Stars will shine, Angels will sing, Shepherds and Wise Men will arrive


December and January give us one edition (so to speak) for the two months at the turn of the year. Beginning with the four Sundays of Advent, we pass the Sundays of Christmas, and end with three Sundays of the Epiphany. Stars will shine, Angels will sing, Shepherds and Wise Men will arrive. Many things are happening … have happened… will happen… in the history of our salvation, in the history of our world, and in the ordinary circumstances of our lives.
The last Sunday of the old church year, the Sunday Next before Advent, invites the faithful to stir up their wills. Look lively so that they may be ready for God who will come … and also (it is said) that the dough for Christmas cakes, pies and puddings might be properly prepared to fuel any hard work that might be called for.
A Church of St Paul, some time ago, had somehow avoided being made into a parish hall to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth 2. Its corrugated roof had also avoided being ‘listed’.  Deeply loved and prayed in, and with its siblings Mary and Michael, (and St Peter?) and all the saints, it set out to respond to the coming season as it always did. On Advent Sunday, the discerning … expectant… on entering the church would turn and look to starboard (as they always did), and lo camels and Wise Men were setting off to the place (as yet unknown to them) where Jesus was to be born. Sunday by Sunday they continued on their journey from window sill to window sill – their living guided by the collects of the Advent season – finally reaching the place of Jesus’ birth two weeks after the shepherds got there. Being warned by the angel in a dream, they passed the cross on the altar and returned home by some other way. Following the footsteps of an earlier (and related) Joseph, Joseph, Mary and Jesus went down to Egypt.
So the Star would lead them into their hearts to meet Jesus and each other in all manner of unexpected times and places in the coming year

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