From Rev’d Caroline – carolinesymcox@googlemail.com, 01285 712467
Readings for Sunday: Isaiah 2.1-5; Romans 13.11-14; Matthew 24.36-44
There is no sermon as this Sunday is a Family Service.
The following is taken from the Parish Newsletter for Sunday 30th November 2025
This Sunday is Advent Sunday, that first step on the journey of preparation that leads us to the celebration of Christ’s birth. That’s not the only thing we’re preparing for, though. Because Advent directs us not just to look back into history, for the time when Jesus was born into the world, but forwards into the future as well – looking for the time when Jesus will return to finish the work of salvation. It is about holding together the past and the future in a sense of expectation in the now.
Often we might think of Advent as a time of waiting. And it is! Christmas becomes something of a delayed gratification, when we finally get to enjoy that thing that we’ve been wanting for so long. That probably explains why it feels like Advent has become shorter and shorter as time has gone on, as people get worse and worse at keeping patience and holding strong to finally get to the prize. I’m reminded of the psychological experiment where children each had a marshmallow placed in front of them, and were promised a whole extra marshmallow if they could go for 15 minutes without eating it. The children who managed to hold out were few and far between. When you’ve got a reward right in front of you, it’s very hard to not just enjoy it. The same can be said of Christmas. We’re grown-ups. What’s to stop us celebrating Christmas every day of the year if we want to? Delayed gratification can be hard to hang on for. These days we’re all pretty impatient.
Advent, however, is more than just waiting. Christmas is more than just delayed gratification. Our looking forwards to the time of Jesus’ return means that something weightier than a good old party is at stake. We are waiting for, and getting ready for, the time when everything will finally be wrapped up and finished – the time when we will be accountable before God as Judge. There is a good here to look forward to, for sure. This is when swords will be beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks; when God’s peace and salvation will reign over a new world. But there is a weight here too. The penalty of being unprepared for Christmas is a bit of a rubbish party. The penalty of being unprepared for Christ’s return is rather worse.
This is what prompts Paul’s advice to the Roman Church. We aren’t just waiting – we are getting ready. We are awake, even when it feels like we could relax and be asleep, or be distracted by all those distracting things that the world offers. No – we are awake, watching, our lights lit, our shoes on. Because we want to be ready, living in the light of the Lord already, even if the rest of the world is in the pre-dawn grey. Advent reminds us of the need to get ready, and the way to go about it – study, reflection, amendment of life. Until he returns, or calls us home, we’ll be watching and waiting, in his light.
Rev’d Caroline
Updated 1st December 2025