Reepham Benefice

I heard an advertisement announcer on Channel 4 two or three days ago declare: Christmas has officially begun, he said. Well, I said, I thought it began on Christmas Day! And that at the present time we were living in this time called Advent. Actually it is quite difficult for the public and anyone else to grasp the fact that Christmas doesn’t really begin until Christmas Day.

You can’t really have school carol services and things in that week beginning Christmas and the New Year. And you certainly can’t start writing your Christmas cards after Christmas and there are so many things that people are doing before Christmas in order to get ready for it. But, if any of us are not careful, Advent can becomes a bit obscured, a bit eclipsed by the oncoming Christmas. But we as Christians should take time and make sure that odes not happen to us. Because we  can’t really detach ourselves from the advertisements and the things going on, but we can make that extra big of time to try and look at advent and think about it.

The word means: somebody is coming. So obviously our whole reflection is on the fact that Christmas is about the fact that Jesus came. But its not just about that - it’s also about the fact that one day Jesus will return...

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