Advent Promises
A small, bare tree sits in a
pot, front and centre. Round about the
tree, scattered on the floor, are a string of lights and some decorations with
blank backs to them; it is the blank sides that are visible to the
audience. Person B comes toward it,
attending to it, looking at it almost in awe.
Person A stands at a distance, looking at B, but shaking his head and
shrugging his shoulders.
B: Oh! Hello there –
you come to admire it too? Isn’t it JUST
lovely?
A: Um, well, uhhh…. NO!
Not really.
B: What!? How can it
not be beautiful?
A: Well look at
it. All you’ve got is some bare twigs
stuck in a pot – and by the looks of it, they are all dead; there’s no sign of
life there….. Where’s the beauty in
that?
B: Well look at it
another way – think of all the potential of these “dry twigs”.
A: What
potential? All I see is some dead twigs
stuck in a pot – that’s where it ends!
B: OK, well, let me
ask you this – what do you picture when you think of church?
A: Hmm, I see the
similarity – certainly in this case (looks
around St Peter’s). An old, cold
building that’s falling down in some places.
B: Yes, that might be
the church BUILDING, but how about the church…. The living Church?
A: What do you
mean? A church is a church is a
church….. and hopefully most of the people in the churchyard are not living
anymore….
B: No, not the
churchyard, the people who make up the body of the church – the living
church.
A: Oh! You mean the few people who trickle in here
on a Sunday morning? OK, so they may be
alive (some of them just…..) but how is that a living church?
B: It’s the things
they do to make this a living church – it’s the organist who comes to practise
the organ a couple of times a week, the choir who come and practise on a Friday
night, the cleaners who come in to clean the church (and the toilets), it’s the
people who arrange the flowers to enhance our worship, it’s the people who
welcome us as we come to worship each Sunday; it’s the small group who worship
together on a Wednesday morning, it’s the people who make coffee and tea at the
end of worship, the people who lead our young folk each week, the young people
themselves, the people who serve – some of them getting here at 9.00 am on a
Sunday morning to get it all ready…. It’s the people who read scripture for us,
and those who lead us in prayer. It’s
the wardens, the Readers, the priests…..
It’s the social committee who makes delicious lunches, the worship
committee who prepares ideas for the services; it’s the people who look after
our buildings and community centre….
It’s all those who give money each week or each month or each year to
help with the costs of running a living church, whose money allow us to help
those people in the world less fortunate than us…..
As B is saying each ‘duty’ he wraps a string
of lights round the tree and then a child and an adult get a decoration from
round the church – off the rota sheets and puts the decoration on to the
tree.
A: And, well, what if
someone wanted to be part of that living church? How would I, um, they, go about it?
B: Well, that’s easy –
just do it! And today is a good day to
begin! It’s the start of a new year in
the church, so you could make a new year’s resolution – or a promise, if you
like – to do something to be part of that living church. Join the servers or welcomers or cleaners –
sign up to any of the rotas; think about giving some money – perhaps a pound
for each cup of coffee you drink in a week?
There will be some folk who already give of their time and money – but
they too can think about adding to that.
Life changes, people come and go.
Those of us who are part of the here-and-now living church must make
sure it continues to live and grow.
B then switches the lights on and asks:
So, now when you
look at this tree, what is it that you see?
A: Now I see light and
life.
*****
Everyone is then invited to
make their pledge on the blank side of a decoration that will be handed out and
to come and hang it on the tree.
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