| All Saints’ Anglican Church, Waterloo, Ontario | ||
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Canon Robin Lyons, our Rector |
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Advent, 2011 - From the Rector
Greetings,
Mid-November and the end of the liturgical year
are upon us, and along with decisions to be made for Advent and Christmas
programmes at church, there has come a number of queries on the home front from
family members about how the Lyons will celebrate Christmas this year. Among
those questions: What do you want for Christmas?
Honestly, there really is nothing I particularly
want or need for Christmas. I will be delighted to have family together for the
Christmas Eve Candlelight Mass, and for celebration and companionship over the
holy days. I couldn’t ask for anything more on the home front!
But if someone were to ask me what I wanted for
Christmas in terms of church life, I think I could come up with a wish list too
lengthy to include in this space in the Church Chat! Some of the items would be:
- A
movement of Holy Spirit in the lives of each and every one of our members,
bringing us to an astonished and abiding awareness of how God is near and
working in us to bring us home to our special place at His family table. I
would love to see tears of joy and feel hearts full of wonder as we
celebrate Jesus’ coming into this world at Christmas to find us and save
us for Our Father. Send forth Your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the
earth!
- An
openness to risk, adapt, and expend effort and resources in reaching out to
the people closest to us, both in terms of affection and in terms of
‘place’, so that our families and our neighbours might come to All
Saints’ and find here the love of God which has touched and changed our
lives forever. Your love, O God, forever will we sing!
- An
outpouring of gifts for ministry from all of our members evidenced by quick
and passionate volunteering to assist with things like Sunday School,
Nursery, worship, outreach, hospitality, and administration. “Now to each
one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”(I Cor
12:7)It would be such a blessing to have more help in each of these areas
– Lord, hear my prayer!
- A
Sunday morning gathering which begins to grow, bucking recent trends here
and throughout the wider church, and bringing excitement and enthusiasm to
our weekly worship in new measures of fullness. Come, Holy Spirit, come!
Bless our efforts in connection with proposed changes to our pattern of
worship for the New Year. Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face
of the earth!
- A
tangible carry-over of the love expressed during our weekly, Sunday morning
sharing of the ‘Peace’ so that each and every person attending church
receives that Sunday morning affirmation of love, community, and concern
Monday through Saturday as well. We are the Body of Christ every day, and
each one of us should know and feel that we are a part of it!
- Healing
for broken hearts, broken families, broken relationships, broken lives,
broken dreams, and broken bodies so that abundant life in Jesus may flow
freely through us in this place, according to His promise: “Heal the sick,
raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely you have
received, freely give.”(Matthew 10:8)
- Peace
– the gift of Jesus (John 14:27) – to instil in us a passionate
commitment to the justice, equity, fairness, and compassion that mark the
Kingdom of Heaven as we serve it here and now. Our Father in Heaven, Your
Kingdom come!
The list could go on and
on – but don’t be constrained by the limitations of my version. Jesus
teaches that we have a God who will not withhold from us, His children, any of
those good gifts we need. “If you then, who are sinful, know how to give good
gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts
to those who ask Him!” (Mat 7:11). Moreover,
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of
lights in heaven…” (James 1:17). God the Father not only has, and sends us,
the good gifts we need - He longs for us to receive and accept them!
So…I invite you to make
up your own wish list for our parish family, and turn it into a prayer for
God’s blessing and equipping of our congregation. Pray it during this Advent
& Christmas season, for these are the days when we remember the greatest
gift ever given: Jesus Christ –
given to us by the greatest ‘gift-giver’ of all time: Our Father -
“so that all who believe in Him might have eternal life.” May Holy
Spirit renew our church in faith, hope, and love.
May God grant you and
yours, every good and perfect gift this Christmastide and always!
Yours in Christ
Robin