Sunday Worship - Advent 3
Welcome to our Sunday worship on the third Sunday of Advent. Today is also our Toy Service, as well as being known as "Rose Sunday" - when we light the rose-pink Advent candle. We're really pleased to welcome Bishop Mark to preside and preach this morning. If you can't be with us in person, you'll find everything you need to worship from home here on this page.
The third Sunday of Advent is also known as "Gaudete Sunday". Gaudete is translated as "Rejoice" , and our first hymn for today (with the translation) is "Gaudete" -
This morning's Gospel reading -
Reflection -
I am sure many of you are familiar with the opening verses form John’s Gospel – it’s the long reading we would normally hear by candlelight towards the end of our Christmas Eve midnight mass. Sadly, we won’t be able to hold that service in our church this year but thankfully we won’t need to miss out as there will be a live transmission on Radio 4 from Manchester Cathedral with Bishop David.
As you read this week’s Gospel you may have experienced a little bit of déjà vu – as there are some of the elements from last week’s Gospel reading, Mark 1: 1-8.
Mark tells us about John ‘the Baptist’ - the humble person who eats locusts and honey. However, in John’s Gospel he hardly refers to John as a baptiser, rather the focus is on the John who comes to testify to the coming of the light – the coming of our saviour Jesus Christ. God is sending his only son – a new presence of light to shine on us – and it is John’s destiny, this humble person, to point us to its presence – so we don’t miss it.
As we hear today, it is John’s role to straighten the path for Jesus and open our eyes to the presence of the light amongst us. To prepare the way!
The John we hear about today makes it abundantly clear that he is not the Messiah or Elijah. Although many at that time considered John to be first prophet for over 300 years, again he makes it clear he is not a prophet. When he says, “Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.”, John is not trying to belittle himself but to open people’s eyes to understand the greatness of the one who is coming.
This year has been the most difficult year many of us can remember, with the spectre of COVID 19 pervading many aspects of our lives. Even if we are lucky not to become ill, there are still the knock-on effects of isolation, job insecurity, financial hardship and of course interruptions to public worship. Folk could argue that these are indeed dark times.
But we don’t have to look far to see signs of light infiltrating through the darkness. The love of those putting their lives at risk to help others across the world, the carers and medical practitioners, the person who bravely speaks out against tyranny and oppression and so many more. Despite how dark we may think things might be, if we look, we can see the light and we can be reassured that Jesus is with us and will be forever; “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.”
John himself is not defined by his own greatness, importance or authority but by the nature of his connection with Jesus – the light in our midst.
So, as we prepare for Christmas, whether we have the stamina to stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve or not, we can still identify with Jesus with the same conviction as ‘John the Witness’. We in our own way can be witnesses like John and point toward the light in our midst – the light that shines in the darkness.
God is calling each of us to be a witness like John, to point to Jesus and say “Look - There goes the light, the lamb of God”.
Our second hymn this morning is a lovely version of " O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" from Enya -
Our Prayers -
And today's final hymn is "Hark, The Glad Sound, The Saviour Comes", written by Philip Doddridge in 1735 -
