| Mar 2008 | They Met at Calvary |
| Apr 2008 | Keeping the Easter Rumour Alive |
| May 2008 | The Way to Pentecost |
| Jun 2008 | Where our Unity lies |
| Jul 2008 | The Californian Redwood |
| Sep 2008 | "Dwight L. Moody, 1837-99" |
| Oct 2008 | Nine Marks of a Good Church |
| Nov 2008 | Mammon |
| Dec 2008 | Advent and the Evangelists |
| Mar 2009 | A Pattern for Lent |
| Apr 2009 | We have seen His Glory |
| May 2009 | Witnesses To The Resurrection |
| Jun 2009 | The Holy Trinity |
As we enter the four weeks of Advent, the twelve days of Christmas and season of the Epiphany, we must be grateful to all four of our evangelists. Each of them treats the beginning of the Jesus story in a different way.
No messing about with Mark. He gets right in there from the start!
Verse one begins, This is the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God -
It began just as God had said in the book written by Isaiah the prophet,
‘I am sending my messenger to get the way ready . .repent' . . .
so John the Baptist appeared in the desert and told everyone . .
'Someone more powerful is to come and I am not good enough to untie his sandals' . . .
So as Advent is with us we give thanks for the earliest of the gospels that begins with the call to all of us to get ready for the arrival of Christ, the one whose way is prepared by the prophets as they invite us to prepare our hearts to receive Jesus.
Luke begins with Angels announcing a big event – first that
Zechariah and Elizabeth are to be the parents of John the Baptist,
then an Angel telling Mary that she is the be the mother of the
Son of God, then an Angel telling the Shepherds of the
new-born Christ-child lying in the manger and finally a
whole choir of Angels singing, Glory to God in the Highest
.
Matthew begins the story of Jesus with the Messiah’s family tree from Abraham to Mary, with an Angel visiting Joseph and with the Wise Men from the East, the Gentile Magi, coming to pay homage to the Christ-child. On behalf of all the nations of the earth they present gold to Christ as the true King of all, frankincense to Christ as true God of all and myrrh to Christ as the crucified Redeemer of all.
The author of the Fourth Gospel never mentions the manger, or the shepherds, or the wise men. He mentions John the Baptist who bears witness to the true light coming into the world to enlighten everyone.
The fourth gospel begins with the marvellous poem that reminds us that the good news of Christ’s coming into the world has its origin far back in the beginning of God’s purpose. There never was a time when Christ the eternal Word and Son of God did not exist. The miracle of the incarnation is that the eternal Word – the pre-existent Christ - was conceived by the Holy Spirit and then born into this world, entering into our life as one of us – the Word made flesh!
Norman Wallwork
Copyright ©:2009 Wotton United Church Wotton-under-Edge Gloucestershire