These are the signs of the season…
Eyes and ears are opened.
Limpers and Lepers are welcomed.
Those who seem dead to our common life are born again.
Good News is shared with those who never thought they could afford or were worthy of it.
..and we are the ones who have been called to do this.
In the end it’s not about ‘wars and rumours of war’ nor is it about ‘one person being taken and the other left’. It is about keeping our eyes on Jesus.
It is about living Advent lives, watching and waiting and working for the Return of the King.
We have a King who forgives – we are called to be a people who forgive.
We have a King who saves – we are called to be a people who offer salvation.
We have a King who is innocent – we are called to be a people who, even imperfectly…aim to live lives of purity.
We have a King who remembers – we are called to be a people who will not leave anyone out of the arms of love stretched out on the Cross.
Sainthood for Dummies!
To be a saint is the everyday task of the Christian. However tradition dictates that we can only become saints once we have died. Learning to die is the key to learning to live.
There was a time when it was usual to draw a sharp line between religious and worldly things. That time has happily gone by. We all acknowledge more or less that all life is one.
All the honest, unselfish work of the world is God’s work.
So wash Thou me, without, within,
Or purge by fire, if that must be,
No matter how, if only sin
Die out in me.
No longer law, but love, no longer the mere keeping from a certain list of forbidden things, but active forward-looking service.
For that is the only real question – not just where are you – but, which way are you facing and living?
…the consequence is that they are often facing towards sin all the time, and there being no such actual line, they find themselves in sin, unmistakably, almost before they know it.
Suffolk Vicar 