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This Advent I've thought deeply about the carol Joy to the World. I've preached on joy during a period of personal sadness. 

'Heaven and angels sing', 'repeat the sounding joy', 'the wonders of his love'; three refrains that re-frame the world. Advent faith combines  notes of gentle defiance and urgent hopefulness.

I've come to realise that sorrow and joy are not mutually exclusive, and can co-exist in the same heart. It depends on the reason for the sadness and the causes of joy. In this case, both are because of love, divine and human, that dwells deep in the heart.

Poets understand economy of words. Advent is simultaneously mystery and divine revelation.The wonders of technology have created an appetite for novelty, intensity, and images that leave nothing much to the imagination.

For minds hungry but over-loaded by trivia and tedium, Advent is an invitation to renewal of wonder, imagination, and rediscovery of life's deepest resources of faith, love, peace and hope. 

Welcome! all Wonders in one sight!

Eternity shut in a span.

Summer in winter, day in night,

Heaven in earth, and God in man.

Great little one! whose all-embracing birth

Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heav'n to earth
(Richard Crashaw)

Looking out the window it is cold, wet and dark. Daylight is still some time away. Living where I do, today will remain half light, overcast and gloomy. The political climate outside also feels like being 'in the bleak midwinter.'

And yet. Advent is the defining critique of power and politics. Power politics is about Herod's palace. Christian eyes look to Bethlehem. Redemptive love, not executive power is the way of God in Jesus. Emmanuel, God with us, is not cosy seasonal sentiment. Advent is God keeping his promises and delivering on them, lifting longing hearts from despair towards hopefulness.  

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Advent is a time for dreaming, hoping, imagining. The status quo of our politics is not fixed. Injustice, lying and greed will always be penultimate. That young woman Mary's song shudders with destabilising truth: 

He has brought down the mighty from their thrones
    and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
    and the rich he has sent away empty.

"What subverts faith in God is not atheism or secularism, but the globalisation of superficiality. Drowned in a flood of triviality, fake news, alternative facts and false promises, the human imagination is confused and broken, unable to concentrate, to treasure a moment, or to find truth in silence or the words of a wise teacher."

To realise the significance of Advent, Emmanuel, God with us, requires a self-denying ordinance; abstention from superficiality, triviality, untruth and broken promises. Advent happens at all because God kept his promise, and spoke truth that is light in darkness, and peace on earth. Imagine that! 

"It is not given to man to begin: that privilege is God's alone. But it is given to man to begin again – and he does so every time he chooses to defy death and side with the living."

Elie Wiesel wrote such wisdom after his experiences in Auschwitz. The literature of Jewish faith resounds with defiance of death and the call to side with the living.

The coming of the Messiah announces the Advent of God. Through Messiah Jesus, divine power is held in check by mercy, is on the side of the living, and enables us to begin again. 

Those in between moments when the sun is rising or setting. Accompanied by the rhythm and splashing of the sea. A sea on which there is one small fishing boat, sailing towards the horizon, afloat on an ocean of possibility.

Standing alone, watching and listening, caught up in the natural movements of the world around, the sense that every day, week or year, we too are afloat on an ocean of possibility.

Advent is the season for both impossible, and new possibilities. The impossible truth of God come amongst us; the adventure of newness as we sail towards new horizons. 

Our Father in heaven, Giver of life and creator of all things:

For years now our country has been divided and unsettled. We thank you we live in a country where we are free to vote, and in which we can speak truth to power, hoping it will be heard.

We are troubled by the divisions that pull communities apart; concerned that truth and trust are so badly damaged by lies and broken promises; we grieve at the rise in child poverty and the broken hopes of the poor.

We know that the problems we now face are beyond the solving of any one leader or any one party. We need the moving of your Spirit of wisdom, and to learn again the ways of humility and truthfulness, if we are to build a better future.

We pray that you will give us wisdom in our understanding of the things that matter as we vote later this week.

Remind us, as your children, and as followers of Jesus that we are called to be peacemakers, ministers of reconciliation, carers for the poor, voices on the side of justice, and those who pray ‘your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’

This Advent season we rejoice that the Government is on the shoulders of the one who is Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Whatever Government is elected

may they learn how to care for the poor, support the vulnerable and look after those who are the least and last and lost;

may their rhetoric and public discourse recover the qualities of trust and truthfulness;

may their policies be more just and the decisions they make be wise and for the common good;

may they learn to heal divisions rather than exploit them;

whatever the outcome of Brexit and whatever the future of our United Kingdom, may we through all this pain and turmoil and uncertainty, with all its fear, anxiety and anger, come to realise the importance of being a constructive and outward looking people, welcoming of others, and committed to peace and justice.

Lord we have no idea what Thursday will bring; you have been our help in ages past, and you are our hope for years to come. Grant us wisdom and courage, Amen      

"Joy to the world! The Lord is come…let heaven and nature sing." Advent isn't only about darkness and waiting. It is also about excitement and anticipation. Advent energises and pulls us forward to new horizons and possibilities, new ways of looking at the world.

Joy is deeper than happiness, more durable than pleasure, resides in a heart fuelled by peace, justice, and reciprocated love.

The opposite of joy is hard to describe; but it includes cynical loss of trust, negative expectations, complaint as default setting.

Advent joy is rooted in patient trust, persistent hope and  is propelled by praise. 

Advent is a time of intentional waiting, when hearts educated in longing, await one who is absent.

As Winter cold awaits Spring warmth, as gloom reluctantly gives way to dawn, as seeds struggle towards light, waiting becomes expectation, and stirs the beginnings of hopefulness.

This year Advent waiting and the sense of absence are made more acute by grief, our continuing sense of loss following the death of our loved and lovely daughter Aileen, this time last year.

As people walking in such darkness, we pray that upon all whose hearts are broken, the light of God's love will shine.