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Advent has been a season for stepping away from the frantic busy-ness, the clutter of bows and wrapping paper, and embracing instead a time to slow down, breathe, and refocus onGod’s love and goodness and “the spiritual promise of the Saviour coming.”

What does it mean to bear fruit worthy of repentance? This is not just a test of our past accomplishments and our connections, but just like the word Love is a verb, so is to bear fruit.

Today we have images coming at us, both darkness and wilderness. Maybe this suggests that we are in Advent, a time of preparation for Christmas, like Lent but not quite so heavy but still……. And I think we are all experiencing a time of darkness and wilderness.

Often when we look at a passage like the Gospel today we look at one word in the question and forget to look at the whole question and the context and who is asking and why. We tend to focus solely on the word divorce, and miss that the Pharisees came to test Jesus and use the word lawful. Jesus responds by asking; “What did Moses command you?”

Today is Reign of Christ Sunday, the last Sunday of the Christian calendar. From Advent to Christmas to Epiphany to Lent to Easter to Pentecost to Ordinary Time, we conclude a year-long pilgrimage of following events and stories in Jesus’ ministry according to the Gospel of Mark. Next week marks the first Sunday of Advent as we prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus.

This is but the beginning of birth pangs. This suggests something new, Is this the end of the focus on buildings and fabric and focusing on ministry and people? Has this pandemic forced us to find creative ways of being together which don’t mean using the buildings at least in the same way?

Often when we look at a passage like the Gospel today we look at one word in the question and forget to look at the whole question and the context and who is asking and why. We tend to focus solely on the word divorce, and miss that the Pharisees came to test Jesus and use the word lawful. Jesus responds by asking; “What did Moses command you?” When they answered that Moses had allowed for a man to divorce his wife, Jesus said that this is because of hardness of heart.

In Revelation: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” That is the challenge for us, calling us out of our comfort zone to a new and exciting reality, but it could be in the ordinary and we just miss it. The two phrases of Jesus in today’s Gospel, point us to the new heaven and earth, “Lazarus come out!” and “Unbind him and let him go.”

This Gospel lends itself to a number of topics for discussion. We can talk about blind Bartimaeus asking Jesus to see again, this after Jesus asks him what he wants him to do for him. This suggests being clear and specific about what we want from Jesus in prayer.