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Script for Morning Service 21st December 2014 – draft 2

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It’s time now for Sunday Worship which, for the fourth Sunday of Advent comes from the Chapel of Unity in Methodist College, Belfast.

The preacher is Canon Noel Battye, the service is led by the Rev Donald and is introduced by the College Principal, Scott Naismith.

‘Be it unto me, according to your word’ – Mary’s simple statement of trust at the annunciation… as she places her whole future in God’s hands and waits upon God’s time… as we do here this morning.

Welcome to Methodist College – or Methody - as it’s known locally. Since it opened almost 150 years ago, the college – despite it’s name - has always been interdenominational, welcoming pupils from many different faith backgrounds.

We’re right at the heart of the University area of Belfast – a vibrant and stimulating location for our 1800 pupils. Within the college, our Music Society includes various instrumental groups and four choirs – including our Chapel choir who join us this morning.

"Mary’s Magnificat" by Andrew Carter reflects the theme for our service.

‘Mary’s Magnificat’… her song of praise. Mary’s initial response to Gabriel had been one of fear and we’re told that she was greatly troubled as questions assailed her spirit. But none-the-less her response, a very simple one, was that of one of God’s faithful servants…

Behold the handmaid of the Lord… be it unto me according to thy word’.

Despite all that might lie ahead and what might be said, or done, or implied, Mary is ready for all that God has prepared for her.

Let us pray.

Lord in our prayers this morning we bring our lives before you,

with all that lies ahead in the days to come,

all the busyness and concerns of the season and all of the self-imposed stress

as well as a real sense of joy and anticipation.

Forgive us when we allow other things preoccupy us so we lose sight of you.

Help us to use this time of quiet worship to reflect on the central message of this season,

and, like Mary, to offer ourselves to you as we echo her words and say:

‘Behold the servant of the Lord, be it unto us according to your word’.

Amen

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‘Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child’ – words from that favourite carol we now sing - ‘Once in Royal David’s city’.

The Bible readings throughout the season of Advent remind us of the waiting involved before Jesus the Messiah was to come. In the first of our two readings this morning, the prophet Isaiah – who’s writing in the troubled eighth century BC – points forward to a day when the child born to a young girl will become the hope of God’s people.

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From Isaiah chapter 7 - The Sign of Immanuel.

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, "Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven." 〶ÄBut Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test."

And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 〶ÄHe shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

‘How far is it to Bethlehem?’ - well from where Isaiah was writing, maybe about seven centuries, and that takes us back to the New Testament, where our next reading brings us close to the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words.

In Matthew chapter 1, Joseph is told about Mary’s child. At first, he responds with the caution of age, and then with obedience.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 〶ÄAll this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,〶Äand they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).〶ÄWhen Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

I’m afraid I have to confess it, right at the beginning - I have always loved Christmas.

As a child I can remember going to bed on Boxing Day evening thinking just how terrible it was that it would be a full 363 days before Christmas came again - only to be further dashed by my elder brother who said it would be 364 because next year was a Leap Year!

I still remember an Irish country childhood - The weeks of longing and anticipation each year, driving up the mountain road for holly, collecting the Christmas tree, taking out those paper chains and folding coloured bells.

I remember the planning, the hoping, the saving up for presents, the joyful sense of looking forward and if I’m honest, I must confess that I have never entirely lost that sense of wonder at the yearly approach of this most holy and unholy season.

Who has indeed?

Certainly the commercial world relies upon it for the greatest profits of the year as for weeks and months they do everything possible to make us anticipate the feast.

Opt [Christmas lights and stamps are well established in November and for many weeks now, Santas and Snow, cribs and candles have glowed in coloured lighting all around while sound systems in shops and supermarkets pump out carols, along with Rudolph and the reindeer.]

As always we respond with Pavlovian panic to the bells as we in turn join in the rush and seek to create nostalgic Christmases of our own.

But despite it all, we still find ourselves saying with surprise right up to Christmas Eve each and every year no matter what, ‘YOU KNOW IT’S STRANGE, BUT SOMEHOW IT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR.’

And of course it doesn’t, because despite all the parties and the hype CHRISTMAS WILL NEVER COME BEFORE ITS TIME.

Christ’s coming never has been, and never will be rushed. There is always a sense of anticipation - the sense of a God who will not be pushed or hastened and that only when he is ready - and when we are truly settled and receptive in ourselves that He will come, and be known in our lives once more.

And that of course is the very clear message of Advent as each one of its four Sundays underlines the message of one for WHOM WE MUST WAIT and for whom we must always be prepared.

It is the hope of the chosen people who longed for centuries for a Messiah.

It is the message of the Scriptures pointing to the one who was to come.

It is the proclamation of John the Baptist who warned the people to prepare themselves with lives made clean and fresh.

And now today, we have it in Mary called to respond and yet to wait for nine whole months which must have felt as long as all those other centuries together.

