TOMORROW’S SUNDAY

Tomorrow is the First Sunday of Advent. Advent was kept long before Countdown to Christmas. Mary and Joseph waited for the birth of their baby.

The Jewish people wait for the coming of the Messiah. Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that he will come again. A season of waiting rather than countdown.

Advent Calendars have been around for at least 150 years. A series of cardboard doors open to reveal a picture of people associated with the birth of Jesus, or a few words from the Bible, or a Christian symbol.

Open one each day until Christmas Day when the new-born Jesus is finally revealed. A sense of waiting and hoping. In the last few years Advent Calendars have become more glitzy – chocolate, beauty products, prosecco, gin, and many more.

Here’s another alternative: instead of expecting to get something for yourself every day in Advent why not try to give instead? Some money each day to the charity (or charities) of your choice. Go online and see what most appeals to you. Or one day you might visit someone who’s housebound, or buy a tea for a homeless person, or offer to rake the leaves in an elderly neighbour’s garden.

I suggest this because Christmas has become the season of getting, but in God’s eyes it’s a time for giving: God gave us Jesus so that we could see what God is like. Jesus shows us the person it’s possible for us to become.

If you went to church last Sunday, you may have heard Matthew 25:31-46: In that reading Jesus says that when he comes again he will say ‘Come, blessed of my Father’ to those who fed the hungry, welcomed the stranger, visited the sick and those in prison. ‘Whatever you did for those in need,’ he will say, ‘you did for me.’ So surely the best way we can wait for him is to ask each day, ‘What can I give?’ Rather than ‘What can I get?’