Dear friends,
Welcome to our latest update, including your invitation to our services and events this Christmas! If you can, do join us at any point on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We would love to see you!
Also included below are links to all Middle ESK Moor activities through to the middle of January. There’s a a copy of my sermon from last weekend too, the one from the service we had at St Hilda’s.
It’s been a wonderfully busy week with school carols, crib services and nativities across our villages. Well done to the amazing children of Lealholm, Glaisdale, Egton and Goathland schools! Such wonderful performances, singing and praying.
So, here’s what we’ve got coming up in the next two days…
Christmas Eve - 24th December
10:30 - Holy Communion in Grosmont at St Matthew's
3:00 - Christingle and Crib Service in Glaisdale at St Thomas
6:00 - Crib Service in Grosmont at St Matthew's
8:00 - Holy Communion in Goathland at St Mary's
11:30 - Midnight Mass in Egton at St Hilda
Christmas Day - 25th December
9:30 - Holy Communion at St James' in Lealholm
11:15 - Holy Communion at St Mary's in Goathland
And then we’ll be following the Star towards 2024 and beyond…
New Year’s Eve - 31st December
10:30 - Holy Communion in Egton for New Year's Eve at St Hilda
6:00 - Breathing Space in Egton for New Year's Eve at St Hilda
Wednesday 3rd January
9:00 - Holy Communion in Goathland at The Bield
Thursday 4th January
10:30 - 3:00 Community Space: Vi's Community Cafe in Grosmont at St Matthew's
1:30 - Play Space in Grosmont at St Matthew's Grosmont
Saturday 6th January
6:00 - A Special Epiphany Event - Follow the Star into 2024! at St Matthew's Grosmont
Sunday 7th January (please note - two morning services, 9:00 and 10:45)
9:00 - New Weekly Holy Communion Service in Lealholm at St James'
10:45 - A Special Service of Holy Communion in Goathland for Plough Sunday at St Mary's
3:30 - Fellowship Space at The Hollin's Institute in Grosmont
6:00 - Breathing Space at St Hilda, Egton
Tuesday 9th January
6:00 - Sharing Space at Green Farm in Egton
Saturday 13th January
1:00 - 4:00 Community Forum: Middle ESK Moor into 2024 at St Matthew's Grosmont
For any further information required please email me - [email protected].
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas full of love, peace and hope for the new year ahead.
With blessings and all good wishes,
Anthony
Collect Prayer for the Third Sunday of Advent
God for whom we watch and wait, you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son: give us courage to speak the truth, to hunger for justice, and to suffer for the cause of right, with Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Canticle: Luke1:46-55 (The Magnificat)
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;
he has looked with favour on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed;
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his name.
He has mercy on those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm
and has scattered the proud in their conceit,
Casting down the mighty from their thrones
and lifting up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
to remember his promise of mercy,
The promise made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children for ever.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.
May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
John 1:6-8, 19-28
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ He said,
‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord” ’,
as the prophet Isaiah said.
Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. 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.’ This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
Sermon
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock, and redeemer. Amen.
A question for us to ponder today,
“Are we prepared as we wait to meet Jesus?”
I wonder, have you ever sat still just before dawn and waited for the sunrise? I was incredibly lucky back in 2011 to go to my friend Mike’s 50th birthday party. But it was a party with a difference. Mike had lived and worked in Kenya as a palliative care doctor and had always wanted to go back and climb Mount Kenya. His dream came true as I joined him and some more of his friends on an expedition to the top of the 3rd highest peak in Africa. The final ascent started at 3 am to do the long trek up to Point Leanna at 16000 feet. We’d aimed to get to the summit for sunrise, but we arrived a little early, so we waited in the quiet sub-zero cold. It was perfectly still. The stars were out – an amazing display. The whole of creation there in the silence. An amazing sense of God’s close presence, intertwined with God’s infinite reality, as we huddled together, sat facing East, and waited, quietly. Eventually, with a glimmer of light on the horizon, the silence was broken quite suddenly as the birds started their dawn chorus in the forest down below us. We could hear the monkeys starting to chatter loudly too. What an amazing sunrise it was! Probably the best one I’ve ever seen! It was like creation was singing out to welcome the new dawn!
