SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT - LOVE

Another lovely service with some beautiful worship songs and it was good to be singing again.  We now have more people in our Worship Group, so there is a rota for singing and I haven’t been on for a few weeks, but it was good to be back today.

Three members of the Stepping Stones Team, all of whom are involved with the Community Fridge, read some Bible verses, lit the second candle that signifies LOVE and then prayed to remind us about love on the Second Sunday of Advent.  

Graham Warmington preached a great sermon and spoke about "Bethlehem - Advent to Epiphany".  

Advent - the promises, the silence, the remnant and the waiting
Incarnation - the birth, the holy family, the links, the Messiah
Epiphany - the Magi, the gifts, all humanity, the worship, Truth

He told us the reason Bethlehem was chosen for the birth of Christ and the love that God had for His people and us - it was really interesting and I had never thought about this before. 

I took several shots before the service and as I mentioned last week, the windowsills in our Church look amazing - the angel at the top right is on one of them.  

I was looking around for some Christmas jumpers and wasn’t disappointed - one of our young boys was wearing the Hogwarts one, so I managed to snap this - after having a little chat with him - but obviously not showing his face.

As I walked back down the aisle after the service had finished, I happened to look down and saw that the preacher was wearing Christmas socks, so asked him, very politely, if I could take a photograph.   As you can imagine, he was quite bemused to think I wanted a shot of his Christmas socks, but agreed!  I did tell him how much I had enjoyed his sermon and that although I had heard the Christmas story many, many times before, had never thought about Bethlehem in that way before.  I also noticed he was wearing a Christmas tie!

Apparently, and for those interested in figures - this particular town of Bethlehem - a village or small town of about 1,000 to 2,000 people, is mentioned 30 times in the Old Testament and 8 times in the New Testament - sometimes referred to by its district name Ephrata, or by its location in Judah, to distinguish it from another Bethlehem in the land of Zebulon.  Bethlehem is shown as the “House of Bread” because its name comes from the old Hebrew words “Bêit” meaning house and “Lechem” meaning bread.  As Christians, we recognise the significance of Bethlehem and of course, Jesus said of himself “I am the Bread of Life”. 

The last shot is the tee shirt of my little friend, Zach - who was, as we might say, having a minor “strop” and was slouched on the floor up against a wall at the back of the coffee queue;  for some reason, he had lost his place at the front of the queue and was waiting for a biscuit - I guess he got one in the end, but I wasn’t around to see!  He had a sticker on his tee shirt and was also holding something he had made when out with the children earlier.  

All in all, a great service and then plenty of time to chat to friends whilst we were out having coffee.

After that, Mr. HCB and I delivered three Bags of Hope to three Mums, who are obviously finding life a bit difficult at the moment.  They were all very grateful and hopefully we will see them all again before Christmas.  

Stay safe, warm and dry and enjoy the coming week - Christmas looms ever nearer - I still have cards to write, but have cut down drastically this year - it seems ludicrous to spend 90p to post a card, when I’m sure it would be much better to ring someone, wish them a Happy Christmas and have a chat.  So if you don’t get a card from us this year, listen out for a phone call - if I have your number, that is!  M xx 

P.S.  I listened to a Sermon on the First Sunday in Advent by Pete Greig before I got up this morning and at the end heard this beautiful song: "O Day of Peace".  ENJOY.