Today, the fourth Sunday of Advent, the gospel reading focuses on what we call the annunciation, when God visited Mary through the angel Gabriel with the amazing words from today’s gospel, “Greetings favoured one!” (1:28) 

This morning we are going to think about what we have in common with this very uncommon woman.  Gabriel went on to tell her that she has been called to bear the Saviour of the World, this fifteen or so year old girl from a poor village in a poor province of the Roman Empire.

Well that’s one thing we don’t have in common we might think; but hang on, perhaps we might. Let’s hold this thought.

I think as we watch and wait this Advent, we do so in three distinct ways.  The coming of God in human form as a little baby in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago (the incarnation), the coming of Christ into our hearts, and thirdly we watch and we wait for his coming again, the day when everything we know and think we know will change.

This third Sunday traditionally focusses on joy and to do so today, we are looking at our second reading from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, probably the earliest document in the New Testament, c.48AD.

Last week we spoke a little of how the gospel of Mark is the shortest and most urgent gospel, and at its heart asks the questions; ‘Where can God be found?’ and, ‘Who do you say Jesus is?’

 Mark, often called John Mark in Acts and the NT letters, was discipled by the apostle Peter, and Mark’s gospel often seems to me to be imbued with the direct nature of Peter.

So in typical Mark style, unlike Matthew and especially Luke, he forgoes all talk of Jesus’ birth and childhood and cuts straight to the chase to open his gospel. “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1).

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and the word means ‘coming’ or ‘arrival’.  Despite the busy time of year, Advent is actually a time for slowing down and patient watchfulness, to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom, first in our hearts through an infant saviour, and then in joyful anticipation of his coming in glory like a Bridegroom to his Bride.

I had planned to preach on Ephesians today, but I feel compelled to talk about today’s gospel which perfectly summarises the Kingdom Parables we have been looking at over the last couple of weeks, (plus I have preached on the Ephesians passage twice in the last 18 months!).

The Kingdom parables describe how we are to wait for Jesus’ return, and today’s passage on the sheep and the goats, (which is not actually a parable) is why the way we wait is so important, because today, the long-awaited master, bridegroom, and King suddenly returns.

We are going to spend one more week in the Kingdom parables in Matthew’s gospel. There are five of them, but we are only looking at two. Last week we looked at the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, and today the very well-known Parable of the Talents. The context is just Jesus and the disciples on the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem, so again it is a parable for Jesus’ church, for us.

Imagine that you are driving by yourself on your way to meeting your future parents-in-law for the very first time, you are meeting your fiancée there.  You don’t want to be late, and you really want to make a good impression, so you take a short cut over some back roads when, suddenly, your car engine coughs then dies.  You’ve run out of petrol and there is no mobile coverage.  You will be an unexplained no-show and it’s your own wretched fault.

If we can picture this, we can come a part of the way to feeling like the five foolish bridesmaids.  It’s not as if it were unexpected that they would need to light the lamps, they were after all carrying them!

This morning we are looking at the beatitudes we just heard in Matthew’s gospel. The word ‘beatitude,’ is just Latin for blessings, and this morning’s reading opens up Jesus first major block of teaching which we call the sermon on the mount and takes up chapters 5-7.

Now the gospel of Matthew is a very Jewish gospel and one of its major themes is that all of the Jewish Law and prophesy is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.

Today Matthew reading follows directly on from last week’s gospel, where the Pharisees tried to test and trick Jesus about paying taxes, and the Sadducees (who don’t believe in the resurrection) tried to trick him about the resurrection.

Today’s reading opens with, “When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’” (vv. 34-36).

So he answers the lawyer (or scribe) just the way he answered the Pharisees and Sadducees – with a pure and piercing truth that goes straight to the heart of living the Christian life.

We are spending another week with the apostle Paul, but this time in his letter to the Thessalonians. If Philippi was the church that filled Paul with the most joy, then the church in Thessalonica would have been a close second.

For the last few weeks the great theme has been imitating Christ in humble unity, being reconciled with each, resulting in the very peace of God protecting our hearts and minds. This morning’s reading shows what happens when this rich soil (united, humble, peace-filled) is seeded by the word of God. It’s about what it means to ‘receive the word,’ i.e., the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today we conclude our four-part series on Paul’s letter to the Philippians by looking at how we can experience lasting joy through the peace of God that truly does pass all understanding.

