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Fourth Sunday of Advent

And here is the surprise. The prophet Micah said to them "Do not worry, God is with us, and He is going to provide the necessary hero for us.  Our future is secure because He will bring order and everything will be submersed under him".  But where is the surprise?  The Jewish people were expecting the Messiah for quite some time.  The surprise is that he was going to come not from the big city, but from a small place called Bethlehem, a very insignificant town whose founders were of the tribe of Judah, the least in impact of the twelve tribes of Israel.

This element of surprise is so common when we think about how God does things.  Moses had a very interesting career.  He was a very powerful man in the most powerful nation of his time.  He enjoyed all the advantages that a prince could enjoy for forty years.  Then his life was dramatically changed, because he killed someone in the heat of a terrible temper and he had to flee.  For the next forty years, he just tended to the sheep of his father-in-law, Jethro.  Can we just imagine that.  From a prince to a mere shepherd.  You would think that that was going to be his final career.  Yet, at the age of eighty, God had another mission for him. "Go and tell the Pharaoh, the King of Egypt to let my people go".  The rest as they say is history....

Jeremiah, the prophet, experienced a great surprise in his life.  While he was still a boy, he received the call to be a prophet.  The main ministry of the prophet is to speak on behalf of God to the people.  The prophet's role is a dangerous one because at times he had to say some things that many people did not want to hear.  You would expect God to choose strong, mature, highly qualified people for this ministry. People who would be respected and esteemed in the community, so that what they said would have an impact.  No, our God s different.  He chose a child, someone who was not considered as reliable or trustworthy by his contemporary society.  No wonder that Jeremiah said to God "Hey why pick on me, I am too young and nobody is going to take notice of me".  Yet God's reply was, "Just leave everything to me and you will be a great servant and friend of of mine.  You will become a powerful witness of what I desire for my people". (Jer 1:7-8)  And he did.  Jeremiah is one of the giants of the Old Testament.

I am sure that we can all identify with these situations because many surprises have occurred in our lives.  I never, in my wildest dreams, ever imagined that one day I would become the Bishop of Sandhurst.  Similarly, I am aware that many people remarked "I never realized that I would end up in this work, or in this particular organisation".  I would never have planned to marry the husband or the wife that I got because of this reason or that reason.  How often are we surprised by the actions of our children, of our parents, neighbours, and friends.  How often do we find ourselves in situations that we would have never regarded as being possible.  How often have we been surprised at how much we have really achieved because of our presence and positive contribution.  This is the nature of our God.

Having said all this, I am also mindful that knowing what God wants from me is a journey that causes uneasiness.  At a time where we long and desire clarity and certainty, we find ourselves swimming in a vast ocean with a lack of a determined course or way of direction.  This is certainly the case with many of our young people who having just finished their V.C.E. exams and are asking "I wonder what I will be doing in ten years time?  I wonder where I where I will be in ten years time?"  What are we, as followers of Jesus, going to do during this time of uncertainty and anxiety about the direction of what our lives might take?

Two very practical things taken from the gospel of the day.  In the first place our job is to live to the full the lives that we have today.  Each day is a gift and God gives us ample opportunities to use the gifts that He has given to us in a most powerful manner and in the situations that we are in.  What is required of us is to be faithful to the values and the teachings of Jesus Christ.  This God of ours has promised to be constantly with us and we need to hold on to that promise.  He will not let us down. He will help us to achieve what is best for us and he will show us clearly what His plan for us is.  This was the quality that Mary so powerfully displayed as she realised the way that God wanted her go to.  Elizabeth recognised this amazing quality. "Yes blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled". (Lk 1:44)

The second thing to remember is this.  When God asks us to do something, He will also give us a sign to make us understand that this is the way that He desires for us.  The angel Gabriel gave Mary a confirmation of what he was telling her.  It concerned her relative Elizabeth who, against all odds, was going to have a child for "nothing is impossible for God." (Lk 1:38)  It is true that Mary went to visit Elizabeth to help her but she also had another purpose for her visit. To verify that what the angel said to her did in fact occur.  When Mary realised that Elizabeth was pregnant she also realised that in reality what the angel told her was going to happen because this was the path that God had planned for her.  Let us look for the sign of confirmation in our lives.  If we feel God is asking something of us that has come to us so unexpectedly ask Him to confirm it.  Talk to someone about it, keep praying about it and what at first seemed to be so impossible to materialise will gradually become our way of moving forward.

God bless.

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