus is a good way to live or not. The question is, “Is it true?” If it is, it is of “infinite importance.” If Jesus is who the Bible says He is and if He rose from the dead. That changes everything. My life must show that. So must yours.

Having repented and believed, we must do what God the Father is saying to us through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. What is He saying?

Mk 1:17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said.

Where to? Wherever He leads. What does that look like? We have some examples in all of our readings this morning.

In Mark, Jesus called Simon, Andrew, James, John to stop what they were doing and to start doing something else that He wanted them to do. It was not that they were doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. He called them to do something different and more important.

Similarly, in our 1 Corinthians passage, Paul calls the Christians in Corinth to change the way they were living.

1 Cor 7:29 …From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

Following Jesus is to live in His direction. Salvation is to be found in no one or no thing else. We are to live to the LORD in our marriages, in our emotional lives, in the things we buy and the things of world, writes St Paul.

And in our OT reading, Jonah is also called to do something different, to leave his place of familiarity and comfort and to go somewhere else; to follow the LORD’s direction. How did the people in our readings respond?

Mk 1:18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
Mk 1:20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Simon, Andrew, James, John all listened to what Jesus said and left to follow Him at once. Instant obedience.

We don’t know how quickly, or even if, the Corinthians obeyed Paul.

Jonah we know about. He disobeyed at first. He didn’t want to go to Nineveh, so he tried to run away by setting his own course to exotic Tar-shish. Once again the ill-fated Costa Concordia comes to mind—it ended up on the rocks, Jonah ended up in the belly of the fish. But Jonah got a second chance and because of his belated and reluctant obedience, the people and animals of Nineveh (Jonah 3:11) got one, too.

Why were all these people called? In the final analysis, so that Jesus, as last week’s collect says, is “known, worshipped and obeyed to the ends of the earth.”[2]

Mk 1:15 “The time has come,” Jesus said. 

For what?

Mk 1:15 …Repent and believe the good news!” 

Have I repented of everything in my life that does not go His way. Have you? Do I believe He’s true? Do you? Then,

Mk 1:17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said.

And then, sooner or later; sooner seems to be the theme through today’s readings; I must act; do something in response to Jesus’ call. So must you. I’ll probably have to stop some things and start others. Change my course. How?

Six verses before the beginning of this morning’s Gospel, John the Baptist proclaims that Jesus is The One who will baptize you and me with the Holy Spirit (Mk 1:8). Along with God’s grace, it is the Holy Spirit in us who empowers us to do things we are unable to do on our own. Notice what Jesus told Simon and Andrew:

Mk 1:17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

Follow Jesus and, in the power of the Holy Spirit, He will make us into whatever we are called to be.
So who am I more like today? Simon and Andrew, or Jonah? What about you? In a Jesus direction at once, or heading in the opposite direction?

Is the prospect of being baptized in the Holy Spirit a Nineveh for you; a call you are resisting, from which you’re running away? You may need to repent of unbelief and fear.

Or is the Nineveh I’m trying to avoid a place where there are lost people who need to be loved and served in the name of Jesus and who need to repent and believe in Him, who need the second chance only the LORD can provide and from who I am heading in the opposite direction as fast as I can? Like Jonah, I’ve bought the ticket, packed my bags, climbed up the gang plank, and I’m on my way.

Is there something Jesus is calling you or me to leave behind at once. Right now. So by the power of the Holy Spirit we can follow Him in a new, saltier, more radiant and fruitful, way.

Are there ways in which Jesus is calling me to live as if I had none, as if I did not, were not, as if not mine to keep, as if I’m no longer engrossed in just things? Empty of these things but full of the Holy Spirit. Living in a Jesus direction. How would that be for you?

[1] Quoted in The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from CS Lewis, Ed. Walter Hooper (Collins, 1984), p30
[2] Collect for the Second Sunday after Epiphany, BAS, p349

Insanely Great Service from Insanely Great Products

My wonderful wife gave me an Insanely Great Products Clip and Go for Christmas. As you see, it's a neat little gadget for attaching your iPhone to your dashboard. Alas, when I opened the gift, I found that the suction cup to which the iPhone must be attached was missing. Jude wasn't sure whether she saw it when she opened the package or not. We couldn't be sure whether it didn't arrive or whether it had been lost in the flurry of Christmas wrapping and opening.

