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Radio 4 from Bradford Cathedral

16.12.12

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Great Expectations

Please note:

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

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+Nick Bains: Introduction

Good morning. Our worship this morning comes from the vibrant northern city of Bradford, home to a rich mix of ethnic, religious and cultural traditions. The Cathedral stands slightly above the centre, looking across what used to be one of Britain's wealthiest cities. The last few decades have seen considerable change and challenge, and now we see a upsurge of optimism as it begins to grow.听听 The people of Bradford are filled with Great Expectations for the future of this city but theyhave had to learn that recovery and economic success do not happen in an instant; we have to learn to wait and work in order to see our longings fulfilled.

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You don't need me to tell you that waiting is never easy in a culture that wants instant gratification.听 Our expectations are set now; what we want, we want now!听 However, some things really are worth waiting for and the season of Advent compels us to stay with the longing, to wait with those who have been grasped by a vision that will not let them go. So, we join the Cathedral congregation in worshiping the one whose coming among us is always surprising.

HYMN: Hark the glad sound! The Saviour comes (CP 27)

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ANDY WILLIAMS:

鈥淗e comes, the broken heart to bind, the bleeding soul to cure.鈥� Whether your hopes have been met or your heart broken, you are very welcome this morning.

When visitors to Bradford Cathedral sign our welcome book the word they use more than any other is 鈥榳arm鈥�. This is more than a reference to the beauty of the Yorkshire stone, or our effective under floor heating; it comes from the beating hearts of those in the worshipping community here. For over 1300 years the hopeful and the hurting of this city have offered prayer on this site; and we continue to do so today. You are warmly invited to join with us in worship. We come to bring our longings to God and turn them into prayer, to bring our thankfulness and turn it into praise, and we come to bring our minds and hearts to attend to the Word of hope offered to us.

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So we continue with a prayer based on words of St Augustine:

Creator God, in whom we live and move and have our being; you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. May our restless hearts drive us to seek you and find you, and in finding, good Lord, may we come to know that you have already found us. Amen

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In this season of Advent the longing for God to come and rescue His people, is expressed in terms of waiting, as it is in this ancient Hebrew poem, Psalm 40, 'I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.

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Choir: Psalm 40:1-8 (No Gloria)

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ANDY WILLIAMS: Old Testment Reading

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The hope that waiting for the Lord will be worth it is given encouragement by the prophet Isaiah. The people of Judah had great expectations for the coming of a leader, a child born to bring about a new age.

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Isaiah puts it like this:

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The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness鈥�

on them light has shined.

You have multiplied the nation,

you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you

as with joy at the harvest,

as people exult when dividing plunder.

For the yoke of their burden,

and the bar across their shoulders,

the rod of their oppressor,

you have broken as on the day of Midian.

For all the boots of the tramping warriors

and all the garments rolled in blood

shall be burned as fuel for the fire.

For a child has been born for us,

a son given to us;

authority rests upon his shoulders;

and he is named

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

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Hymn: The People that in darkness sat (CP 38 omit vs.3)

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+Nick Bains Talk #1 (Waiting cannot be rushed)

We live in a changing world.听

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听In this last year we鈥檝e seen so many changes in society and the Church and , despite many prophets of doom, the eye of faith fills us with expectation for the future.听 There are moments, however, when it鈥檚 easy to feel that things aren鈥檛 changing quickly enough; for example when that all important Synod vote doesn鈥檛 go quite as many would have wished!听 Many people both within and outside the church have been dismayed. Why can鈥檛 the General Synod simply sort it out.听 Perhaps we have to come to an acceptance that 鈥� despite our best efforts to bring them forward 鈥� there may be some things that simply will not be rushed. Good wine does not mature in an instant. Apparently.

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The Asian theologian Kosuke Koyama once wrote a series of meditations in which he described God as a 'three mile an hour God'. His point was simply that we live life at a frantic pace, justifying ourselves by our busyness - whereas God is always going at walking pace - 3mph. We discover this, says Koyama, only when we enter the desert place and are forced by circumstances to slow right down.

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In one sense, this should come as no surprise to anyone who has read anything of the Bible. If there is one lesson to be learned, surely it is that God will not be rushed, that we must learn to wait... and, while waiting, never lose sight of the vision that draws us and for which we give our lives.

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Waiting is not an easy lesson to learn.

