Today is St Nicholas’ Day. St Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, pawnbrokers, repenting thieves and children. He is also the patron saint of Russia and Greece, and such cities as Liverpool, Aberdeen and Galway, and is also popularly known as Santa Claus.

St Nicholas was born in Greece in 270 A.D. and was orphaned at an early age, being left with considerable wealth. He became known for his kindness, helping the poor, sick and suffering with aid and gifts. He devoted himself to a life serving God and became the bishop of Myra. He reminds us that the Christian life should involve serving others and helping those in need.

One ‘alternative’ Advent calendar is to put aside an item to help others each day during Advent. It might be a tin of beans or a packet of rice. By doing this each day of Advent, you end up with either 21 or 24 items (depending whether you start on 1 December or 3 December!) to give to a food bank, for example, to help people in need. Maybe on St Nicholas’ Day we can focus on giving, rather than receiving!

The Christmas story is all about God interrupting people. He sent angels to interrupt and disrupt ordinary lives: first of all, Zechariah in the temple (taking so long to perform his duties as a result that people wondered what was going on!), then Mary (given the life-changing news that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and she would become pregnant), then Joseph (assuring him that this crazy story was actually true), then the shepherds (disrupted from their job of looking after sheep by the angels’ appearance.) Interruptions were the way God chose to bring good news to the world.

Many of us can’t stand the thought of interruptions. Our lives are so finely tuned that even a minute’s delay can cause the carefully constructed tower of activities to come tumbling down! But interruptions are an inevitable part of life, and if this is the way God chooses to speak to us and direct us, we need to be prepared to be interrupted.

The unexpected phone call, the knock on the door from a friend you haven’t seen in ages, the chance meeting in the street which delays your shopping… these might be all ways that God interrupts you today. Don’t let interruptions get you down. They might be divine ways of communicating with you!

There are many other Christian allusions in the story of “The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe” by C. S. Lewis. The children – who have been crowned Kings and Queens in Narnia after the battle which sees the White Witch defeated – return home to England. They wonder if it has all been a dream, but the Professor – who himself has been to Narnia as we discover in another book ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ – says, ‘Once a king in Narnia, always a king in Narnia’. He encourages the children to hold on to what they have learned in Narnia. This reminds us that we have an identity in God which the world can’t take away. God said to His people through Moses, ‘you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ (Ex 19:6) Paul told Timothy, ‘if we endure, we will also reign with Him.’ (2 Tim 2:12) We may feel insignificant and unimportant in this world – especially if we are young – but actually, we are all kings and queens in God’s eyes. God says we are ‘a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.’ (1 Pet 2:9) Perhaps, like Peter, Susan, Edmun and Lucy, we need to see ourselves as God sees us.

Garry spoke this morning from Ps 37:3-4, focussing on the primary need for Christians to trust God. To trust means to have confidence and security in God, to be ‘care-less’ because He cares for us. If we trust a driver, we will not try to be a backseat driver; we may even go to sleep in a car! Trusting God means we don’t have to be in control, because He is.

Trust is not something which we only need to become a Christian, however. God continually challenges us to trust Him more; our trust has to grow and deepen. We can only grow to the extent that we are prepared to trust God. We will never ‘arrive’ at the place of total trust, as God has always got new challenges for us!

The next part for us is to do good (see Acts 10:38). Our trust is manifested in good works, as we act like salt. 1 Pet 2:11-12 reminds us that as we live good lives before those who don’t know God, they can see our good deeds and glorify God. Jesus spoke of ways we can serve Him – by feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison, helping those in need. We are called to be like God so that we don’t just merge into the background but stand out as lights that shine forth.

If we do these things, then God promises we will dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Dwelling in the land reminds us of God’s promises to Abraham which were fulfilled by Joshua leading the people into the Promised Land. It required trust to cross the Jordan river and trust to overcome Jericho. Similarly, in every battle we face, we need to trust that the battle belongs to the Lord (see 2 Chron 20). God is our refuge. When we trust Him, fear cannot stand; fear is banished. Peter could walk on the waves while he trusted Jesus, but floundered when he failed to trust. (see Matt 14:29-30). We need to trust God that He will lead us to our promised places where we can enjoy safe pasture, ‘care-less’ because of His care for us.