Dear Friends
This comes with love and prayers this Advent and thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement.
It is has been a fulfilling Autumn at Scargill and a joy to welcome back old friends and make new friends as people visit for the first time. Please do check out our new programme that takes us up to August 2023, as you plan for your next visit or online event.
One event to highlight in the early new year is the opportunity to join us online for the Friends and Companions (2) weekend on Fri 20th – Sun 22nd January. We would like to make this a hybrid event so please sign up as usual on our website if you would like to join us. We do need though a minimum of six online guests to make this viable as it involves an extra two Community to make it happen.
Livestream 4:30pm Evening prayers over the Christmas season will be on Wednesday 7th December and then we take a break until Saturday 31st December. Then we are back to the usual weekly rhythm on Wednesday 11th January 2023.
Here, Di writes about the Advent theme of joy. Enjoy!
Diane writes:
A few months ago I had a strong feeling that my Advent weekend should be about joy. Whilst preparing my talks I was reminded about Mary visiting Elizabeth – such an important time for them both. For Mary, on meeting Elizabeth, the impact of what God had done must have suddenly become a reality. As soon as she steps into the house, the child in Elizabeth’s womb starts to dance for joy so much so that it causes Elizabeth to say:
‘The moment the sound of your
greeting entered my ears,
The babe in my womb
skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.
Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
believed every word would come true!’
Jane Williams, in ‘Approaching Christmas’, writes: ‘it is the simple joy of the child in the womb, dancing to celebrate the presence of Jesus that is so touching’ – an aspect of the nativity story we hardly ever dwell on.
Throughout the Old Testament, God calls his people to joyfulness. In the years and centuries before Christ’s birth, God’s people waited in joyful expectation, for a Saviour promised, but One who had not yet come. Their joy was not based on the knowledge of what God had already done through his Son, Jesus Christ, but their joy was an outpouring of their faith in what God WOULD do.
There doesn’t seem to be much real joy around at the moment, and perhaps there hasn’t been for quite a while. Why? To be honest I’m not sure.
Do we feel overwhelmed with the demands of everyday life? So much so that our joy has been buried and Christ’s light has been greatly dimmed. Is this because our focus has strayed and we find ourselves centring on all the ‘stuff’ around us rather than God’s Kingdom. Perhaps we have forgotten that joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) given to us by God himself and no one can take it away. Perhaps we have forgotten that, ’The joy of the lord is our strength’.
Many things can bring us joy – a day of rest, entering an empty swimming pool (for me anyway), time with friends, a good book, a sunset, a glass of wine. There are plenty of Greek and Hebrew words for joy but what is important is not necessarily what joy means but rather where it comes from. Biblical joy comes from God. Like the joy of the ancient Israelites, our joy is a response to what God has already done and continues to do. It is an eager anticipation about wonderful things to come. It is the joy that flooded the hearts of the shepherds, the angels, the wise men, the hosts of heaven, Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph. It was there that first Christmas and still has the power to overwhelm our hearts with rejoicing.
This Advent can we rekindle the flame of love, revive our hope, restore our faith and unwrap the gift of joy, the ‘simple joy of the child in the womb, dancing to celebrate the presence of Jesus’, cherish and nurture it because today, our joy, fuelled by the Holy Spirit, is what God uses to spread his joy throughout the world. Mother Teresa once said “Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love.”
We wish you all a blessed and joyful Christmas.
With love and prayers from