{"id":1614,"date":"2020-12-15T12:10:55","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T12:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1614"},"modified":"2020-12-15T12:10:59","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T12:10:59","slug":"message-from-the-minister-letter-24-sunday-20th-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1614","title":{"rendered":"Message from the Minister Letter 24 &#8211; Sunday 20th December"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dear\nall,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope and pray that this letter finds you\nwell.&nbsp; Our Advent journey nears its\nconclusion and Christmas is fast approaching.&nbsp;\nI wonder whether you have ever had the experience of going home to find\nan unexpected visitor on your doorstep.&nbsp;\nFrom a work colleague, family member or friend.&nbsp; What did they want?&nbsp; Did they bring news, did they need help or\nwas it just an impromptu visit?&nbsp; I tend\nto be a person that likes to plan and have a rough idea of how a day is going\nto map out, although this does not always happen!&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This\nweek we look at the Angel\u2019s visit to Mary from Luke 1: 26 \u2013 38.&nbsp; Mary was minding her own business at home and\nan angel appears to her.&nbsp; How frightening\nand yet amazing at the same time.&nbsp; The\nangel tells Mary, that she is highly favoured, and the Lord is with her.&nbsp; But Mary is greatly troubled and wonders what\nkind of greeting this really is.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The angel seeks to reassure Mary by\ntelling her not to be afraid.&nbsp; That she\nhas found favour with God.&nbsp; The angel\nthen goes onto explain God\u2019s plan to an astonished Mary about how she will\ncarry God\u2019s child who is to become the messiah and the eternal king!&nbsp; That is some news!&nbsp; Mary is to name him Jesus which means to deliver\nor rescue hence His name, fulfils what He will come to do.&nbsp; Mary, however, is confused by the news because\nshe is a virgin so the angel explains what will happen to her.&nbsp; In other words, a great miracle will take\nplace.&nbsp; In addition, the angel explains\nthat her relative Elizabeth will also have a child though unlike Mary who is\nonly a teenager, Elizabeth is well advanced in her years.&nbsp; Elizabeth will go on to become the mother of\nJohn the Baptist.&nbsp; The Angel also\nexplains that the Lord God will give Jesus the throne of father David, so\nperhaps Mary is left pondering that she is going to give birth to someone who\nwill become a king of Israel but in reality, we know Jesus\u2019 kingdom will go far\nbeyond the boundaries of Palestine.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The passage ends with those wonderful\nwords of Mary\u2019s response, \u2018I am the Lord\u2019s servant,\u2019 \u2018May your word to me be\nfulfilled.\u2019&nbsp; Is that how we respond to the\nthings God calls us to do?&nbsp; Mary is so\nhumble and yet thankful for this wonderful opportunity.&nbsp; Truly, the birth of Jesus is a monumental and\nworld changing event and Mary starts to realise how extraordinary it is going to\nbe and how special she is to be chosen.&nbsp;\nThis sense of awe and wonder is utterly amazing and something which we\nas a church really ought to capture, not just at Christmas but all year around to become relevant to\npeople throughout the year but also throughout their lives.&nbsp; Let us this Advent, ponder these words of\nMary, submit ourselves to his following once more and in humble obedience accept\nthat God knows best.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May\nour Lord Jesus Christ, the born of Mary, bless us now and always, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear all, I hope and pray that this letter finds you well.&nbsp; Our Advent journey nears its conclusion and Christmas is fast approaching.&nbsp; I wonder whether you have ever had the experience of going home to find an unexpected visitor&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1615,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614\/revisions\/1615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}