At the time of Christ the Jewish people were in a kind of double nightmare – suffering under occupation and unprepared for the coming of the Messiah. Into this situation John the Baptist came to shake the people awake. The pandemic is also a wakeup call for all of us – we are being stirred from indifference and distraction to faith in the living God.

Those who returned from exile to Jerusalem were dispirited – God seemed hidden and absent. We also experience the hiddenness of God at times but this is when God is powerfully at work in our lives. We want God to ‘come down’ but through Jesus God is already among us and working within us.

Advent Sunday's readings are full of dramatic even terriying imagery, and yet we hold on to the promise that God will come like child.

The parable of the sheep and the goats is more of a vision of the end of the age when we give account to God of our lives. This is less about an arbitrary judgement of God and more about what our lives end up amounting to – does our faith flow out of us naturally with acts of compassion?

We only experience God’s grace to the extent that we give it away to others. The Parable of the Talents is not about investment capitalism but about what we do with all we’ve received from God. As we bless others with what we’ve received we will enter into the joy of our master.

Today marks the end of Heritage Week in Christchurch. We also remember Armistice Day, and the 75th Anniversary to the end of WW2. Guest speaker Frieda Looser preaches today at our special combined service in the St Barnabas Memorial Church, consecrated in 1926.

The 8 Beatitudes teach us how to live our life. We are told by Jesus that we are blessed when we practise humility.

Jesus and the disciples were caught in a storm on Lake Galilee and with a word from Jesus the wind and waters calmed. This is about Jesus’ ability to calm the storms in our lives but it also tells us something about the identity of Jesus. If only God has power over nature the disciples realised they were in the presence of someone divine.

Daniel, from whom the Old Testament book takes its name, is a tremendous example of faith and good character. His enemies tried to strip him or career, liberty and life itself. However through his devotion to God Daniel found that God’s law transcended human laws and he was saved from the lions. Ask God for grace as you face your own lions today.

Jesus outlines salvation history in "The Wedding Banquet" parable.