Pastoral Letter 192
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and Peace to you all.
Last Sunday we celebrated our traditional St. Andrew’s Day with a special Service and Luncheon, as well as Christ the King Sunday. We were reminded of the Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who needs and is looking for followers like Andrew, the faithful disciple and a good example and to be His faithful followers and loyal members of His body, the church! Our celebration extended during the Morning Tea and following our traditional St. Andrew’s Day Luncheon. We had a good turnout, good food with the Haggis and the works, entertainment, bagpipes, singing and listening to Ian’s recently written an original St. Andrew’s Day poem, raffles and gifts. The lucky door prise went to our tireless Treasurer Wendy Phelps. But our hearts were broken watching the presentation on the Artsakh Armenian refugee crisis. The short video prepared by the Armenian Missionary Association told a story of a refuge family, the Demirchyan family with ten children that we supported for two years, which was intentionally chosen. A big thank you for those who made donations and the support of our church for the last three years.
After celebrating St. Andrews’ Day and Christ the King Sunday last Sunday, tomorrow we commence the Advent Season, as we have done in the previous years. Again, this year we will take each week the themes of Advent, Hope, Peace, Joy and Love and reflect on them as we prepare to celebrate Christmas, the birth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
If you are not able to join us tomorrow, please light a candle, have a small piece or roll of bread and a small cup of wine or juice and join us following the attached Order of Service.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray that this Advent Season be a blessed season for all of us, as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
- Pray for the Middle East, the conflict between Israel and Palestine and the suffering of the innocent people and the hostages.
- Pray for the people Artsakh who have been refugees in Armenia facing many challenges.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for our church and our future plans as we seek God’s guidance.
Best Regards
Krikor
MESSAGE
Wait, Watch and Hope!
Mark 13:24-37
Today, we begin a new liturgical year and celebrate the Season of Advent. For most Christians, Advent passes virtually unnoticed, because the secular and intensely commercial celebration of “Christmas” begins earlier and earlier each year; this year Black Friday shopping started in the third week of November on Thanksgiving Day. But in the turmoil of the various holiday celebrations, the time of Advent offers us a time of quiet reflection, hopeful and patient waiting, and thinking about what the birth of Jesus means in our world today.
Advent is an ancient celebration, a four-week celebration ending with the birth of Jesus on Christmas. Advent is the time of waiting with anticipation for the fulfillment of the prophecies of Daniel and Isaiah: that a Messiah will come and gather the people to Him. The Messiah, the great and all-powerful one who brings us life everlasting, is being celebrated in this season as a tiny, helpless baby.
Most people think of Advent as a time to prepare us for Christmas, but Advent is about preparing for the arrival of Christ with new hearing ears and open hearts. However, the story has become so familiar to us that we often take it for granted. We become like people that live next to a very busy highway and no longer hear the cars and the trucks when they go by.
We tend to sleep-walk our way through the story. But if we wake up, we can see that the Christmas story is like a melodrama. Jesus is born to a teenage mother, He is lying in a manger, His princely court consists of some smelly animals and a few wise men. His ambassadors and evangelists are a handful of dirty shepherds just in from the fields.
That is what Advent is all about. We are waiting with hope for our Messiah. We will celebrate His birth by remembering what it felt like to wait for Him the first time He came.
In this way, the Manger, where Jesus was born is very much like the Cross, where He died for us. They are both symbols of times when God’s love came into the world.
We are in the season of waiting. In the last several years we have lit a candle on the Advent wreath on each of the four Sundays of Advent. This year we will do the same and each week we will wait for the coming of Jesus, not only to celebrate His birth, but also awaiting His Second Coming. But we don’t know when Jesus is coming again. There has been a lot of forecasting about when the Second Coming will happen, but those dates have all come and gone. We have no insight into the time.
Jesus Himself warned us saying: “No one knows about that date or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come”. (Mark 13:32)
Jesus’ coming will be unexpected; there will be no time to prepare for Him. Jesus says His return will be sudden! If we could see Jesus coming and His coming would take place in a year or so, or even a month from now, we might have time to get ready. But that is not the case. You are ready now before He comes, or you will never be ready at His coming. So, it’s time to wake up and start watching and waiting.
When Mark’s gospel was written, watching was a bit different than it is today. In the twenty-first century we have cameras everywhere. At every traffic light, on our cell phones, in stores, banks, and down sidewalks and streets, we are all “on camera” all the time, it seems. In 2023 there is no such thing as not being “alert.”
In Jesus’ time, being “alert” or keeping watch was much more “low tech”. “Alert” meant keeping your eyes open and staying wide awake in order to respond quickly to sudden changes and threats.
We must watch and be ready. The coming can happen any time — it may be when we are paying attention, when we are awake and alert. But Jesus cautions that He may come while we are sleeping, while we are not paying any attention; Jesus warns be “alert.” (Mark 13:37)
But Jesus does not mean that we are never to sleep. He means we must wait patiently as we go about our daily activities. Waiting is hard; ask any little child waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. But we need to wait and use that time while we are waiting to learn how to be patient. The best things in life always take time.
Not be distracted by the Christmas Holiday rush and noise. Preparations for Christmas starts in some stores in August. We need to not get entangled in all this shopping and commercialisation that we forget what is the ‘reason for the season’.
We should be ready in our hearts for Jesus’ arrival. We need to remember the lessons Jesus taught us through parables and the Scriptures about how we are to live. We need to try to live the way Jesus taught us.
Strengthen our relationship with God because all things come from God.
In this season of the Advent:
We should be ready to join the Kingdom of God at any moment.
We need to remember our prayer life, and daily give thanks for the blessings we have received.
We don’t need to panic, but we should remember that we are all loved by God.
This Advent, we wait and watch with hope. We wait and watch, believing that the God who comes— whether as a baby in a manger or a King in glory—has the power to gather all the people around Him and establish the Kingdom of Heaven.
May we be awakened from our slumber to wait and watch with for the God who comes yet again to be among us.
Are we watching?
Are we ready?
Amen!