Pastoral Letter 195B
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace, Hope, Peace Joy and Love to you all.
On the first Sunday of Advent, we lit the Candle of Hope, as we hopefully watch and wait for the Lord’s second coming to establish His Kingdom and save the world. On the second Sunday we lit the Candle of Peace to remind ourselves of the ways God brings peace into our lives, as we live in the Hope that God will use us for peace through this Advent Season. Last Sunday we lit the third Candle of Advent, the Candle of Joy during our traditional Carols Service, to celebrate the Joy of having God in our lives and hope to bring the much-needed Joy in our world. This Sunday we will light the fourth candle of Advent, the Candle of Love to celebrate the Love of God, reminding ourselves that God is Love and He loves the world and as we live in the Hope that He will use us to continue building His Love in our world this Advent and Christmas Season.
This weekend we will have three services: Sunday Morning, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. It will be a busy weekend, before we go into the last week of the year 2023. So, as we celebrate in this joyous season and praise our loving, caring and compassionate God, let us remember those who are less fortunate, needy, homeless, lonely, depressed, not well, going through difficult time and have serious medical issues asking for God’s care, help and presence. Let us pray and hope for peace in our restless world with wars in many areas and desperate situations for many who are suffering and facing hard times, because of those tragic wars.
Please continue to pray for those who need care, support and love. Pray for those who will be away on holidays and traveling, to go and come back safely traveling on the road. Pray for those who will spend time with their families during this Christmas holidays. But most importantly, pray for those who are not well and having serious health issues and those who are recovering.
If you are not able to join us tomorrow and on Christmas Day Monday, please light a candle, and join us following the attached Orders of Services.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray that this be a blessed season for us all, as we conclude the Advent and 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 as the situation escalates again.
- Pray for the people Artsakh who are refugees in different parts of Armenia facing many challenges.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for those who have been affected from natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and bushfires.
- Pray for Juliana as she has been transferred to St. Peter’s Green on Mowbray Road on Thursday.
- Pray for Virginia as she has commenced receiving the needed injections.
- Pray for Adrienne, as she is recovering from a heart stent procedure, she had last Monday.
- Pray for our church and our future plans as we seek God’s guidance.
Best Regards
Krikor
MESSAGE
The Light of the World
Isaiah 9:2-7, John 1:1-18
One of the greatest natural wonders happens every single morning. A spectacular sunrise, rising over the horizon. Sunrises can be pretty dramatic, especially if there are one or two clouds around to reflect the light. Even before the top of the sun creeps above the rim of the horizon, the bottoms of the clouds start to glow gold and change colours blazing with anticipation. That first morning light is clearer than spring water. And we can see again, and our attention leaves the glory in the sky and turns back to the world around us, for a new look.
The beautiful sunrise reminds us of the words of the hymn, “Morning has broken like the first morning; blackbird has spoken like the first bird. Praise for singing, praise from the morning, praise for them, springing fresh from the world”. We can almost smell creation springing fresh from the Word of God. Springing fresh from the hands of Jesus.
John opens his gospel with a deliberate reference to the speaking of that first word and the making of the first light and invites us to see the moving contrast the difference between the clean, radiant beauty of the first creation and the miserable world that Jesus came into in order to rescue us from the mess we ourselves had made.
John tells us that life itself was in Jesus, and out of the overflow of that endless life force came every internal and external light, by which we see. Our sun, a medium-sized star that can burn our eyes out if we look at it too long, is just a small spark off of the blinding radiance of our God. We cannot look at God. Remember when Moses met with God on Mt. Sinai and asked as a special favour for God to show him His glory. And God said: “I will cause all my goodness pass in front of you, and will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by” (Ex 33:19-22)
We cannot look directly at the light of God. The people of Israel begged Moses to be their intermediary, so that they wouldn’t have to come directly into the presence of God. And God gave them words to live by, the law, the Torah, because they couldn’t handle the Light. And the written word was not enough, because it contained the will of God, but not the Light of God.
We cannot look directly at the Light of God. So, the light came into the world in disguise. The words of the loved carol ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ says: “In your dark streets shining the everlasting light”, and all of our pictures show the baby encircled in soft, radiant and glowing light. But scripture doesn’t say that Jesus looked any different from any other baby. The light shone in the darkness, the darkness of human flesh, the darkness of human society, the darkness of human ignorance and oppression and fear.
And the darkness did not understand it.
But the darkness did not overcome it.
‘Understand‘ and ‘overcome‘. We don’t know which one John meant. Did he mean that people didn’t recognize God’s light when they saw it? Did he mean that no matter what unpleasant things people did in order to avoid the light they couldn’t put it out?
Both are true.
We can see God’s light in the created order, although not directly, by what is called natural revelation. But people don’t understand what they see. People interpret it in ways that don’t threaten them. Paul says in his letter to the Romans that: “What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made (Rom 1:19-20).
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood it. Neither the created world nor the written word was enough. People needed something else.
So now a new light was coming into the world, the true light, not a dim reflection, but the very Light and life of God, in order to give light and life back to God’s people. But in disguise, so that people would be neither frightened nor blinded. How would people know to lift their heads and look? How would they know what they were seeing?
Someone had to tell them. That was John the Baptist, shouting: “Rise and shine! It’s morning! Time to get up!” A few got up and welcomed the light, because something about the message – or maybe about the messenger – sound true.
Those who didn’t notice John the Baptist’s call to come out to greet the new day were those who had come to terms with things as they were. They were comfortable, at home in the world, in the dark. Some were even gaining from it. God’s Light threatens anyone who is comfortable with things as they are – because God’s Light is not safe. God’s Light blinded Paul on the road to Damascus. It can knock us down too, if we’re going in the wrong direction. As C.S. Lewis said about Aslan, the lion in the Narnia stories: “He’s good, but he isn’t safe.” God’s Light changes things, and it’s frequently very uncomfortable indeed. It breaks into our safe, secured lives, strips off our masks, forces us to look at ourselves in a most critical way. The light of Jesus Christ is pure beauty; beside Him, our lies, our self-importance, our pretensions are impossible to sustain, much less take pride in.
The light interferes with our pleasures, calls us to be up and about; it doesn’t let us rest.
But if we answer the call, and come into the Light, we will not only behold His glory, but we will also be part of it. Because when the light of Jesus Christ shines through us, like sunlight through a prism, we His church become a living rainbow, a sign of God’s everlasting love and commitment to His people. The light breaks into a million radiant pieces and can never be overcome.
Today, all of us need that radiant, brilliant light, the Light of the world, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, who has come as a baby and will came again as the great and sovereign Lord, the King of kings.
Amen!