During the last few years, many of our regular practices and activities were
interrupted. This autumn though many of our regular activities have resumed –
Dedication Services, Harvest, a ‘normal’ Communion Service, Remembrance
Services. We have even begun to resume some social activities – a concert in the
Church, the Guild Coffee morning. There is comfort for us in a return to such
regular rhythms, especially just now when there seems to be so much insecurity
around us (political, economic, war, migration crises). Things are returning to
‘normal’ I hear some people say which for them may be a good thing. But for others
‘normal’ has been changed during these times and this may not be a good thing. And
yet as we seemingly run towards the end of the Church year and prepare to enter a
new liturgical year with the approach of Advent, I am comforted by what that
Season of Love will offer and bring – a hope beyond the present time. God is
coming again. Thank God for that. Or in the words of the poet Ann Weems:

The Coming of God
Our God is the one who comes to us
in a burning bush,
in an angel’s song,
in a newborn child.
Our God is the One who cannot be found
locked in the church,
not even in the sanctuary.
Our God will be where God will be
with no constraints,
no predictability.
Our God lives where our God lives,
and destruction has no power
and even death cannot stop
the living.
Our God will be born where God will be born,
but there is no place to look for the One who comes to us.
When God is ready
God will come
even to a godforsaken place
like a stable in Bethlehem.
Watch…
for you know not when
God comes.
Watch, that you might be found
whenever
wherever
God comes.