 Last week’s reading ended with Paul using the image of a very long race to picture the Christian life as one of constantly moving into God's future, always pressing forward.  Here, he begins his final urging to the Philippians quite differently: "Stand firm in the Lord!" Pressing forward and standing firm in one place; how are these images to be reconciled?

We are continuing to look into this marvellous letter from Paul to the Philippians, but first let’s recap where we’ve been so far.

We began with Paul rejoicing in the steadfast faith of the church he’d planted in Philippi and urging them to live their lives worthy of the gospel of Christ.  Last week, in chap. 2, Paul narrowed and tightened this focus by impressing on the Philippians to look at the very nature of Christ, the humble servant King, and to imitate Jesus in humility and service.

Today in ch.3, Paul is warning the church that if we take our eyes off tying to imitate Christ, we will start to have confidence in the flesh, and end up destroying the joy that is found in this new life imitating Christ’s humility and servanthood.

We are continuing to look at this wonderful letter of joy to the Philippians. Outside of the gospels, it would be difficult to find a more quoted passage in all of Scripture than vv.6-11 from today’s reading.  Today’s reading’s two main themes we have explored before and will continue to explore: humility and unity.

oday we are looking at our reading from Paul’s wonderful and unique letter to the Philippians. It is often called the book of joy, as the word occurs fifteen or so times in four short chapters.

Philippi is in Northeast Greece, about 100 kms south of the Bulgarian border and the church there supported and loved the apostle Paul, which is why this letter is filled with warm affection and love. (If you would like to know more about how Paul went to Philippi and what he did there, open up the book of Acts at chapter 16 and start reading.)

Many of you would have heard of the Dutch WW2 heroine Corrie Ten Boom, or read her account of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.  As well as being a family of watchmakers, the Ten Booms were devout Christians and lived in a large house above their shop. 

As the war progressed and the true nature of the Nazi’s plans for the Jews started to become apparent, Corrie and her family started to hide Jewish families in the attic of their large home to save them from being transported to what later were revealed to be death camps.

Today we look at the well-known parable of the sheep who went astray. It paints a picture so easy to understand and so beautiful to ponder. Now when Luke tells the story, it is in his chapter on the lost things; the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost or prodigal son (Luke 15). Here the focus is on the lost being found.

Matthew doesn’t use the word ‘lost’ but ‘strayed.’ So today we are looking less at the evangelistic side of this parable – how the lost are saved; but the pastoral – how those who have strayed are sought out, cared for and loved.

This week’s gospel follows directly on from last week and for the last few weeks we have been looking at how Jesus has been teaching the disciples. When Peter confessed Jesus as Messiah in the passage we heard last week, Jesus calls him blessed because only God can reveal God. The great triumphant hope of Israel has come, and yet his last words to the disciples were not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah.

Today we get to understand why they weren’t to tell anyone, because they did not yet understand what this triumphant Messiah would look like.

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Peter’s confession of Christ is a major turning point in Jesus’ ministry – from here on he starts to make his way to Jerusalem and his death. So what happened here in Caesarea Philippi? Over the last month or so we have seen various ways that Jesus has been teaching and training his disciples. That, out of time in the presence of God the Father, we can be filled with the same compassion that Jesus has in order to take our part in the great outpouring of God’s perfect will. Today, the training is starting to pay off.

Today we are going to talk about something that is so easy to miss or to misunderstand, that we might not see how fundamentally important it is in our lives of faith, and the source of all the ways God blesses our parish.  We mention it often though and proclaim it in every service, ‘We are the body of Christ.’

I am talking about unity, oneness of hearts and minds, becoming and being the body of the person of Jesus Christ. The very same oneness, and unified in the same way, that Father, Son and Holy Spirt is one – that is some unity!

This morning’s gospel continues on directly from last week. The disciples have just finished cleaning up after the great and compassionate feeding by Jesus of the 5,000 as distributed by the disciples, when today’s passage begins. I’d ask you to see it as all part of the same extraordinary twenty-four-hour period in the life of Jesus and today is part two of last week, where we saw that the great purpose of the miraculous feeding was to bring glory to the Father (above all), feed the wandering and burdened lost sheep of Israel, and to teach his disciples.