Advent 2 The Lord is Near – Believing

Once again I want to invite you to join the journey to Christmas we’re travelling this year at St Giles in company with London-based Premier Christian Radio.

‘The Lord is near’ Paul says in Philippians 4 verse 5. Experiencing that nearness is what Advent’s all about with it’s a challenge to repent, believe, ask and receive. I’m weaving our thoughts round those headings, and this week’s focus is on believing.

This week’s focus builds from our beautiful stained glass windows. The Victorian artist Charles Kempe who created them lived down the road. He wanted to be a priest but had a dreadful stammer, so he said ‘if I’m not permitted to minister in the Sanctuary I will use my talents to adorn it’. As the morning light streams through Kempe’s exquisite nativity and crucifixion windows our Church thrills with the image of Jesus Christ as God’s self-revelation that kindles the light of faith.

Let’s listen now to a clip from the programme, broadcast earlier this morning and to be broadcast again this afternoon on Premier, catching the end of the Advent hymn we just sang which speaks of Christ as the light waiting to shine in our hearts.

Hymn: Longing for light (Christ, be our light)

Fr John:  Advent’s a call to believing, to seeing the light of the Lord.

‘Look to the Lord and be radiant’ we read in Psalm 34 verse 5. Believing means choosing to look to the Lord and it links to repentance.

On the porch notice board it says ‘St Giles Church aims to grow in faith, love and numbers’.

We’re not a big Church but we’re an energetic church, with a keen group of leaders, working with the priest to promote Christian faith in our village.

Chris Wheatley children’s work coordinator speaks about how we work as a church to engage children and families with the light of Christ through First Steps, Sunday Club, School assemblies, the Five o’clock service and how Advent has a number of faith building events climaxing in the Christmas Eve Christingle Service of light.

Fr John: Let’s listen now to what St Paul has to say about the light of faith and how it spreads

Female voice from Premier staff.

A reading from the second letter of St Paul to the Corinthians   

All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. Yet, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Here ends the reading. 2 Corinthians 3:18-4:6

Fr John: As I look at the light streaming through the pictures of Jesus in St Giles I’m reminded of those words of Paul. They say religion’s a leap in the dark and call believers ‘unenlightened’! The shoe should go on the other foot! For a thousand years people in Horsted Keynes have seen their lives enlightened here in St Giles.

Lesley Whiting describes something of how God enlightened her in St Giles, how the light of faith has grown in her so she got baptised and confirmed, how Jesus helps her in the Sacrament and through Christian fellowship to live with cancer and see the Lord as her guiding light.

Fr John: It’s time for another Advent hymn, this one written by Charles Wesley. It speaks of Jesus coming to set us free from sin and fear and bring us into his light.

Song: Come, thou long expected Jesus

Repent, believe, ask, receive – this is how we dispose ourselves to meet the Lord.

In my own life it’s an ongoing process. I turn to Jesus, put faith in him, ask for and receive the Spirit. Then the Spirit shows me my need once again to turn to Jesus, believe in him, ask and receive from him – this is the day by day reality of my life!

Last year we raised funds to renew our church centre. It’s now got a glorious scenic window that looks across to Ashdown Forest and it’s made the hall much more attractive and fit for God’s work. All that new light streaming in makes it harder for the cleaner! Light shows dirt, and it’s the same with the light of Christ. As we expose ourselves to his Light we see areas of our life we need to clean up.

Repent, believe, ask, receive – it’s a process that will run to our dying day but it’s one that takes us day by day closer to Jesus.

Far from faith being a leap in the dark it’s about coming into the Light of Christ and bringing the world into it. I see his light as invisible radiance working like a heavenly microwave to defrost the frozen bits of my heart and warm me up to serve and bring warmth to others.

Let me close now with the daily Advent prayer for that light:

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ  came to us in great humility; that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.