Those of you who read this page regularly know that we believe God answers prayer. We are thrilled to hear of the progress on the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer (https://www.eternalwall.org.uk/), a sculpture being built in the North-East of England which will have a million bricks, each giving a specific answer to prayer which people have sent in. Their aim is to ‘make hope visible’. Such a project, combining faith and the arts, thrills my heart.

As we approach the end of 2022, I’m mindful to pause and reflect on the many ways God has answered prayer in my own life this year. We need to pause and ‘count our blessings’ if we are to have God’s perspective on matters.

I’d love to hear your answered prayers as well! What has God done for you this year?

I am grateful for the funding God has provided for the events we run, including CRT funding for our Parent & Toddler group, funding from the Dearne North Ward Alliance for the Jubilee Fun Day at Phoenix Park and funding from different organisations towards the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival. God is ‘Jehovah Jireh’, the Lord who provides.

I am grateful for the way God gave us good weather for the Jubilee Fun Day and other outdoor events – it’s getting to be a talking point at these events as the weather is usually horrendous immediately before and after the events, but the sun shines when we need it to! It poured with rain on Sunday 5 June, for example, but our afternoon tea that day was held indoors!

I am grateful for a baptism at our church this year and for the large numbers of families who have attended the Parent & Toddler group and fun days over the past year.

I am grateful for the numbers who attended our carol service yesterday and for all the children who were present.

I am grateful for God’s provision of a mattress for my son and daughter-in-law.

I am grateful for the opportunities we have had this year to do ‘normal’ things again, especially having 4FrontTheatre back with us this past week.

Answers to prayer are sometimes spectacular (the email I got last week saying there is funding available for the 2023 DCAF Community Art Project is an example of that), but as I have been preaching all year round, sometimes God works in the mundane as well as in the miraculous. For every ‘spectacular’ answer to prayer, there are a dozen ‘ordinary’ answers: keys that just get found, people who just happen to phone when you are feeling down, that random act of kindness which leaves you undone. God is faithful in all His ways and works in so many different ways. However He answers us, let’s be grateful for a God who loves us, listens to our cries for help and answers us in our times of need.

Perspective matters hugely when it comes to joy. Two people can view the same circumstances entirely differently; one will show resilience and positivity; another will feel despair and want to give up. Some of this depends on temperament, but much depends on perspective. How we view a situation will often determine how we respond to it.

One of my favourite childhood stories was ‘Pollyanna’, a lesson in thankfulness. Pollyanna was taught by her father to play the ‘glad game’, to find something to be glad about in every situation. Once, having prayed for a doll as a present, she received crutches instead. It would have been easy to focus on disappointment, even to blame God for not answering her prayer, but Pollyanna decided she could be glad because she did not need them! That kind of outlook made her an encouraging, positive person, a delight to be with.

Mary, when confronted by an angel telling her the most earth-shattering news possible, could have responded with shock and horror. She could have focussed on the humiliation which would inevitably come her way (people do not generally believe stories of angels appearing and virgins becoming pregnant by the Holy Spirit.) Instead, she chose to say, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:38) Her attitude transforms the Christmas story. She cooperates with God and becomes the mother of the Lord – and in so doing rejoices in God her Saviour. (Luke 1:47) Cooperation with God will always result in joy.

Dave spoke this morning from Matthew 1:18-25, the angel’s message to Joseph. Joseph must have been mortified by Mary’s announcement to him that she was pregnant, but this news from the angel was equally shocking. Why should they have been chosen by God to parent His Son? Why should they have to travel to Bethlehem for the census? It must have seemed overwhelming to make this adjustment, but the angel told him that this child was so special, not only Jesus the Saviour but ‘Immanuel’, God with us.

Joseph later had the job of teaching Jesus his trade (that of a carpenter), and although it is thought that Joseph died when Jesus was just a teenager, his influence on this son who was not his own must have been great. Jesus was brought up mainly in Nazareth, an ordinary carpenter in an ordinary place, ‘God with us’ but with dirty hands and dirty feet. Just as then, Jesus is still with us in our everyday lives. He loves us as we are; where we are, He gives Himself to us. God is with us everywhere, in the ordinary dust of our lives.

As we approach Christmas with a heightened sense of anticipation and excitement (just one week to go!), our thoughts turn to our final Advent theme: ‘joy’.

Joy bubbles up throughout the whole Christmas story. From Mary’s song of praise in Luke 1: 46- 55 (‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour’) to Zechariah’s song (Luke 1:67-79) (‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them’) to the angels’ message of ‘good news that will cause great joy for all the people’ (Luke 2:10), joy is the recurrent tone of the Christmas message. To be sure, there is sorrow and heartache too in this story (the childlessness of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the prophetic message of Simeon that ‘a sword will pierce your own soul too’ (Luke 2:35) as he looked ahead to the cross, the pain of those touched by Herod’s slaughter of the innocents, the anxiety of the young family’s flight to Egypt), but still we see joy bubbling up nonetheless.

Joy is like that. It can bubble up in the most unexpected places. Paul told the Thessalonians to ‘rejoice always’ (1 Thess 5:16) and reminded the Philippians, whilst he was imprisoned because of his faith, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!’ (Phil 4:4) One of the most amazing things about Christianity is this effervescent joy, no matter what.

Paul gives us one of the simplest and yet most profound definitions of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: ‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.’ In Jesus, we see all these characteristics of love perfectly embodied. He loved people deeply, forgave their mistakes and betrayals and gave them the hope of new life with Him. Even to the thief on the cross He offered forgiveness and the promise of eternal paradise.

Paul reminds us that without love we are nothing, no matter how great our achievements, generosity or sacrifice. (1 Cor 13:1-3) May God’s love be ‘shed abroad’ in our hearts, so that we may love others with that same love. (Rom 5:5)