More and more things are demanding our time and energy. More shopping. More travel. More planning. Pressure builds, and it is increasingly difficult to find quiet time for our Advent-life. As we brush elbows with more and more people who are more and more anxious for the season, we hear again our call to simplicity. The great mystery this Advent is that our personal holiness touches the lives of all those with whom we come into contact. When we are made holy as individuals, it is the whole world that reaps the reward.

If I had a dollar for every time someone has said to me in the last few weeks something like: “I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone!”, or “I can’t believe it’s nearly Christmas!”, I would be a wealthy man! Someone said to me last Sunday morning, “Is it really Advent Sunday next week?  How can that be? I got a real shock when you said that this morning!  Are you sure you’ve got that right?”   

Of course, people say every year that the year seems to have gone really quickly. That’s not new. But maybe, the busy-ness and pace of life are increasing just a little every year, and every year the months seems to fly by just a little quicker – and it’s as the year comes to an end that we start to really notice that. If that’s so, it makes the season of ADVENT even more important than it has ever been – a time when we make sure we pause and reflect on the stunning Christmas story, and allow it to grip us anew. And maybe also during Advent, or the holiday period, we should all give some thought as to whether we need to make some lifestyle changes so that our lives are less frantic in 2012.

 Alpha is a course that invites people to “explore the meaning of life”, and introduces them to the central beliefs of the Christian faith – in a relaxed environment, where every question is welcome. In the words of The Guardian newspaper of London, “What Alpha offers, and what is attracting thousands of people, is permission, rare in secular culture, to discuss the big questions – life and death and their meaning.”

 We are intending to offer Alpha at KBC next year. So think about whether you’d like to participate in such a course … and/or whether there is someone you could invite to an Alpha course. (By the way, there are some very interesting varieties of Alpha courses available now: Youth Alpha – specifically designed for teenagers; Student Alpha, for university students; Senior Alpha, for those over 75; Workplace Alpha; and Alpha for ESOL.) If you’d like to register an interest in participating in Alpha in 2012, please fill in one of the forms at our Info Desk or contact our office.  

 It was a great joy to share with Jo in her baptism last Sunday. I want to encourage others of you to be baptised by immersion, if you haven’t already been. Believers’ baptism is about beginning … It’s not a sign that you’ve reached a certain level of Christian knowledge or behaviour; it’s a sign that you’ve BEGUN THE JOURNEY. If you are interested in discussing this – or disagreeing with me! – I’d love to chat with you.

 The Soul’s Condition

 I feel the vacuum, the loneliness, the silence, the dehydration of the soul as people who want desperately to save our constitution, our country and our planet still wander the streets without knowing how to say hi to one another.

Sam Smith

 If there’s any truth in this sentiment … and if you identify with it at all … then

perhaps you should come to the Bridge Builders Course this week!

When we go faster and faster, we grow more and more insensitive to the needs of everyone around. We become dull, blunted, imperceptive. In the morning, for instance, when we are moving like a launched missile, our vigilance falls; we may hurt the feelings of our children or partner and never know it at all. To be aware of others, we have to go slowly and pay attention to what is happening. Our faculties must be alert and fully functioning.

Sometimes, under the goad of speed, we act as if other people are not there. When we move fast, those around us seem to be blurs, like statues glimpsed through the fog. Our minds are elsewhere, and we have just enough attention in the present moment to avoid knocking everybody down–and sometimes not even that much! We will shove our way in front of others when they are reaching for something, squeeze by them at the door, shut the lights out on them when we leave the room, disturb them by talking out loud to ourselves or whistling or banging things about–and all this because we do not truly see them.

 The things is, deep down I’m a tidy person.  I like things to be neat and orderly.  But somehow there doesn’t always seem to be the time to keep everything the way I want it to be, and the messier things become, the messier they continue to  get – it’s a downward spiral!

 Of course, life can be a bit like that.  I genuinely want to live as a disciple of Jesus.  But things get “messy”.  And the messier they are, the messier they tend to become.  Sorting stuff out with Jesus that needs to be sorted out … getting stuff cleaned up the way I know it should be – and the way that, deep down, I want it to be … can be on my “To Do” list for a LONG time – but somehow I never quite get around to it.    

 And yet when I do – HOW GOOD IT FEELS! !!

The Fight

One of the greatest risks in taking up arms against evil is to mistake the battle for something that must be fought on a human level, between opposing camps of ‘good’ people and ‘evil’ ones.  It is tempting to carry out the fight in others rather than in ourselves.                            (Johann Christoph Arnold)

Concrete Love

I find it difficult to conceive of a more concrete way to love than by praying for one’s enemies.  It makes you conscious of the hard fact that, in God’s eyes, you’re no more and no less worthy of being loved than any other person, and it creates an awareness of profound solidarity with all other human beings. … And you’ll be delighted to discover that you can no longer remain angry with people for whom you’ve really and truly prayed.                         (Henri J. M. Nouwen)

 The church is not going to be different until someone in it is different.  God waits for each of us to hear, “Behold, I do a new thing – through you!”  The question is always:  Can we open our lives so that the Holy Spirit may descend, and new power break forth, that we may be the kind of person around whom renewal begins?                                                                                                             Elizabeth O’Connor

 And …

 Apprehend God in all things,

for God is in all things.

Every single creature is full of God

and is a book about God.

Every creature is a word of God.

If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature–

even a caterpillar–

I would never have to prepare a sermon.

So full of God is every creature.                                           Meister Eckhart

 Firstly, as I sit in my office writing this (Friday morning), there’s a great hive of activity over in the church kitchen as Sue, Carolyn, Harriett, Ruth, Lyndsey and Paul prepare for our AGM Dinner. I want to express my very sincere thanks, on behalf of you all, to this team for all they’ve done to make our AGM a great night. It’s a wonderful thing to have a team of enthusiastic volunteers “champing at the bit” to get into a project and do the very best job they can – and that has been the case with this group. I’m sure we’re going to have a great night, and an outstanding dinner. (By the time you read this, you’ll know whether I’m right!) Special thanks too to Viv and Dawn who have put a lot of time and effort into AGM preparations.

 Secondly, we have another special event coming up in the life of KBC. It starts in a couple of weeks, and will be spread over a month. Chris Marshall is going to be doing a preaching series here entitled “Jesus Matters: Exploring What Mattered to Jesus and Why It Should Matter to Us” (see separate insert). Chris is the Head of the School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies at Victoria University, and previously was New Testament Lecturer at the Bible College of New Zealand in Auckland (now Laidlaw College). An outstanding Christian communicator and teacher, he will be speaking in our morning services on June 12^th, 19^th and 26^th, and July 3^rd and 10^th; please note that there will be just one morning service on these dates, starting at 10.30am.

We are greatly privileged to have Chris giving us his time and expertise for these five Sundays. I want to strongly urge you, young and old and everyone in between, to come to these services – and commit yourself to all five of them if you possibly can.

 Some churches make quite a big deal of this occasion.  However, to be honest, I always feel it’s not quite appropriate to put too much emphasis on Mother’s Day in our worship services.  Firstly, Mother’s Day is not a specifically Christian celebration. And secondly, I’m conscious that for some people, a day focussed on celebrating mothers can be a very difficult day, because of their own personal experiences and circumstances.

 However, it is appropriate, I think, to pause and reflect on the best features of the love of mothers which we have seen and/or experienced, and to acknowledge that this love has its source in God, and is a primary means by which we know and experience His love.  And we can give thanks for that today.