Our first reading from Luke is Mary’s Song. Here, the Mother of Jesus, a pregnant unmarried teenager, sings out to welcome a new dawn too. Her song is enshrined in Christian history as ‘the Magnificat’, named from the first word in the Latin version, Magnificat anima mea Dominum – my soul magnifies the Lord! Mary sings of God’s mercy and salvation. She doesn’t complain. She doesn’t talk about herself. Instead she puts her trust totally in God. Mary’s song is a radical message of resistance, a cry out for social justice. Her song anticipates how Jesus would turn the world upside down to bring in the kingdom: bringing down the proud and exalting the humble; filling the hungry while sending the rich away empty.
Before John could complete his warm-up act, and Jesus could burst onto the scene, Mary had to wait patiently for the baby to grow inside her. For God to become flesh, Jesus needed to grow in the womb of a woman. The Word became flesh as a tiny human being, a tiny baby. Invisible, vulnerable, needing love, warmth and nourishment. This tiny baby was born in a shed in the back end of nowhere. Mary humbles herself and waits calmly and silently. She waits in the calm before dawn for the sun to rise. She waits for the light of Christ to arrive.
We know very well the rest of the story of Jesus’ birth and we’ll remember that next week when Christmas arrives. But in the meantime, let’s look at today’s Gospel reading. Here, John the Baptist is well into his warm up act. Big crowds are gathering out in the wilderness. John is an effective witness to the light. He’s bold. He’s a loud and effective voice calling others to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. He urges his listeners to get ready for the Christ who is soon to come. But even though he was drawing huge crowds and was known to be a dynamic speaker, he continued to remain humble, like Mary. He knew he was only the warm-up act. The news of crowds in the wilderness got back to the religious leaders and they sent a delegation to John, who was preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People flocked to him, but such a ministry was raising troublesome questions for the Temple authorities in Jerusalem.
Firstly, the religious leaders thought that surely Jews didn’t need baptising?
Secondly, surely forgiveness was mediated in the Temple by the priests, not in the wilderness by a recluse?
And thirdly, other revolutionary movements had started in the wilderness and John was attracting a following. The Jewish authorities had to ensure that John wasn’t going to be a threat to them or start a revolution against the Romans.
In response to the priests and Levites’ persistent questioning, about exactly who he was, John explains to the delegation that he’s not an end-time figure like the Messiah, nor is he Elijah, nor is he the Prophet-like-Moses. With the words of Isaiah 40:3, John says that he is actually the prophetic voice announcing Israel’s coming restoration:
‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord.” ’
After the delegation’s questions John stresses the importance of Jesus. He doesn’t only explain himself truthfully, but he does so in relation to Jesus, the one who is the Truth. John is bold, and he gives sound testimony.
I think if we look at these two passages about Mary and then John the Baptist, what we see is a ‘double preparation:’ a hidden inward preparation and an outward visible preparation. Mary is waiting for the sunrise in a hidden way. She is waiting in the silence before the dawn. But John is waiting in a loud, vocal and bold way. He’s part of the dawn chorus. So, let’s go back to our question – “are we prepared as we wait to meet Jesus this Christmas?”
I think that to be prepared we need to follow Mary and John’s example. Just as they waited to play their part in Christ’s first coming at Christmas, so we should play our part in Christ’s second coming. It’s about our soul’s magnifying the Lord as we wait for him to come again in Glory. Like Mary, there’s the hidden, invisible and silent waiting we need to do, a hidden waiting where we share our vulnerability. A waiting where we need to be humble servants, nurturing and nourishing the Christ that’s within us.
But at the same time, we need to be like John, being the visible and active witnesses to Christ in the world: his hands and feet. We need to be bold, we need to stand up for our faith, we need to stand up for social justice and testify to the light that shines in the darkness.
So, as we wait for Christ’s second coming let’s be ‘double prepared.’ Let’s wait silently and invisibly like Mary, and also let’s wait boldy and visibly, like John the Baptist,
Let’s pray:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for choosing to come into this world. As we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ; help us to look forward to your Son’s second coming. Help us to be double prepared by working alongside the Holy Spirit in invisible and visible ways. Help us to sing out as we welcome the new creation! May our souls magnify you! We ask these precious things in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
The Reverend Anthony Bennett
Interim Minister – the Benefice of Middle ESK Moor
middleESKmoor.org
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These two books, edited by Jane Williams, are continuing to be very helpful with planning my sermon writing:
Williams, J (2009), Ed., ‘Lost for Words, A Sermon Resource for the Anglican Three Year Cycle,’ Redemptorist Publications, Chawton, UK.
Williams, J (2011), Ed., ‘Lectionary Reflections, Years A, B and C.’ Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, UK.