‘And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.’ (Mark 9:4 NIVUK)
Have you ever seen a group of people huddled together and wondered what they are talking about? Here Elijah, Moses and Jesus are talking together, but what are they saying? Mark doesn’t tell us, but thankfully Luke does: ‘They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem.’ (Luke 9:31) The word ‘departure’ is literally ‘exodus’, which is showing us that Jesus leads a new exodus: an exodus out of sin and death that is the fulfillment of that earlier exodus out of slavery.

‘always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Ephesians 5:20 NIVUK)
And the BAFTA goes to…
Then on to the stage comes the recipient of the best actor, or best actress, followed by one of those long rambling speeches.

‘Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two…’ (Mark 6:7 NIVUK)
Sandwiched between the rejection of Jesus by his hometown and relatives and the rejection of John the Baptist by Herod comes this little account of Jesus sending his disciples on an evangelistic mission. With the whiff of rejection in the air they are sent out ‘two by two’ for important reasons.

‘Then GOD shut the door behind him.’ (Genesis 7:16 The Message)
Have you noticed that in the story of Noah’s Ark God tells Noah to bring into the ark all the opposites: the wild and the domestic, the crawling and the flying, the clean and the unclean, the male and the female of each animal (Genesis 7:2-15). Then God does a most amazing thing. He shuts the door behind them and locks them inside the ark (Genesis 7:16). God actually closed them in. God puts all the natural animosities, all the opposites together, and holds them in one place.

As [Jesus]walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. (Mark 2:14 NIVUK)
Officials of HMRC are not popular today, but in Jesus’ day tax collectors were hated. They worked for Rome administering a heavy tax burden on the people, and to make matters worse they made their living by adding an extra amount for themselves. That was bad enough, but if one of these tax collectors happened to be a Jew, as Levi was, he was thought of as the ultimate turncoat, a collaborator with the occupying force of Rome, a traitor, a man who had betrayed his own people.

When I was at school George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 was required reading. But 1984 has come and gone. At work in the late 1990s the millennium bug was on everyone’s mind as we wondered whether the world’s computer systems would crash. But the year 2000 has come and gone. Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner was set in November 2019 in a world of synthetic humans, flying cars, and mercenary wars on space colonies. But now 2019 has come and gone and incredibly we find ourselves entering 2020. What will the year ahead bring? Will it be another bumpy year as the Queen described 2019 in her Christmas Day message? Or even another annus horribilis? Or are we about to enter the roaring twenties that our forebears experienced a hundred years ago?

‘The time has come…The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’ (Mark 1:15 NIVUK)
The New Testament gospels were written as the original eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life were dying off and were recorded to tell us who Jesus was, and what he said and did. Mark is the earliest of these accounts and almost immediately, the first thing Jesus says are the words recorded in our header scripture. Here he talks about the ‘good news,’ or ‘gospel’, and ‘the kingdom of God.’

“He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (2 Timothy 1:9–10 NIV)

Christmas is all about timing. Festive music in the supermarkets from late November seems too early; rushing around on the 24th of December for the present you forgot seems too late. Will those Christmas cards sent to Australia arrive in time? If you are travelling to be at home for Christmas, will you get there on time? Then there’s the Christmas dinner. Will the turkey be ready before the Queen’s message? Have the brussels sprouts been left on too long? How many hours does it take for a Christmas pudding to simmer? Time after time Christmas brings us timing issues.

‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation,’ (Luke 2:29-30 NIVUK)
It’s interesting to read people’s last words before they die. Some are comical like Humphrey Bogart who said, ’I should have never switched from scotch to martinis,’ or Spike Milligan whose epitaph reads ‘I told you I was ill.’ Others reflect their views about God, for example Joseph Coveney, an American atheist said, ‘I die as I live. I disbelieve in God, the bible and the Christian religion,’ and Karel Soucek, a Canadian stuntman who remarked, ‘There is no Heaven or Hell; there is no God. It is all a myth. You’re born, you live, one day you die and that is it.’ Some demonstrate that they are not prepared for death like Caesar Borgia who said, ‘While I lived, I provided for everything but death; now I must die and am unprepared to die.’