So I emailed the Insanely Great folk and asked if they could send me a new suction cup. I received this message from Insanely Great Products co-founder, Richard:

I'm also not sure if the missing suction cup is on your end or ours but I'll send you a replacement by Priority Mail in the morning.  

If it's our error, please accept my apologies.  I appreciate your patience and we'll get it resolved as soon as we can.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

He then proceeded to send me not just one suction cup, but two! Plus one of these for my trouble:

All this at no charge. Outstanding service. Check them out if you're an iPhoner. 

 

Something More: a Baptism and a Call to Prayer - a Sermon for the Baptism of the Lord, Year B

In the beginning the earth was formless, empty and dark. There was chaos as one translation puts it. It needed something more for order and life and goodness to come. 


John the Baptist was a chaotic figure operating in an empty, desert wilderness, wearing camel’s hair and eating bugs and honey to keep himself alive. He was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth (Luke 1:15) said the angel Gabriel and yet he was waiting for something—someone—more (Mk 4:7-8). 


From childhood, Luke tell us, Jesus “grew up healthy and strong… and God’s favour was upon him” (Lk 2:40 NLT), for thirty years in obscurity, he “grew in wisdom and in stature and in favour with all the people.” (Lk 2:52 NLT) He needed something more. That’s why he went to John. 


In Ephesus, there were people who had not even heard there was a Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2) even though they had been baptized in water for repentance and believed in Jesus (Acts 19:4). Paul knew they needed something more. The something more was the Holy Spirit of God. 


And He was there in each situation ready to act: hovering, brooding over the waters and the chaos in Genesis (1:2) and then speaking order and life and light and goodness into being—setting all of creation into motion; tearing the heavens open and descending on Jesus as a dove in Mark (1:10)—propelling him into action and ministry; coming on the disciples in Ephesus when Paul laid his hands on them so they spoke in tongues and prophesied (Acts 19:6)—propelled into action and ministry so people would be strengthened, encouraged and comforted (1 Cor 14:3) and the church would be built up (1 Cor 14:5). In each situation bringing new life, new gifting, new power and action! 


This morning it happens again before our eyes. Daxton is a beautiful baby boy. Tyler and Tara know that Daxton needs something more (for example, if you ask Tara, when it comes to sleeping patterns, or should I say lack of them, she’d like some order brought to that little bit of Genesis 1 chaos in him). Tyler and Tara know that Daxton needs to be adopted into the Church, the Body of the Risen Christ, and baptized like Jesus was so that, as we will pray in a moment, as he is filled with God’s Holy and life-giving Spirit (BAS 155) his sins will be forgiven (BAS 160) he will be brought to new birth (BAS 157), he will learn to love others and to be a witness to God’s love (BAS 155). By bringing Daxton to be baptized, Tyler and Tara are committing themselves to helping Daxton grow into the something more, the new life, gifting, power and action the LORD has for him. Good for you. 


There’s something else I need say this morning. I think our church; our parish, our deanery, our diocese and our national church; also needs that something more. And not just us Anglicans. All the churches and our communities need something more. The Church has waxed and waned throughout history. I believe we’re in a period of waning and decline at the moment. I see it as I serve on the Council of General Synod for the national church. I see it in our diocese. I see it here. It’s not that things are all bad. They’re not. Jesus was healthy and strong and God’s favour was on him yet he needed more. So are we in many ways. The Ephesian disciples loved Jesus yet they needed more. Daxton is beautiful and healthy yet he, too, needs the something more that only God can provide. So do we. We need the more of God’s Holy Spirit breathing new life into us, we need an awakening; a spiritual refreshing. He’s done it many times through history. For example, in 1727, the Holy Spirit moved among some Moravians in what is now Germany and there began a prayer meeting that went for 24 hours a day, seven days a week for one hundred years and which birthed a missionary movement which brought Jesus to many. It was called a Great Awakening or Revival. There was another one a hundred years later in the United States and the UK. An example: St James Episcopal (Anglican) Church in Chicago went from 121 members in 1857 to 1,400 in 1860. This growth was not the result of clever programming but because of a prayer generated spiritual awakening by which hearts were warmed to God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Not only were churches filled, but also whole cities and communities were transformed as crime rates fell. It was a revival that stirred people up to bring an end to the slave trade. In 1859 twenty thousand people filled the theatres of London on Sunday evenings to hear the gospel preached. St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey were also packed. 


