Dear all,

I hope and pray that this letter finds you well.  This week we begin our journey into Advent.  One of the things I do not miss about my old life before I became a minister is commuting.  I used to have to drive 23 miles to the office each day and after a while you go onto autopilot.  Get up, shower, drive to work, work, drive home from work, food, relax briefly, bed and then repeat.  And repeat.  And repeat again, this can be especially true if you have a job which does not interest you one bit.  Often, it’s very easy to get stuck in a rut, especially in these times of lockdown when what we can do and who we can meet is severely restricted.   

Our reading today, from Mark 13: 24-37, talks of the time when things will happen in our world that will give an indication that the end of the world is near.  It says that the sun will be darkened, so there will be solar eclipses.  The moon will not give its light, so that could be a lunar eclipse.  Stars will fall from the sky, so possibly a meteor shower and the heavenly bodies will be shaken, so earthquakes could occur which the earth suffers from them all the time. 

Mark goes onto tell us about the lesson of the fig tree, and how it changes from season to season thus giving an indication of what season it is.  Some have likened the fig tree to the state of Israel and when it flourishes Jesus will come back.  I am not sure about this interpretation it is very Zionist, I rather like the one which says different things occur differently in the seasons, for example, at the moment the last of the leaves are falling from the trees thus showing us its Autumn. 

We are told that at that time we will see the Son of Man, another term for Jesus, coming in the clouds with great power and glory.  As I said in my letter last week, Jesus will return as a conquering King rather than a small, defenceless baby.  I asked you to see if you could find any passages in the scripture that related to the kingship of Jesus.  Now whilst there are hundreds which refer to Jesus as King and many more which talk about the Kingdom of God, there are only around 20 which explicitly talk of the kingship of Jesus, did you find them all? 

This week let us not get bogged down in the monotonies of life but remain ready to receive our returning King.  Let us look to the future with hope knowing that better and brighter days are ahead. 

May our Lord Jesus Christ, the returning King, bless us now and always,