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; (Psalm 23:4 ESV)

The news has been dominated this week with the election, terrorism, and the NATO Summit, so you could be forgiven for missing an announcement that slipped in under the radar. Psalm 23 is going to be portrayed as a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2020.

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will fulfil the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. ‘“In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.” (Jeremiah 33:14–15 NIVUK)
Have you ever been the recipient of a broken promise? Perhaps a parent said they would buy you the toy you’ve always wanted but they never did. A classmate at school says they will let you play football with their mates but never does. Maybe you’ve arranged to meet a friend for a date, and they failed to show up.

‘but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.’ (Isaiah 11:4 NIV)
At first sight, when it says a shoot who comes from the stump of Jessie (Isaiah 11:1) is going to judge the needy, it appears that he will condemn them, as that’s the way the word ‘judge’ is usually used in English. But Isaiah’s intent is that this shoot will make things just and put things right for the needy.

Paul McCartney once sang, ‘Someone’s knocking at the door, someone’s ringing the bell. Open the door and let ’em in.’

Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” (1 Kings 18:21 NIV)
Have you heard the saying, “I used to think I was indecisive, but now I’m not so sure”? Indecision can be fatal. If we just stand still in the middle of a road when a car is coming wondering should I run to the right or to the left the chances are we’ll be run over.

‘Praise the LORD.’ (Psalm 150:1–6 NIV)
The theme of praise dominates all the psalms, but as the end of the Psalter approaches praise rises to a crescendo. Each of the last five psalms begins and ends with “Hallelujah!” – Literally ‘Praise the Lord.’ Psalm 150 is the climax where we are given the where, why, how, and who of praise.

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. (1 Peter 3:7 NIV)

Boris Johnson was asked on the Today Programme this week, ‘Do you have a problem with women?’, to which he replied that as Mayor of London and as Prime Minister he has had around 50% of his key posts filled by women, and that he has been a champion of girls around the world having 12 years of education.

‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ (Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV)
Jesus said this command from the Old Testament is the primary and greatest command from God to His people “(Matthew 22:37-38)”, and so from the very beginning God intended to relate to His people on the basis of love. The trouble is, to the modern ear this is a strange way to use the word ‘love’. After all love is something you do voluntarily isn’t it? Surely love is a feeling not a command. However, the command given in Deuteronomy and by Jesus is that in loving the Lord God we are to do so with all [our] heart and with all [our] soul and with all [our] strength. In other words we are commanded to love God with every fibre of our being and with our whole life. If love is basically a feeling, then when you love someone, you only love them with part of you.

‘When the man saw that he could not overpower him…’ (Genesis 32:25 NIV)
Jacob wrestled throughout the night with a mysterious figure who appeared as a man “(Genesis 32:24)”, called the place of this encounter Peniel because he had seen God face to face “(Genesis 32:30)”, and yet the text tells us that God could not overpower Jacob. Of course, God could have overpowered Jacob, just a gentle touch of his hip disabled him “(Genesis 32:25)”, so what is going on here?

One of the BBC’s flagship shows, Strictly Come Dancing, holds its launch show on Saturday, although it made the news this week for another reason. One of the shows judges said something inappropriate about last year’s winners and was made to offer an apology after recognising his words were ‘hurtful, cruel and incredibly disrespectful.’ 1

Did you see in the news this week that Christmas has come early, 149 days early, as Selfridges in London opened its Christmas shop claiming to be the first in the world to have a Christmas section? I thought it was bad enough having all the Christmas paraphernalia in the shops at the end October never mind the end of July! Soon, it seems, Christmas will be in our stores all year round, and the pop group Wizard, who belt out their song every year, will get their wish for Christmas to be every day.