Are You Ready!

Over the last while you have probably heard the phrase asked of you or heard someone ask another, ‘are you ready’  or ‘I suppose you’re all ready’ and people are referring to being ready for Christmas. Do you have your shopping done, have you got your decorations up, your tree trimmed, and so on? And while that is not so unusual for this time of year, what is unusual about it is, it seems to start earlier and earlier each year. This year some of the stores had Christmas things out before the Halloween things were put away, and people putting decorations up in their homes before mid-november. As I reflected on this, I thought it’s as if there is a real urgency about all this, as if people can’t wait for Christmas to get here, and while that would be a good thing if it were for the right reason, for the most part it probably is not.  So why the urgency, probably for the joy and the excitement that Christmas brings, but we know that is only going to last for a time, so still why the urgency.  I am not so sure, but the real urgency should be in the anticipation, the anticipation of what Christ’s birth now points us to, His second coming. The time we live in now is the time between Christ’s first coming and his return, and so the question we should be asking ourselves at this time of the year as we reflect on our Saviour’s birth, is not have we got our trimmings all done for the holidays, but how ready are we for Christ’s return. What preparation have we made for Christ’s coming again? In the gospels Jesus speaks to the urgency of being ready for his return using the words, ‘keep alert’, ‘stay awake’,  ‘beware’, to indicate that this is something we should all be thinking about.  In the parable of the Ten bridesmaids (Matt 25:1-13), five had come with extra fuel for their lamps while the other five going with only what was in their lamps, when their fuel ran out having to to go look for more, they missed the bridegroom’s coming. The bridegroom, being Christ in this parable, begs us to ask when he returns will we have our lamps lit waiting and ready for his return, or will we be like the five foolish bridesmaids gone of on our own tangents seeking fuel to refill our lamps only to miss his coming, and be left outside the door so to speak.  In the gospel of Mark, Jesus speaking to his disciples about his return and the need to be ready, says, “about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, Keep Alert; for you do not know when the time will come” (Mk 13: 32-33). We are now in the season of Advent, Advent meaning ‘coming’ and while it is wonderful to be ready and waiting for Christmas with all our preparations, let’s not forget to think spiritually as well and set our minds to preparing ourselves for Christ’s coming that lasts not only for the seasons of Advent/Christmas but for all time. “Heaven and Earth will pass away but my words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33).

Blessings,

Rev. Hannah+

"The Hem of His Robe"

Been thinking about this spot lately and thought it was about time I got back to adding another bit of light on the Word. Been away from here way too long, hope you enjoy what I have written and may you discover God in the peace of your surroundings as you do, God Bless.

“The Hem of His Robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1b)

Have you ever been so amazed, so astonished by something that it felt as if your breath had been taken away from you, you stopped breathing in a moment of awe perhaps! In the reading from Isaiah (Is 6:1-7), the prophet in a vision is brought to the temple and there he sees, “the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. There are six winged Seraphs in attendance singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. The pivots of the threshold shakes at their voices and smoke fills the house.” It’s a magnificent passage of scripture that speaks to the magnitude of our God, that all Isaiah can come up with to describe what he sees is that, “the hem of his robe filled the temple.” Now the hem of a garment is a very narrow piece of fabric, and if you let your mind grasp that for a moment, that it was the “hem” of His robe that filled the temple, not his whole robe, not God himself, but “the Hem”. I don’t know about you but that says a lot about the magnitude of our God, our all powerful, all loving God, that takes my breath away.

Isaiah’s breath too was likely taken away for Isaiah exclaims, “Woe is Me!” I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips.... yet my eyes have seen the Lord of hosts.” Woe is me, who am I, what have I done to be so privileged as to stand in the Lord’s presence. Isaiah soon learns that it is not about who he is, but about who God is that has made him worthy to stand before this awesome God. “A Seraph takes a live coal from the altar and touching Isaiah’s lips, with it says, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed you and your sin is blotted out.’ (v.7). Now I don’t know if that takes your breath away but it should, for that is exactly what Jesus done when he gave up his life for each of us on the cross. “For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

What is it that takes your breath away? Recently I attended a celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the church in the community where I grew up, now that takes my breath away to be a part of something with such a rich history, but even more so to be a part of the Christian faith that have lasted over 2000 years now that really takes my breath away. Wow! What is it that takes your breath away? Think about that for a moment and you will probably find many moments when you have been rendered speechless, or saw that breathtaking view that just made you say Wow! Or Awesome! And you will see too, like Isaiah in His vision, the God whose “hem of his garment filled the temple”.

Rev. Hannah+

We Have An Everlasting God

“Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31)

Waiting is not something we do well, we want something we want it now, we don’t want to wait our turn, we want to get there first. We hate waiting for news that is coming to us, whether its good or bad we might be expecting, we worry, we fret, we get frustrated, and impatient in our waiting. Waiting creates anxiety in our lives, that create a whole mess of other problems for us because of our not waiting well. In the passage from Isaiah, the prophet speaks of waiting for the Lord, in the sense that it changes the way we wait, to wait for the Lord is to renew our strength, to mount up with wings of Eagles. An Eagle is a majestic bird, to see an eagle with wings outspread against the expanse of the sky is an image of beauty, it is also an image of power, strength and freedom; an image the prophet no doubt wanted to instill in the minds of the people of Israel that they might persevere in a time of great despair, great struggle.  They were living in a time of exile, captivity, and their longing to return to their homeland of Jerusalem while a long time coming was also compiled by the feeling that God was absent from them, they no longer felt God was with them, and they were losing hope. Isaiah wanted the people to have hope even in the midst of their waiting, that God hadn’t forgotten them, despite what their circumstances may dictate to them, God was there.

Throughout the gospels there are many stories where people’s circumstances may have dictated they give up, but instead they persevered despite what life had brought their way. In John’s Gospel (Jn 5:2-8) a man waited by a pool in Bethzatha for 35 years in hopes that someday he would make it to the pool at a time the water was stirred and believed to have healing properities that he might be made well, and because he waited, he was there when Jesus came along and he was healed. In Mark’s gospel “a woman suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years, it says, after enduring much under many physicans and spending all that she had, she was no better, but rather grew worse; hearing about Jesus she said “if I could only touch his cloak, I will be made well,” and upon touching his garment immediately her hemorrhage stopped(Mark 5:25-29).” In Luke’s gospel (13:10) another woman crippled for eighteen years when she encountered Jesus received healing. These people had waited in hope, persevered despite the odds against them, even despite the weariness of their situations, they kept going, hoping that someday things would change for them and it did. 

Do that mean if we trust in God, wait for the Lord, all that ails us will immediately disappear, our sickness will all go away, our troubles or trials in life will all be over? No, it doesn’t but it does mean that we look with renewed hope, renewed strength to face and deal with the circumstances of our lives in a way that we are not overcome by the crisis that come to us in this life, but that we will overcome despite them, for we know “our Lord is an everlasting God, He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable(Is 40:22)”.  

Blessings,

Rev. Hannah+