Podcast Summaries

is from Malachi chapter 3, reading from verses 1 to 12. If you want to follow in the church Bibles, that's page 995. Malachi 3. See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years. Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished. Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we return? Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, how are we robbing you? In your tithes and offerings, you are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts. See if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. I will rebuke the locust for you so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil and your vine in the field shall not be barren, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will count you happy for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The gospel reading is taken from Luke chapter 1, reading verses 26 to 38. They can be found on page 58 of the church Bible. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord. The birth of Jesus is foretold. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary and he came to her and said, Greetings, favoured one, the Lord is with you. But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of a greeting this might be. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end. Mary said to the angel, How can this be since I am a virgin? The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy. He will be called son of God. And now your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God. Then Mary said, Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word. Then the angel departed from her. This is the gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ. Thank you both. May I speak with the spirit and may we hear with the understanding also. Well, I feel I should begin by wishing you all a happy new year because as Advent Sunday, as you know, is the first day of the new liturgical church year, isn't it? And the season of Advent marked through the four Sundays before Christmas is a time when we as Christians prepare for the coming of Jesus, both as we move towards Christmas and the celebration of Christ's birth and as we consider and reflect on his second coming, whenever that may be and in whatever circumstance. This year we're focusing, as I've said, on the hope, the peace, the joy and the love that the birth, life, death and new life of Jesus brings to us and to the world. And as we journey through Advent together as a church, we pray that we also grow together in that same hope, peace, joy and love. So, for hope, on first impressions, much of those scripture passages we've just heard don't necessarily shout hope to us, certainly not throughout, do they? The late prophetic book of Malachi was written at the time of the rededication of the temple around 500 years before Christ. Much of it is concerned with the way in which the worship at the temple had fallen into disorder, not least the role of the priests. A message for some of us there, I think. And the first four verses of that reading from Malachi, of course, apart from the association with that stirring contralto aria in Handel's Messiah, are, of course, most often heard in Advent, Advent carol services and so on. But its themes of purification and judgment don't feel particularly filled with hope, do they? Who can endure the age of his coming? Of course, Malachi is all about the coming messenger. Indeed, the word Malachi can be translated as my messenger, God's messenger. And the clear message is, before the Lord comes, the people need to be cleansed of their sins and the resulting right actions then will open the way for true blessings to flow. Then, in the closing verse of the passage, all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight. A true message of hope there. These verses are often paired in the lectionary with the New Testament proclamation by John the Baptist, also God's messenger, and the baptism of repentance for forgiveness that he offered people. Sin was continuing to separate people from God 500 years down the line from that time when Malachi was written. So where's the hope? And I think we can often feel that today in the world, can't we? Well, this brings us to our gospel reading from Luke and the birth of Jesus being foretold. Through Emmanuel, God comes to be with us. Throughout the history of God's chosen, people have failed to heed the message of the prophets, so God comes himself. He comes to destroy the evil in us and in the world, to draw us into a new life, a life with Christ. But this isn't to happen in a particularly obvious and straightforward way, but it's going to happen through a young woman in an unimportant village in Galilee.

In the back of beyond, on this announcement we're told that Mary was perplexed. Well, who wouldn't be? She was told not to be afraid, but then she's told that she was to become pregnant and bear a son. This son would be great and called the son of the most high. He would be a king of a kingdom that would have no end. Well, I don't know whether perplexed really sums it up. It seems a huge understatement, that really, doesn't it? Unsurprisingly, Mary responds by questioning how all this could happen given that she's an unmarried virgin. However, the angel reassures her that all will be well, for nothing will be impossible with God. And for Mary, that was good enough. Let it be with me according to your word, she responds. Nothing will be impossible with God. And that's words of hope, not just for Mary, but for each one of us. So, can our hearts be filled with hope? Can we feel confident about what may happen tomorrow? What about when the future seems filled with anxiety and stress or uncertainty? When we look around at the state of the world, it doesn't feel particularly hopeful, does it? How can we walk in hope as Mary did when at times we may feel hopeless inside? Well, the hope we seek is found in Jesus, isn't it? Hope in Jesus comes from more than just a belief that he was once a baby in a manger. It's something deep within which secures us through the storms of life. As it says in the letter to the Hebrews, we have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. Perhaps we might find it helpful to think of this word hope as a sort of acrostic, taking the four letters. So H, we could think of as help. Jesus invites us to come to him and confidently ask for help in times of need. O, overcome. When circumstances leave us feeling powerless and hopeless, through Christ's strength, we are enabled to overcome the obstacles life puts in our way. Faith in Jesus can give us hope and help us to overcome those obstacles or at least to learn to live with them. It's a bit like when a loved one has died and the person will say to me, maybe a year or so later, I don't seem to be able to get over this. And I said, well, don't try to get over it. You can't get over something like that, can you? We pray that you can learn to live with that loss. And I think that's what I mean here. We're not going to actually get rid of all the obstacles and difficulties of life, are we? But through God's help, we can learn to live with them. And very often out of adversity comes great hope. P in the P in hope, power. When things seem just too difficult or complicated for us to deal with, through Jesus we have the hope that God can give us the strength we need to tackle what we may feel is impossible. Get my last bit of paper. And the E in hope is eternity. When we put our faith and trust in Jesus, we not only find help and a way to overcome and the power to face the seemingly impossible, we also have hope for life beyond this one, don't we? In eternal life. Surely the greatest hope of all. So, apart from this advent taking a daily stroll along Custoat Road to see Caroline and Julian Rivers' conservatory window advent calendar gradually emerging, as we begin a new year in the church, so may we make time to perhaps make a resolution to take a moment each day to reflect on those times when we have turned to Jesus in hope and consider how we may do so in every situation and so experience and share the hope Jesus offers, not just in advent but throughout the year. For our hope is in the Lord. And that's all there is to it. Amen.