Here is Mary, this unimportant little peasant girl chosen of God and responding at first with a heart full of fear - as did Joseph and the shepherds - Mary, who needs to hear the words of ‘Fear not.’

Here is Mary, in her very lonely calling, apparently alone apart from the support of one good man who had questions of his own and Elizabeth her cousin.

Here is Mary, called to one of the most awesome roles in history facing a future weighed down by the ever increasing burden of Christian love growing there within her.

Mary, who was to learn in all of her uncertainty that the only possible preparation for such a role is simply to wait upon God and to become eternally available to Him.

"Behold the servant of the Lord be it unto me according to Thy word."

Mary, waiting upon God’s will and God’s time. And so it must always be for us, even in simple things like our festive preparations if it is ever going to feel like Christmas:

Because it is only when all of the weeks of haste and panic are past when all of the parties and celebrations pause to take a breath and things are allowed to simmer down completely that it begins to feel like Christmas and the spirit of the season is allowed to enter our world once more, which is why I particularly love to read again at this time of year, these words of waiting written by George Otto Simms, Anglican Archbishop of Armagh in the 1970’s

"There is a touch of perfection about midnight worship on Christmas Eve...

The darkness retains its mystery…

The silence is eloquent...

To watch at midnight, not at home, but in the Church’s sanctuary is an impressive way of sharing the life, the light and the love which uniquely entered our world in the flesh and blood life of a child.

The darkness of midnight shuts out the glitter and noisy chatter of the holiday and helps us to concentrate.

The worshipper at such an hour of the night shuts out the world and opens the heart and mind......there is a sense of eternity, of timelessness..."

"Be it unto me according to Thy word" - the great pre-requisite for Christmas…

…Which brings me to one final question and the preparation which we should rightly make - a thought expressed most eloquently in the words of this sixteenth century poem with which I conclude:

Yet if his majesty our sovereign lord

Should of his own accord

Friendly himself invite,

And say, ‘I’ll be your guest tomorrow night’

How should we stir ourselves, call and command

All hands to work! ‘Let no man idle stand.’

Set me fine Spanish tables in the hall;

See they be fitted all;

Let there be room to eat,

And order taken that there want no meat.

See every sconce and candle stick made bright,

That without tapers they may give a light,

Look at the presence; are the carpets spread,

The dais o’er the head,

The cushions in the chairs,

And all the candles lighted on the stairs?

Perfume the chambers, and in any case

Let each man give attendance to his place!’

Thus if a king were coming would we do;

And ’twere good reason too;

For ’tis a duteous thing

To show all honour to an earthly king,

And after all our travail and our cost,

So he be pleased, to think no labour lost.

But at the coming of the King of Heaven

All’s set at six and seven:

We wallow in our sin,

Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn.

We entertain Him always like a stranger,

And as at first still lodge Him in a manger.

Let us pray.

Lord, in the midst of all our activity and preparations for Christmas, and all of our planning no matter how well intentioned…

Help us to find space for you not just in this time of quiet worship… but at the heart of all our celebrations too.

Lord in your mercy:

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‘Be it unto me according to thy word’…

Lord, as Mary made herself available to you… offering up the whole of her future in obedience and humility…

Help us to hear your call within our own lives as we follow her example.

The Collect for today;

God our redeemer,

Who prepared the blessed Virgin Mary to be the mother of your Son;

Grant that, as she looked for his coming as our Saviour,

So we may be ready to greet him when he comes again to be our judge;

Who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

One God, now and for ever.

Lord in your mercy:

ALL: Hear our prayer

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‘There was no room for them in the inn’… no place to have her child, the family soon to become refugees;

Reader 2:

Lord, help us to make room for those in need today… the homeless… the displaced… those clinging to life in difficult places, the hungry and the broken-hearted.

As a mother cares for her children, help us to be quick to respond to the needs we see before us especially in the peoples of Syria, Iraq, Sierra Leone…

Lord in your mercy:

ALL: Hear our prayer

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‘He came unto his own and his own received him not’

Lord, as we reflect on Mary’s child… unrecognised and unaccepted even to many closest to him, we bring before you all the divisions and jealousies, the exclusions and bigotries which so often scar our world and our religions.

We pray for all those touched by violence in our world – and we pray for the families of the young people killed in school in Pakistan and for those injured in the attack.

Help us to see beyond the human corruptions of your goodness, to the One who calls us all simply to be one in Him.

Lord in your mercy:

ALL: Hear our prayer

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These and all our prayers we offer in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord – who taught us to pray saying...

Scripture tells us that the long-awaited birth of Mary’s baby was greeted with angel-song - and our final carol this morning reminds us of the words they sang - ‘Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King!’

Go in the peace of Christ,

And the Blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

Rest upon you and remain with you, this day and for evermore.

Amen

25. Choir: Christmas Blessing

26. Organ: (TBC)

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