Dear Friends
Attached are the readings, Collect and a reflection for the 3rd Sunday before Advent
This weekend is also one of remembrance around the world; calling to mind the sacrifices that have been made, by so many, for our sake and for peace in our world.
Let us remember them with thanksgiving and gratefulness. Let us remember too those places in our own day where there is warfare and strife and where the fight for justice and peace still ensues
A Prayer for Remembrance
Ever-living God,
We remember those whom you have
gathered from the storm of war
into the peace of your presence;
may that same peace calm our fears,
bring justice to all peoples
and establish harmony among the nations,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Readings and collect for the 3rd Sunday before Advent
Collect
Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the king of all:
Govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Joshua 24: 1-3a, 14-25
24Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. 2And Joshua said to all the people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. 3Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac;
14 ‘Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.’
16 Then the people answered, ‘Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; 18and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.’
19 But Joshua said to the people, ‘You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.’ 21And the people said to Joshua, ‘No, we will serve the Lord!’ 22Then Joshua said to the people, ‘You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.’ And they said, ‘We are witnesses.’ 23He said, ‘Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.’ 24The people said to Joshua, ‘The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.’ 25So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.
Psalm 78
1 Hear my teaching, O my people; ♦︎
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; ♦︎
I will pour forth mysteries from of old,
3 Such as we have heard and known, ♦︎
which our forebears have told us.
4 We will not hide from their children,
but will recount to generations to come, ♦︎
the praises of the Lord and his power
and the wonderful works he has done.
5 He laid a solemn charge on Jacob
and made it a law in Israel, ♦︎
which he commanded them to teach their children,
6 That the generations to come might know,
and the children yet unborn, ♦︎
that they in turn might tell it to their children;
7 So that they might put their trust in God ♦︎
and not forget the deeds of God,
but keep his commandments,
1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. 15For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. 16For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Matthew 25: 1-13
25‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” 7Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” 9But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” 10And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. 11Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” 12But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” 13Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Reflection 3rd Sunday before Advent 2020
This week’s readings take me back towards my youth.
A good friend of mine in the same Church Youth Club had a wonderful T-Shirt, similar to the one here, emblazoned on the front with the Phrase (in large capital letters) BE ALERT, and then underneath in smaller letters “ the world needs more LERTS”. It’s strange how things can stick in your mind. The theme of today’s readings is very much the idea of making a choice, sticking with it and being alert
In today’s Old Testament reading we see the choices which Joshua presents to the people of Israel. Joshua is suggesting to the people that they can either (a) remain faithful to God, (b) return to the god’s that their ancestors worshipped, (c) worship the local gods of the Amorites. It is perhaps interesting that the option of not believing in something, is not one of the choices. Really what Joshua is proposing is (a) Remain faithful (b) regress to the ancient ways (c) blend in with present-day culture
Although this story comes to us from Old Testament times it is disturbingly current because the choices which are offered by Joshua would also seem to be very pertinent to us in our own day.
Joshua ends his list of choices by clearly and firmly stating his own choice. Perhaps this too is an example for us to follow in our own day “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” In our time and place we too are called to witness as to where our loyalty lies. We don’t necessarily need to shout from the rooftops, but people should be able to see our faith in God through the way we live our lives, the decisions we make, and the priorities we have and that we are always willing to speak to others about our faith.
Another part of my youth was a short period in the Scout movement. This world-wide movement was started by Robert Baden-Powell in the early 1900’s and is still in existence today – some you may have been Boy Scouts. The thought behind the movement was to develop good citizenship, chivalrous (thoughtful & kind ) behaviour and skill in various outdoor activities. The motto is devastatingly simple “Be prepared”
Every week I would go along to the local Scout Hall and learn all manner of different skills (which led to getting badges), play games, listen to stories and the such like. The key for me is the idea of ‘movement’; you didn’t become a scout and then sit around thinking about the theory of scouting – you actively took part and became a more skilled scout
When we look at the Gospel reading, we can see those bridesmaids who took their lamps but no oil were left compromised at the end. Its no good just having the lamp – you need the oil to burn. It is not enough to wait for the bridegroom with the others if the waiting is not accompanied by preparation for action if need be . The ‘Keep awake’ can also be translated from the Greek as ‘Be alert’
In a similar way I think God is not asking us only to ‘hang around’, he asks for our personal engagement as a response to his engagement towards us. St Paul is speaking of the same matters when writing to the Thessalonians in the second reading. The Church is the institution who has, as her prime mission, the announcement of the Gospel of the Lord; through the lives of every Christian who witnesses to the love of God. The ‘oil’ of the Holy Spirit is that which burns in our lamps. We are called to be attentive to the presence of God, in and around us, being equipped to change day by day, into the people God has created us to be.
So as the winter darkness draws in this November, let us pray that God will ‘Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning’, so that we might witness to his love. That God would continually help us to ‘be prepared’ to be changed by the Holy Spirit. That God might help us to ‘Be alert’ because the world not only needs ‘more lerts’, – more importantly the world needs to hear the message of Christ, witnessed to by our lives, and that we stand and ‘serve the Lord’