1st Sunday Advent Year C

1st Sunday in Advent Year C

Proper Preparation Prevents Pretty Poor Performance is what we used to say when I worked in the Civil Service in their Learning and Development Colleges. We used to say this to the leadership and management trainers to encourage them to know their subject professionally and intimately so that they could speak with confidence and project this confidence to and amongst their classes.

We also used to advise the attendees at the classes to take on this message ahead of their studies so that they would be in the best place, mentally, emotionally and physically to take on the new learning and then to help them to apply this learning within the work-places and work-responsibilities.

Very few people can fall into a task and take it on immediately and deliver a high-level, professional outcome. Life doesn’t work like that. Life demands that we prepare our minds and our bodies so that when called upon, we can deliver what we intended, to the best of our abilities.

So it is with Advent and with Christmas. Advent is our time of preparation, our time to get ready for Christmas in every way possible. To get ready for the birth of our Saviour and for the opportunity to re-assess our lives and our living so that they are more attuned to receiving Christ into our beings once more.

We need to consider several questions whose answers will help us to shape and direct our preparations. How do I want or need to be on Christmas Day? What do I need to be able to say, to think, to behave, to act, to be? What do we need to know and need to do? Who needs to be involved in my learning and/or in my teaching? When do I need to be taking this on and how long do I have to complete my preparations? And the hardest of all questions, Why do I need to do this?

We need to know what the Christmas story is all about. We need to know and understand why it is important for me to reconnect with my God and why this connection with the birth of His Son and the message that underpins it, is so important to me. God so loved the world that He sent His only Son into it, to save it from sin.

God’s gift to us of His Son, is the very essence of love. So I need to take this message and spread it around the people I know and the people I come into contact with. People should see this love in my rejoicing, in my praising, in my celebration, in my love to and for everyone I come into contact with. I need to involve my family in my loving preparation so that they too feel the benefit. I need to seek out those who are in need, in need of love, of friendship, of care, of companionship, of a listening ear or a comforting shoulder. I need to seek them out and to include them in my preparation and in my delivering of God’s message of love.

I have the season of Advent, these four weeks running up to Christmas in which to get ready. I can break my preparations down across these four weeks so that I am building up my state of readiness but showing my improved readiness across each week as I do more, prepare more and become better.

And why? I do this because I know that I need to get myself and my life ready to receive my Lord and My Saviour at Christmas. I need to do this to ensure that I am the best version of me that I can be and that the person that I am presenting to others is the best example I can give of a living, walking, talking and singing follower of Jesus Christ. A person who understands why Jesus was born, why He lived and why He did all of this in His love of and for me.

So, I need to know and to understand where I am at right now. I need to take the time to look at myself, to examine all that I am, my mind, my conscience and my spirit and really get a grip on who I am, what I am and where I am at, right now, at this time and moment.

I/we – need to take some time out of our very busy and rushed-about-lives and schedules to stop and smell the coffee – or whatever phrase we might like to use that means  that we take stock – proper, full and clear stock of where we are at and where we need to be.

It is only then that we can know how far we have to go and how much we have to change to make ourselves into the people we need to be: the best versions of us that we can and must become.

We all need to do this. We all need to prepare. I need to!

I need to get ready for Christmas. I need to get ready to receive Jesus into my heart, my mind and my spirit. I need to prepare myself and my life so that it is the best version of me, in, to and for the glory of God.

Proper Preparation Prevents Pretty Poor Performance. My performance, my delivery, is to sow and live, the best version of me to the glory of God. Lord, help me in my preparations and help me to support others in theirs.

Bidding Prayers

We ask our heavenly Father to listen to the prayers we make and to help us in our Advent preparations.

1.      That we each look carefully at ourselves and seek ways and means to become the best versions we can be for Christmas-time. Lord in your mercy

2.      That we work to become better people willing and able to help others around us who are in less fortunate situations. Lord in your mercy

3.      That Church and World leaders work together to care for those in their charge.

4.      That there is an increase in peace and security across our war-torn-world.

5.      That the sick, the lonely, the housebound and the forgotten receive the care and love they need as and when they need it. Lord in your mercy

6.      That those who have died recently or around this time find eternal rest with the Lord and that their families are comforted. I ask you to remember Eileen Spencer whose funeral is this coming Tuesday at 1000. Lord in your mercy

7.      That Mary joins her prayers with ours as we now say together – Hail Mary

Dear Father, we ask that you grant our prayers in the name of Christ your Son. Amen