Reepham Benefice

The vision I hope that we have for ourselves as Christians is that we want to make a difference. We are God’s people and part of our task is to be like John the Baptist and point people to Jesus and in so doing we point people to God. “Look, look at Jesus, that’s what God’s like!”. Have you ever wondered though what sort of God, God is? We’re usually pretty good on what does. What does God do? Well, he created the world, he did interested things with long-haired strong men, children taking giants, people camping out with lions. He sent Jesus, he raised the dead, he sent the spirit and that’s just a tiny, tiny sample. We could go on at length about the events in which God took part. But it’s not the same thing as answering the question - what sort of God is God? It’s a slightly tricky question. If you really want to shock yourselves and keep yourself awake with worry for the years to come, try asking a cross section of people who don’t normally come to church what impression they have god of the God of the bible from Christians and general rumour. It’s a bit of a salutary experience because what you will probably find coming up time and time again is a sense that God basically disapproves of the world and he is itching either to destroy us with a divine thunderbolt or to send us down the fiery below! Or rubbing his hands with glee with all the horrible things he’s doing. And if that’s what most people think, then it’s not surprising that the vast majority don’t want anything to do with coming to Church.

Advent brings the question ‘What is God like’ into sharp focus. Advent is about waiting for God and the underlying thought here is that we will be waiting eagerly and anxiously for God. That God’s advent will be a good thing and it is something we obviously want. But if we could persuade people that God was genuinely just in the wings about to appear, most people would regard that as thoroughly bad news. In fact, it would ruin their Christmas - but why? Because the God they anticipate is to be feared or disliked, or appeased or grovelled to. And nobody wants to see the person they dislike the most appearing round the corner, especially when that person has absolute power over them. And if God has the power to do whatever God might do to express that disapproval, disappointment and dislike of you, you wouldn’t be very anxious to see God.

In Psalm 126, it was a song sung by exiles, who against all the odds have returned, it’s called the Psalm of Ascent, a worship sung by the people as they make their way up to the Temple...