The story of the Shepherds at Christmas has a lot to teach us.  We hear of them only in Luke’s Gospel and only in the second chapter.  They come into the narrative and then are never heard from again.

The shepherds are the first people to hear the Good News.  This is who God decided would be the people who first saw the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Something remarkable is happening here, but it begins like all things with the very unremarkable.

In our watching and waiting this Advent, we have looked at the way in which we go about the waiting, and what happens in us and through us when we truly wait on the Lord, like a vine waits on its tree.

What happens when we wait like this is we demonstrate (or show) the fruits of repentance we have looked at this Advent; hope, peace, and joy, in fact the whole orchard of the fruit of the Spirit.

This week we look at love, which binds all these things together.

Today, the third Sunday of Advent is known as Gaudette, or Rose, Sunday.  Gaudette is the Latin word for ‘rejoice,’ and today we look again at that precious little sapphire; joy.

So far, during this period of watching and waiting in Advent, we have spoken about the certainty of our hope in the coming of Jesus and its bringing of peace.  The consequence of these fruits of hope and peace is that hard to find thing.  Joy. 

We continue our waiting for the coming of, the advent, of Jesus.  Remembering with wonder the incarnation of God as a little baby and looking to his coming again in great hope to fulfil and bring to completion all things.

Last week we focused our waiting on hope, and today, via John the Baptist, we look at how we can be filled with peace in this time of waiting.  John is the great prophet who bridges the old and new testaments. 

The message that he gives in the gospel reading today is about Jesus’ first coming, but it also applies to his return, for which we wait.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and the word means ‘coming’ or ‘arrival’.  Advent is not a time to rush around preparing for Christmas, it’s really a time of developing a spiritual and mental clarity by slowing down and patiently watching and waiting for Christ to come.

Preparing ourselves for the coming of Jesus – born fresh in our hearts through the infant Saviour.  And then in joyful anticipation of his coming in glory like a Bridegroom to his Bride.

Each week we will light an Advent candle, nestling in the Advent wreath.  These candles represent hope, peace, joy, and love. 

Today is the final Sunday in the church year and also in our diverse series on receiving the Kingdom of God.  Two weeks or so ago we spoke about Judgment Day in our look at a passage from Isaiah, so I have taken a different approach today when looking at our reading from Daniel so as not to repeat myself.

One of the great spiritual heroes is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Pastor who failed to obey Hitler and was killed by the Nazis in the last days of WW2 in an act of pure spite that gained nothing for them.

In a letter written from his Nazi prison cell, Bonhoeffer says, ’God [in the person of Christ] is the beyond in the midst of our lives. (Letters and Papers from Prison. April 30, 1944).

We continue our broad theme on how we receive the Kingdom of God and today we look at it from the perspective of the NT letter to the Hebrews.

We can receive this kingdom of Jesus himself because of his one, perfect and sufficient sacrifice.  He is our great high priest forever.

Now, all the NT writers were Messianic Jews, i.e., Jews who believed that Judaism itself has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

The writer to the Hebrews is no exception; except that he is writing to practising orthodox Jews, and he demonstrates the messianic nature of Jesus particularly through Jesus’ role as great High Priest forever.

Coming up to Advent, we have some wonderful readings, two of which we have just heard; the truly wonderful stories of Ruth and Naomi and the gospel account of the widow and her two measly copper coins.

We have been speaking much about the Kingdom of Heaven and the obvious thing that connects these passages is that the Kingdom here is coming through and by way of widows – who along with orphans the Old Testament describes as those most in need and care from the community.

This was so in Jesus’ day as well as Ruth’s, c. 900 or 1,000 years earlier.

Both are stories of how God uses the culture of the times to do his will in our society and teach us how we are supposed to care for each other.

Today we celebrate All Saint’s Day, the day we remember, with thanks and praise and prayer, all those who love now, and have loved God through Christ Jesus.

Now the Church includes all those who have died in Christ, as well us we who are alive.  Those who have died in Christ are the Church Triumphant.  They have already triumphed over death and are alive now in the true realm of God; that other country that we are separated from at this time by the thinnest of veils. 

We who are still in this world are the Church Militant, still fighting the good fight, as the apostle Paul puts it.  Jesus says this body, triumphant and militant, will prevail against the very gates of death itself.

We have spoken a fair bit over the past month about how we receive the Kingdom of God, and our gospel today has to do with how we should come to Jesus, and what we should expect to receive from him, when we receive the Kingdom of God.