ALL (led by Choir, vs.1 choir only) Wait for the Lord x3

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+Nick Bains Talk#2 (Re how expectations are met and hopes are fulfilled )

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Recently a friend from Switzerland, who is convinced he needs to educate me in the world of film, left me a DVD of a 1990s TV series called 'Waiting for God'.the title describes beautifully my experience and the experience of God's people throughout history. 听听

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For example, the people of Israel get liberated from four hundred years of captivity in Egypt and hope to walk straight out into the land of freedom; but, first they spend forty years wandering in a desert... in order to learn that there is a right time for promise to be fulfilled. In the meantime, a generation of fantasists and romanticisers of the past - what we might call 'nostalgia merchants' die out. God always calls his people to live in the real world.

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But, read on. The prophets of the Old Testament recall people to the fundamental vocation they appear to have forgotten: that they are to reflect and live out the nature of the God whose name they bear... and that means giving up their lives, not saving them at the expense of others.听 God has Great Expectations of his people too; they they remain loyal to him and that they care for the weakest members of their society. 听A hard lesson to learn at any time.听 Their failure to do this leads to the destruction of their temple and their holy city, and another long period of waiting in Babylon, filled with the hope that, one day, God would return to them and lead them back home.

Into the New Testament and after his baptism Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert to be tested. I guess that, like the rest of us, his biggest temptation was to run back to civilisation as quickly as possible. But, he had to stay there in order to face the demons that would haunt him throughout his extraordinarily short public ministry. And for his friends there was to be no shortcut through the agony of Calvary to the empty tomb of Easter Day; the long days of emptiness could not be avoided.

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And after that, more waiting, as the early Christian communities waited in the hope of the Second Coming of Christ and his bringing of the Kingdom of God.

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Waiting is basic to human experience - and certainly to Christian experience. God does not appear on demand - like some sort of magic act designed to keep us happy.. No, God takes us much more seriously than that. As the poet RS Thomas put it, 'the meaning is in the waiting'. Something Titus understood in his New Testament letter.

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Canon Sam Corley:听 Titus 2:11-14

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

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Choir: People Look East

+Nick Bains Talk #3 (As we wait we work )

Well, it's only a couple of weeks from now until Christmas - the best and worst couple of weeks for children. Christmas brings the agonising hope of presents and surprise, of sparkling lights and the smells and sights of a unique time of year. But it also brings with it for some people the pain of loss, the emptiness of feeling excluded from the party, the longing for healing and fulfilment.

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Bradford has seen its fair share of loss and there are many in this great city who have all but given up hope.听 At this time of year, it seems that we are particularly responsible to one another. It鈥檚 a time to embrace all members of our community as we remember that Jesus came to earth not as a great and powerful ruler, as was expected, but in a way that was totally unexpected, as a vulnerable, homeless child.听 Members of our church community recently joined those on the streets here in Bradford to spend a night without the safety and shelter of our homes in the hope that in some small way, we might share that longing with those who are often excluded and forgotten.

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It should be no surprise, then, that for the Christian community here in this great city, we are not strangers to waiting. We know that God cannot be rushed, that there is a right time for things that cannot be demanded or simply grabbed at. Yet, the waiting time is not a vacuum of inactivity. Rather, it creates the space for us to be changed - in ways that can't happen while we just rush through life as if there would be no tomorrow. Like the people of Jesus's time, we long and pray for the healing of the world, for an end to violence and greed, racism and hatred, injustice and fear.

But, we also recognise that we have to work hard to be the answer to our own prayer - living distinctive lives of hope and generosity, offering to all people a vision of a different way of living. And longing. And waiting.

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Perhaps this Advent we might just catch an echo of a hint of God's whisper to his people: "Stay with me, wait here with me. And don't be afraid."听 The God who loves the world to death and beyond has proved he can be trusted.

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Choir: God so loved the world 鈥� Stainer

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ANDY WILLIAMS: Closing

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We now bring our longings to God, who loved the world so much that He came into it. As we pray, and ask God to come into the dark corners of our world we may discover that He already has.听 Indeed we may hear God invite us to stay in those places of need, and to be the light that we pray for.

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Intercessions: Five Prayers

Taiz茅 Chant: 'Stay with me' interspersed with 5 sentence bidding prayers (SMcW)

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And as we offer these prayers, we join together to say:

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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

For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,

For ever and ever.

Amen

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ANDY WILLIAMS: So we continue to watch and pray, and work for the coming of God's Kingdom in the world. And as we work, we worship, and join the song of the angels in declaring the majestic brightness of the One who was, who is and who is to come.

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Hymn: Long Ago Prophets Knew

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+Nick Bains: Blessing

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As we wait in joyful hope for the coming of Christ

May our expectations be met and our longing hearts be healed.

And the blessing of God almighty

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

Be ours now and always.

Amen

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