Matthew 24:42,44 NLT

'So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming...You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.'

The great benefit of an established rhythm of prayer encounter is that I am reminded every day of God. Even as I make my way to my place of prayer, my mind is fast filling with thoughts about the day ahead, disappointments from the day before, large amounts of noisy information that captures my attention and pushes God’s relevance to the background. Yet, keeping watch, gazing upon God for no other reason than God is God, is essential for our growth in faith and personal engagement with him.

Celebrations are creative moments throughout the year to remind us of God’s relevance and our own waywardness. Such waywardness is not evil, it’s just that life is full of distractions. I work a lot with ageing groups and have noticed specifically with my own mum that having more time available can prove a challenge. Mobility and energy issues can mean there is less appetite for previous hobbies. Dexterity deteriorates and memory fades. If one has not developed an ability to simply behold the divine, then that time can weigh heavily and prove frustrating. This is because much of what we do to fill our time acts as a distraction from reflecting upon the nature, character and presence of God.

I have got to grips with an inner restlessness that used to disturb and drive me, and interrupted times when I was legitimately on holiday, to the annoyance of friends and family. It’s enabled me to live without my smartphone and leave it in another room when I settle to watch TV or talk with friends. I’ve begun to enjoy the discipline of letting my active thought life float to the back of my consciousness and simply become unaware and undisturbed by the passing of time.

Celebration is an opportunity to put God first in our affections and balance life around him.

QUESTION: Are you committed to the distractions like Martha, or are you devoted to beholding God as Mary was?

PRAYER: Lord, help me put aside the distractions of life and focus my heart and soul on your goodness and grace.

Hebrews 12:28-29 NLT

'Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.'

Every November here in St Cuthbert’s Oratory we prepare for Thanksgiving. I know this is traditionally an American festival celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, but due to Jayne’s American family ties we have been celebrating it for several years now. We usually take the final weekend in November, given that unlike the USA, we do not have a public holiday at this time of year.

We invite guests and have a traditional turkey meal with all the trimmings. While there’s some serious feasting, there are no gifts. Originally this proved a really useful opportunity to bring Jesus into our family conversation ahead of Christmas. We found that Christmas Day was a difficult day to focus on Jesus with children, since it is so commercialised. Thanksgiving offered us the first of a number of ways to accompany Jesus into Christmas as a family.

During our Thanksgiving feast, we take time between courses to do two significant things. Firstly, we invite everyone present to share something they especially want to give thanks for from the year past. Once everyone has contributed, one of us will pray a general prayer of thanksgiving for all the love and grace we have experienced over the year. Later in the meal, we pause again and offer the opportunity for each person to share something they are looking for from the year ahead. There is no compulsion to share, but most do. After we have finished, we invite prayers around the table for what has been shared, so we pray for one another as an expression of our shared faith in God. We also keep a book of those requests, again if folk want to write them in, as a reminder to ourselves of what we are looking to God for in the coming year. This book is then opened and read the following year.

QUESTION: Can you organise a thanksgiving meal to celebrate God’s faithfulness and be grateful for God’s provision?

PRAYER: Thank you for your goodness, and help us to cultivate expressions of thankfulness and gratitude in our lives.

Exodus 5:1 NLT

After this presentation to Israel’s leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.”

Some years ago a secular Jewish friend of mine attributed the stress and anxiety that for him was a British national characteristic, to a lack of celebrations. We were approaching Christmas and his observation was that this offered the one large annual celebration we had. It lasted for a full week and the majority of people overspent and overindulged. Families often fell out with each other for everyone was trying to squeeze twelve months of partying into one week. No wonder we all emerged somewhat depressed from the event.

He also questioned why it was that this most central of Christian festivals was buried in a secular celebration of gifts, food and drink with little obvious distinction between a Christian and non-Christian experience of the Christmas season? I found this a challenge and questioned him more. His response was that the Jewish calendar was populated with festivals throughout the year. As a secular Jew, he enjoyed celebrating the minor festivals as well as the major festivals such as Yom Kippur. His point was that regular significant celebrations created a healthy rhythm from which anyone might manage the stresses of life well.

I have taken those words seriously for he made a good point. The danger is that while we have a number of bank holidays through the year, they are primarily seen as moments for self-care rather more than carrying any significance beyond a day off work. In St Cuthbert’s Oratory, therefore, we have ensured at least one celebration a month taken from the Christian calendar. They are days we remind ourselves of the foundations for our life and hope as disciples in God’s way as well as an opportunity to share together around a celebratory meal and acknowledge our need for physical as well as spiritual and psychological refreshment. We obviously can’t take days off work, but we can enjoy the anticipation and the evening meal we share together.

QUESTION: What will you include in your Christmas celebrations that will mark the coming of the infant Jesus?

PRAYER: Lord God, thank you that you delight in rightful celebration and joy in life.

John 13:13-15 NLT

'You call me “Teacher” and “Lord,” and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.'

I have written on several occasions that this once avid news-watcher now seldom studies the news. As the saying goes, “No news is good news!” One reason for this was the posturing that appeared to be the basis for any political interview or analysis piece to camera. Platform and media exposure tend to promote posturing above authenticity. As the Christian community, we are not immune.

I remember when working with the Evangelical Alliance, my trips to Parliament. Simply walking those corridors or visiting the Foreign Office to meet junior ministers with their protection squad of civil servants caused me to grow at least two inches in height. Power is infectious and all too easily I became fascinated and somehow entranced. I even assumed I was somehow a more important person because I moved in these hallowed corridors.

Here, Jesus reveals the true characteristics of leadership. It is a willingness to take the lowest place. To wash the disciples’ feet, cleaning them from the accumulated dust and debris from walking the streets. Symbolically, it reveals how the one in whom God had entrusted everything (John 13:3) was now taking in hand his disciples’ feet and washing them. This was generally the work of a slave. It was also an act of love and intimacy, for a wife might wash their husband’s feet, children their parents’ feet and disciples, their teacher’s. Our problem is often how we add value to certain jobs. Why do we equate financial wealth with success and poverty with failure? How many excellently trained, professional refugees have we today washing cars for a living?

So Jesus illustrates that none of us can do better than to take the place of a servant, and serve.

QUESTION: Are you the willing servant of all, or willing to become one?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, help me to adopt the same attitude to serving as you do – a willing one!

Philippians 2:3-4 NLT

'Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.'

When does taking care of yourself become selfishness? The time I go to bed, the amount of socialising, the number of responsibilities I can accept in church or regarding my hobbies have limitations. If I go beyond these I grow tired, stressed and cannot function well. This is bad for me and for others. It’s only as I take care of myself and establish how I function best that I have anything useful to bring to others. I do not serve the interests of other people when living from the dregs of my own energy.

I took time to learn this lesson for I had an inner default setting about pleasing others. This meant I didn’t speak up for my own interests, and after a while became submerged in serving the interests of others. I was selfish in this as well in that I imagined in pleasing them I would advance to where I wanted to get to.

Slowly I worked out that where I was in life, job-wise and even relationally, was not where I wanted to be. There was an inner tension – stress, I guess – as I went to work. This was unhealthy. I put on weight, a sure sign I was unhappy within, even if I didn’t know it.

The trap for each of us lies in our inner motivation. I ask myself the question “Why” I am feeling something or am moved to do something. This helps clarify if I am reacting under duress, a ‘should’, or if indeed I am responding to the clear invitation of the Spirit. This is still subject to error, but a healthy starting point to reflect upon my motives and the way I truly feel.

QUESTION: How is the balance in your life between looking to your interests or the interests of others?

PRAYER: Lord, help me not to be selfish but to have a heart of service.