Romans 13:11-14    Matthew 24:36-44   Good morning and Happy New Year!  It is Advent – the Church year begins.   Therefore you … must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”   Ah yes – the season of preparation has arrived, though there may be some confusion as to what it means to be ready, to be prepared. Andy Wiliams would have told us in joyful song that “it’s the most wonderful time of the year”, and our minds fill with images of – what? – the mall

Isaiah  2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Luke 21:5-19   Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his Name.…Sing the praises of the Lord, for he has done great things.   King Cyrus has issued the decree, and the Children of Israel have come to the end of their exile in Babylon. The time has come to return home, but there is a problem – things have changed. When they were first taken from their homeland, the Jewish people had grieved.   “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wep

Luke 6:20-31   Good morning!  It’s All Saints Day, the day that marks a definite change in the tone of the Church year. We are coming to the end of what we call the Sundays after Pentecost, or Ordinary Time – we have only November left to go before the end of the Church year itself. All our liturgically green Sundays up till now have been about Jesus’ life on earth, His ministry among us, but today the focus shifts. Today, before the year ends gloriously on Christ the King Su