December 10th / 17th - Advent Reflections by Christine Dodd
How do you see Advent?
Looking back - to the past year or years in your life, to the life of the Church, locally and worldwide, to the life of Chris himself - or looking forward.
In her first talk on the 10th December Christine Dodd pointed out that we do both kinds of looking, and looking back can be valuable if it means reassessing, valuing the past, seeing the action of God's grace, but it is not a good thing if we live in the past and falsely see it as a permanent Golden Age, when everything was fine.
Looking forward is another matter altogether. One of the great blessings of youth is to be always looking forward with hope and optimism. The older one grows the more this optimism tends to be tempered by experience. At this moment particularly we are all afraid to look into the future. The anxiety and uncertainty of a possible war with Iraq, or, on a personal level, fears for the health and safety of one's family, loom large.
Advent gives us a chance to look forward to hopes tempered by faith. More than ever we need hope in the promise Christ brought us. Do not be afraid. Somewhere I read that this phrase occurs 365 times in the scriptures, once for each day of the year. I haven't checked it out, but the message is a good one. Trust in God and his promises. When we think of many of saints and martyrs, as well as our own lives, it is a good thing we cannot see all the future before us, we would probably give up in despair. Perhaps a good approach is that of the hymn
Lord, for tomorrow and its needs, I do not pray, Just lead me, guide me, love me, Just for today.Great thanks are due to Christine for coming out from Sheffield - on such a cold night - to give us a reminder of the hope which Advent allows us to renew. To recognise all that God has given us and to look forward with real hope.
Have you ever studied your family tree? One of the results of such research, which is becoming more and more popular, is that there are surprises, as well as skeletons, in the cupboard. The link with past generations provides an anchor, a point of stability in a rapidly changing world. At the same time there is a challenge - what will we contribute to our family tree for future generations? Christine Dodd, in the second of her reflections for Advent, presented us with this challenge. All of us are faced with changes in our lives - with relocation - a move to a new area. This may not be in the actual physical moving of house but in the need to look again at our lives - at what has become habit perhaps, and too comfortable. Those who have had to move know what an upheaval it is, what effort it costs to setle in , make new friends, build up new contacts, to finally feel at home. How dire it must be to have to leave in terror, under threat, seeing your home destroyed and never knowing if you will see it again. For most of us in Thorne/ Moorends this is not the case, but for many in the world today this is the grim reality of life. We see it on TV but need to constantly remind ourselves that these refugees are people like us. Mary and Joseph were refugees, having to leave their own country and settle in a foreign land in order to protect the life of their new born child, Jesus. They left a land where Herod was having all new born males and children up to the age of two years killed. Faced with a challenge men of power often seek to eliminate it by murder. This still happens in our world today.
As well as relocation we are also asked to confront the skeletons in our lives. This is never easy. Is there someone in your family no one ever mentions? A girl who had a baby out of wedlock? If Joseph had not been guided by the Holy Spirit and married Mary - she would have been in such a position. What did she have to put up with in a small town where everyone knew her situation? Would she have met with compassion and understanding from the other women of Nazareth or would she always have been looked down on as " no better than she should be" ? Is there someone in your family you never talk to or talk about but who is always there in your thoughts?
The final stage in the journey through life is that of restoration - of getting it all together again, settling down, doing well and being content. This is the goal we all long for but it has its own perils. When we have plenty to eat, a nice home, enough money we tend to forget what it is like with none of these things. We also tend to forget God and to think we have achieved everything by our own efforts. Comfort can have a deadening effect on awareness. All these phases occur in life not always in this order. We need to constantly face ourselves before God to admit our vital need of God in all stages of our life. Advent gives us a focus for a renewed assessment of our life from God's point of view. What decisions we make will colour the life of our famlies in the future , and contribute to making them what they are.