The common denominator in the beginnings of all these spiritual awakenings was prayer and so, beginning this evening at 6pm, and every second Sunday of the month from now on, I intend to come here to the church to pray for such an awakening in our church our city and our land. I need something more. We all need something more. Please join me. 


Eternal Giver of life and light…Renew your Church with the Spirit given to us in baptism, that we may worship you in sincerity and truth, and shine as a light in the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. (The Collect for the Easter Vigil, p329)

What If God Loves You?: a Short Sermon for Christmas Eve - with Reference to Isa 9:2-7, Titus 2:11-14 and Luke 2:1-20

What if God loves you? 

What if Caesar Augustus issuing that census decree which sent Joseph and Mary off on the road to Bethlehem, expecting a child, and the baby being born and wrapped and placed in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn really is part of a divine plot to show you that the Father Himself loves you? Just that. What if that really set the angel and the glory of the LORD off and scared the shepherds out of their wits? What if there really was then, and is tonight, a great company of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace to everyone on whom His favour rests?

What if God’s favour rests on you tonight.   

No, really; what if God loves you? 

What if when Isaiah wrote the words in our first reading 2,700 years ago, not only did God already have Jesus—the child born, the son given, the great light—in mind, but also you and me; to light up the dark places in our souls and lives tonight? 

What if God loves you? 

What if the grace of God that brings salvation has really appeared to all people? What if the salvation bringer really is Jesus? What if He really is a Saviour sent to save you and me? What if Jesus really is making a glorious appearance here in the Scriptures, the bread and the wine tonight, newborn baby no longer, but our Mighty God and Saviour, who gave himself for you and me to redeem us from all wickedness done by, or to, us and to purify us for himself and make us his own.

What if God loves you? 

What if he loves your kids? How can you make sure they get that? 

"Rejoice," wrote Isaiah. Celebrate. Have fun. Kids are attracted to genuine joy and fun. Set them a Christmas-spirited example by saying “No” to godless living and the sinful, indulgent pleasures Paul wrote about in our reading from Titus. Live self-controlled, upright and godly lives, eager to do what is good. Kids respond to goodness. They’ll see the God who loves them in it. Hurry, like the shepherds, to find where Jesus is and go there (you got it right tonight). Come often, and bring your kids with you, make sure they hear the story, over and over again (you know how they love to have stores repeated—try and skip a page), amaze them with the good news that God really does love them. Like Mary, treasure these events and what they mean and take them home and ponder them in your hearts with your kids. Like the shepherds, go home glorifying and praising God for all the things you are hearing and seeing this night and all that you will enjoy together over the next few days.

Because, if this is all true, it changes everything. It can no longer be just Christmas that’s magic. Life gets re-enchanted. Angels, glory and heavenly hosts, blessed hope, amazing grace, and Jesus himself—Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, the Christ—will light up your lives and the lives of your children like a Christmas tree. Batteries are included.  

What if God loves you? 

Back to the St James Daily Devotional Guide

I couldn't stand it. The edited Book of Alternative Services lectionary drives me mad. God reveals Himself and His relationships with His people through the Scriptures. All the Scriptures, not just the "nice" bits. In that way, the Scriptures are like and about real life. To live life to the full is to grapple with and submit to God's Word written—living, active, inspired, truthful, authoritative, challenging, disturbing and sometimes downright irritating.

So it's back to The Saint James Daily Devotional Guide. 


:-)