First, a bit of context.  Jesus is nearly in Jerusalem for the last time, only 25 kms away in Jericho.  There is a huge crowd following Jesus, all jostling to touch him or his clothes.

As if that crowd wasn’t big enough, the way was packed with people all trying to get to Jerusalem for the Passover.  It is really busy!  The entire band of disciples, are trying to work security around Jesus. 

Today we are going to spend one more week in Jesus’ difficult teachings on receiving the Kingdom of God.  Last week we saw that to receive this Kingdom of love and blessings, we need to put God first, and love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind; and as in the case of the rich young man, our strength. 

Today we look at what characterises this sort of discipleship.

This morning we begin with sobering news, but I promise we end with wonderful news!

Today’s passage from Mark looks at an important area in our life that can get in the way of receiving the Kingdom of God – money.  However, this passage could also be called the Gospel of our First Love.

The rich young man thought he was good in every way; except his first love was not God.

But when reading this passage we need to be a bit cautious!  The danger is to assume things that Jesus doesn’t at all say.

In vv.13-16, the second part of today’s gospel, Mark completes Jesus’ teaching on children and in the last two week’s gospel readings, Jesus has spoken very stern words to the disciples about their arrogance, and spiritual pride, and what welcoming someone truly means.

Yet here in v.13 of today’s passage, which immediately follows last week’s, they are doing exactly what Jesus told them not to; creating a stumbling block for little children being brought to God.

What part of millstone, neck, and being thrown into the sea didn’t they understand!

This morning’s passage from Mark follows directly on from last week’s gospel (vv.30-37), which ended with Jesus holding up a little child in his arms and telling his disciples that they must welcome one of these little ones, because it is if they are welcoming God the father himself.

Throughout Mark 8 and 9, Jesus has been attempting to turn the disciples’ thoughts away from human thoughts to God’s thoughts.  To transform their thinking.

Over the last few weeks we have been looking at faith and Works through the eyes of Jesus’ brother, James.  We’ve discovered that a faithful life will spontaneously, yet comfortably and gently, become a very productive life through whom the Lord’s perfect will can be channelled.

Now our man, Matthew, was a tax collector and therefore automatically despised by the Jews as not only collecting for the Romans who were oppressing them, but corrupt as well, pocketing unjustly levied taxes.

Yet the Lord chose him and caused him to come to faith and to write the most systematic of all the gospels. It has been instrumental in bring literally millions of people to faith though his account of the Sermon on the Mount alone!

This is faith spontaneously erupting into a very major work indeed!

This morning we continue our examination of James’ very practical letter to the Church, and we continue to find that it is about loving our Lord God almighty with all we are and have (heart, soul, mind, and strength), and loving our neighbour.

Now today we follow directly on from last week, which finished with the blunt statement of v.17, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”  This morning we are digging onto this a bit more because it is very easy to grab the wrong end of the stick and view faith and works as opposites of each other.

We are continuing our look at the letter of James; this short, very practical instruction book on how to live the life of faith.  This morning we look at the question, what is the sharp point of faith?

What’s the point?  What’s the point of faith?  Why believe or trust in God?

For the last couple of weeks we have been looking at what is means to be careful how we live; what Paul calls wisdom. 

It can be summarised as focusing on becoming disciples of Jesus, allowing ourselves to be directed by God into the fulfilling of his purposes, which will always result in being able to stand, no matter what.

But how do we do that in practical terms?  How do we become a disciple of Jesus Christ who thrives?  This week, we’re continuing this focus by beginning a short walk through the book of James, the most practical of books.

Paul’s letter to the Church in Ephesus is the blueprint of how God brings us into living the wonderful, simple, free, and full life in Christ.

It is very clearly divided into three sections, which we can call Sit, Walk, and Stand.  In our Christian walk, we need to know firstly where we sit.  Just as a building sits on its foundations, the whole first half of Ephesians (chapters 1-3) shows us what this foundation is.

Our Old Testament and New Testament readings, as well as the Psalm, all have the common thread of wisdom.  Be careful then how you live.

Paul speaks much about the wisdom of the world being foolishness in the eyes of God.  But here, and next week we will be spending time with Paul in Ephesus, looking at some very practical ways to live this believing life in Jesus as children of God.

Paul tells us we are to be careful how we live for the sake of others.