It is December the 1st and the anticipation and
excitement is growing. The Christmas season get’s longer and longer. Last
Saturday – the 23rd November I was in B & Q and what what was
playing over the tannoy...
“And here it is merry Christmas everybody’s having fun.....”
The dulcet tones of Saint Noddy Holder of Walsall.
Now obviously commercial businesses use the excitement and
anticipation of Christmas just to sell things but they wouldn’t do it at all if
there was no excitement and anticipation there to tap into in the first place.
Christmas is the nation’s favourite Christian festival by a
million miles.
Who is looking forward to Christmas? It is exciting.
Today we will send off Mary and Joseph on their journey
around the village. Over 2000 years ago they would have been very excited as
well. Looking forward to the birth of their first child.
But Christians look forward to something else as well. Of
course we look forward to the celebration of Jesus’ birth as much as anyone but
we also look forward to a better, happier world.
Of course Christians aren’t the only ones to look forwards
to an end to hunger, thirst, war, and hate but in this special season of Advent
we are given the opportunity to think about it more than others.
But Christians have not just been given a special time to
think and hope for a better world. We have been given much much more.
We have also been given the instructions, and the means to
actually bring this better world about.
The New Testament of the Bible is a record of one
extraordinary man’s vision of what the world could be. And in the way Jesus
lived and the guidance he left with us, we have something to copy.
His advice to us was simple. Be the change you want to see
in the world yourself. There is no point is sitting back and hoping that things
will get better as if by magic. We can change the world one person at a time
and we must start with ourselves.
And from that change in yourself the change ripples outwards
because you will affect other people by that change.
Of course you don’t have to hold any specific faith to want
to help people but the fact is that even today the voluntary and charitable
sector that underpins our society would collapse if it wasn’t for the
involvement of tens of thousands of Christians giving their time and energy to
help people.
They do it because their faith has changed them. That is what
we want. That is what we are looking forward to – but not just hoping or
praying for change but being that
change.
Being able to change things for the better is what excites
us and motivates us and fills us with hope – the hope of a better tomorrow for
all of the people of the world.
This hope, this excitement, this anticipation for Christians
is not just crammed into a month before Christmas but is a constant presence
with us.
And that is why we constantly invite people to join us. We
call it a fancy name – evangelism – but it is simply an invitation to join us
in something life enhancing and life giving. It is like giving someone a gift because with an active faith you gain something, and it is free. You
gain a sense of love and compassion, a sense of acceptance and forgiveness, but
also you gain that sense of hope and excitement and anticipation that is a constant
companion. We call that the Spirit of God.
Anyone can have this gift for free if they really want it.
Be the hope,
Be the anticipation,
Be the change.
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