Services

One Sunday as they drove home from church, a little girl turned to her mother and said, “Mommy, there’s something about the preacher’s message this morning that I don’t understand.” The mother said, “Oh? What is it?” The little girl replied, “Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. He said God is so big that He could hold the world in His hand. Is that true?”

In Isaiah we hear; the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, and in Matthew; repent for the Kingdom of heaven has come near. Follow me and I will make you fish for people. The hope for all of us to follow and to repent and fish for people the sense that we are in darkness still in darkness, yet we see the light. Repentance, the process of moving from darkness to light and fishing for people is walking with others in darkness to light.

Did you spend time in your early adult years growing up and searching for your purpose in life? What were you looking for? Over three thousand years ago, Alexander the Great spent his twenties conquering the world. By the age of thirty, he created one of the largest empires in history, having never lost lost a battle.

I have called you in righteousness, from Isaiah today, as part of the readings for today with the gospel passage of Jesus’ baptism. We often interpret passages like this in Isaiah as referring to Jesus, but that’s not the only understanding. one of the other understandings is the servant is the people of Israel.

Today we have a recording of our worship at St George’s Hastings.

Is there anyone in your family who is difficult to buy Christmas presents for? Or are you yourself difficult to buy for, and dread the question: what do you want for Christmas? It is often almost impossible to come up with gift ideas for adults today, because we tend to buy what we need or think we need when we think of it, and they tend to be the practical items and what we are going to use or wear.

The Anglican tradition has inherited many ancient pieces of liturgy, so it may be a bit surprising to learn that our Service of Lessons and Carols, traditionally with nine Lessons, is only a little over one hundred forty years old. It was originally created in 1880 by the future Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Rev. Edward White Benson, Bishop of Truro, apparently because he wanted to give the local people something to distract them from spending Christmas Eve in the pub!

Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another? This is the question John the Baptist is asking when he knows his life is basically over. Herod has put him in prison, and he figures he probably will never get out of prison, and he doesn’t have long to live. So, is he asking how’s my life work been in vain? Is Jesus the one or is there another to come?

This Gospel passage is at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with the disciples fishing and Jesus saying to them that he will make them fish for people. It is bad enough that we are compared to sheep in other passages and this one that we would fish for others or be like fish ourselves. But what does Jesus mean by this?