Prayers:

Confession and words of assurance (adapted from rootsontheweb.com):  

Holy God, we confess that we fail and falter because we get all wrapped up in the trivialities of life.  So often we look for something better to come our way, ignoring what we already have, not using it wisely for the good of all.  We confess we forget to preach the good news to the poor; to those who don’t know their need to confess; to those who don’t know that Christmas is about the birth of the Christ-child; to those who don’t know your Spirit within. Advent God, forgive us we pray and bless our journey.  Amen. 

The Lord God, the Holy One, the Almighty, the Redeemer, the giver of life, hears our prayer and forgives our sins.  Praise be to God.

Amen.

Reading:  Matthew 11:2-11

Reflection:

John had worked all his life to point people to Jesus, but now he was in prison and starting to have doubts about Jesus.  Jesus was not living up to expectations and John’s friends were delivering some worrying reports.  Jesus was mixing with the wrong sort of people, he was eating in the homes of tax collectors andprostitutes, he had gathered for his disciples a group of hotheads and no hopers, and on top of this, Jesus was fast gaining a reputation as one who liked a drink and who didn’t keep the Sabbath very strictly at all.

For the simple and clean living John, these seemed like the actions of a fraud, not a Saviour.  And as the days went on so John’s doubts grew until eventually he he sent his friends to ask Jesus directly,

“are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’

Jesus understood the concern behind John’s question and told John’s disciples to look for themselves and to report to John what they heard and saw.   

“The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”

Jesus could have just given John words of reassurance, but instead he showed John’s friends everything that was happening.  What they saw and heard was nothing less than God’s kingdom being active, here on earth. Today in this advent season, God’s kingdom still breaks in, lighting up the darkness of a world that is so often full of despair.  Like John we know that Jesus is ‘the one’, because we still see him at work, inspiring acts of love, kindness, generosity, forgiveness and reconciliation.  May we place Christ at the centre of our lives and see what is possible when he works through us.     

Hymn:  StF 189,  “Wild and lone the prophet’s voice”