+ In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
The Greeting:Grace, mercy and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ
be with you
and also with you.Prayer of Preparation:Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit
that we may perfectly love you
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our lord.
Amen.The Collect – 2nd Sunday in AdventO Lord, raise up, we pray, your power
and come among us,
and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness
we are grievously hindered
in running the race that is set before us,
your bountiful grace and mercy
may speedily help and deliver us;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honour and glory, now and for ever
Amen
Readings:
Malachi 3: 1-4
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.
Philippians 1: 3-113 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Luke 3: 1-63 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
5 Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
Homily: Today’s Advent theme is: “Preparing a Place” and it introduces a Bible character we will be looking at for two weeks: John the Baptist.
Last week we looked at a miraculous birth story. Abraham had been told by God that he would be the Father of a great nation, but he and his wife Sarah were too old to have children. But with God, there are no obstacles to the plan he has for mankind. Sarah does have a baby and the seeds of the nation of Israel are sown and begin to grow.
Now we jump into the New Testament and meet for the first time the rather odd character of John the Baptist. He is in fact much more like one of the Old Testament prophets breathing fire and damnation on those who have wandered away from God and demanding they return. We first meet him as he emerges from the desert, dressed in a camel’s skin. We imagine that he did not care that much for personal hygiene, he had loftier things on his mind. His diet too was very restricted; he ate locusts and wild honey. We believe he had taken a Nazarite vow.
That was a very strict vow made before God in order to devote himself more fully for a period of time. It involved not cutting his hair, not drinking any kind of wine and isolating himself from the community particularly not having anything to do with death and dead bodies. It is thought that Samson had taken a Nazarite vow and was given great physical strength as a result of his devotion.
So, John the Baptist was preparing himself in a very strict way both to receive from God and to minister on behalf of God. It may have been that he realized that much was expected of him because of his own miraculous birth. A few weeks ago, I was talking about the Temple and its various rooms and courtyards: the outer courtyard being the furthest place that Gentiles could go in, the court of the women being nearer to the centre but still the nearest they could go. And so on until we have the ornate Holy of Holies where only the High Priest could go and only one day a year to offer sacrifice on behalf of the people. John’s father: Zachariah was a priest and the year before John’s birth, he was elected as the one who would enter the Holy of Holies and offer the sacrifice. Imagine the preparations he would have made in order to perform this once in a lifetime task. I expect he hd his robes washed, maybe he bought new ones. He would have prepared his heart by fasting and praying. He would have kept all the Jewish rules so carefully so that nothing could prevent him doing this very special task.
He and his wife Elizabeth had a great sorrow in their lives. They had never been able to have children. Maybe Zechariah was praying about this as he entered the Holy of Holies on that momentous day. The hour of the offering came, and Zachariah was about to pray and suddenly he was aware of an angel standing there. The angel told him that Elizabeth would conceive and the child would grow up to be very special in God’s service: his task would be to get the people ready for God. Of course, Zechariah found this all very hard to take in and he argued with the angel who just happened to be Gabriel. For that he was struck dumb until the baby was born.
As you probably remember: Elizabeth was Mary’s cousin and it was a confirmation for Mary after her own angel visit when she met a pregnant Elizabeth. The two babies in the womb seemed to recognize their joint destiny when the mothers greeted one another.
Places and hearts were being prepared for the coming of the world’s Saviour. Hearts were being changed and lives turned upside down. Today we are keeping the second Sunday of Advent in our churches. This afternoon our churchwardens and PCCs are going to a meeting in St Mary’s Watton to hear a suggestion put forward by Bishop Jane and Archdeacon Ian about the future ministry cover for our churches in this Benefice. It is 5.5 years since Father Bob left and a priest has not lived in the Benefice since that time. Adrian was an Interim Priest, brought here to minister until a new plan could be worked out. He helped us to prepare a place – a group of churches in these villages – where we can continue to worship God and provide for the needs of this area. As we move nearer to Christmas, there are many preparations which we need to make to ensure that our families and friends have presents and food and know that we love them. There are preparations which need to be made to ensure that our churches look beautiful and that we have a message that speaks to this time in our world so that the people we have been given by God know that He loves them.
Whatever happens this afternoon, and I don’t expect it to be earth-shaking, we will continue to prepare ourselves and these places for the birth of a Saviour who can and does change the world. We will continue to make our churches places of hope and love in an uncertain world. There are always attempts in the media to undermine and criticize the church and Christianity. That doesn’t matter: we are called to continue to prepare a place.
Intercessions:Come to your Church and peoples as Lord and Judge.
Help us to live in the light of your coming
and give us a longing for your kingdom.
Lord, in your mercy:
Hear our Prayer.Come to your world as King of the nations.
We pray for those areas of our world where violence is common place and many flee their homes to escape greedy and cruel regimes.
We pray for areas of our own nation where there is poverty and many people are needing to rely on the good of others through foodbanks and school meals programmes.
We pray for government decisions to be made to alleviate poverty and strengthen our unity with one another.
Before you rulers will stand in silence.
Lord, in your mercy:
Hear our prayer.Come to your people with a message of victory and peace.
We pray for the Church in this parish of St Botolph and in our Benefice giving thanks for all those who sacrifice time, money and energy to provide a place where others may come and seek peace.
We pray for the Church in the Breckland Deanery and the meeting taking place this afternoon to talk about the future of clergy cover in this area.
We pray for Bishop Jane and Archdeacon Ian as they lead us in those discussions.
Give us victory over death, temptation and evil.
Lord, in your mercy:
Hear our prayer.Come to us as Saviour and Comforter.
We pray for …..
We pray also for the relatives and friends of Edna May Brown whose funeral took place here this past week and Barry John Sewell whose funeral will take place later this month.
We pray for anyone known to us to needs our prayers at this time.
Break into our lives,
where we struggle with sickness and distress,
and set us free to serve you for ever.
Lord, in your mercy:
Hear our prayer.Come to us from heaven, Lord Jesus,
with power and great glory.
Lift us up to meet you,
with St Botolph and all your saints and angels,
to live with you for ever.
Lord, in your mercy:
Hear our prayer.
Merciful Father,
accept these prayers
for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.
AmenThe Peace:In the tender mercy of our God,
the dayspring from on high shall break upon us,
to give light to those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow
of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
The peace of the Lord be always with you
And also with you.The Lord’s Prayer:Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.Final Prayer:Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our Judge;
give us grace so to imitate him in the humility and purity of his first coming
that, when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him
with joyful love and firm faith,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
The Blessing:Christ the Son of Righteousness shine upon you,
scatter the darkness from before your path,
and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory;
and the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you
always.
Amen