COMING,
READY OR NOT
The
4th Sunday in Advent, Dec. 23rd, '07, at Christ Church, Mandurah
MT
1: 18-25
Notes: 1. Coming, Ready or Not is our
theme here at Christ Church, Mandurah during the weeks of
Advent. (We are now in Year A
again,
focussing on Matthew's Gospel.) This is the final
work-sheet in our series aimed at helping us do some
preparation for hearing the Gospel preached each Sunday & be
better prepared as we worship together.
2.These
notes are for use in Groups, or personally. It would help to
read the Gospel beforehand, & keep it to hand.
Prayer:
for Preparedness
in every sense.
Warming-Up
Exercise:
(Say 2 mins, for Groups): Do we have a favourite among the Christmas
stories?
Some
Questions to help us Enter Into The Story and make it our own:
1. Given Jesus'
disciples were caught up in (and by) his Death & Resurrection,
& not at all in / by the birth stories, how 'caught up' do we feel
in the birth stories we're about to celebrate? Are we likely to be more
watchers & bystanders at Christmas & less participants than we
may be in Holy Week, Good Friday, & Easter? What connections do we
make between the birth stories & God's Coming in other ways?
2. Aren't we
glad the disruptive events of the
first Christmas happened to someone else, somewhere else, &
sometime
else? Does the increasing Coming of people from the Middle East to Oz,
& the issues they bring with them from their former countries &
cultures offer us any help in better understanding Christianity as a
Middle Eastern religion long before it became a 'Western' one? What
ramifications do our religious roots in the M.E. have for faith in Oz
today?
3. What lessons
about God's Coming can we learn from the lives & attitudes of both
Mary & Joseph to the impossible position God placed them in? In
this 21st C. would it be wise to rely on dreams (by themselves) as
guides to God's will? Might Joseph's dream (& those of his namesake
in Egypt many centuries before) stem from his closeness to God rather
than just a sub-conscious mind? If our thinking & praying &
dreaming & behaviour & all other aspects of our discipleship
were all better centred on God, might our dreams become a more credible
channel for God to Come & reveal His
will once more?
4. How far
up the list of reasons why we believe in & belong to Jesus is the
fact that He 'saves us from our sins'? What does that really mean? If
sin is essentially separation from God, don't we need to deal with that
(by letting Jesus deal with it!?) before God can bridge that separation
& Come to us in any way shape or form?
5. If in
Jesus 'God is with us' (& is therefore always already Come to us /
in us / among us) what more do we need?
