Words from Bede Circuit
Dear Friends,
“Discombobulating” is a word I confess I had never heard of before this year and strangely, it has appeared in several places since; I even heard one preacher use it within a sermon online, which I thought was very brave. Words, and how we use them, are interesting. I remember a well-respected local preacher in my home circuit who often used long words that, as a teenager, I struggled to understand. I remember one evening he used the word “encapsulate” and I had no idea what he meant! I asked my Dad afterwards and he did not know either! So, I looked it up and discovered it meant “to summarize or condense or catch the essence of something.” When I first heard someone use “discombobulate,” it had much the same effect! I had to look it up and discovered that if something is “discombobulating” it means it is befuddling, confusing, bewildering or even disorientating.
The other day this “new” word to me appeared again in a devotional reading, as follows: “The events of the birth of Jesus can all be discombobulating. Just a few weeks ago, we were hearing of prophets announcing that one day God’s Kingdom will come to its fulfilment, the lion will lie with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6) then we had John the Baptist inviting people to get ready for the coming Messiah. Now we are reading of angels appearing to shepherds on the hillside and soon we will remember wisemen (Magi) arriving from the East.”
If all of this – God’s activity – is discombobulating, surely it is only because God’s ways are far greater than our ways and His plans far beyond ours. I continued to ponder that, within God’s activity and us trying to understand it all, we are each preparing for our own celebration of Christmas whether we will be alone and quiet, or surrounded by family members and noisy. We wonder what food we will need; what clothes shall we wear; and, once again, will coronavirus scupper our best-laid plans at the last minute?
As you may have gathered, words fascinate me, especially ones with which I am unfamiliar. It was a revelation to me many years ago now, when I discovered that the word “Incarnation” that our minister used in his Christmas Eve sermon was nothing to do with the tinned fruit “in Carnation” milk that we always had for Sunday tea! Rather,
“Incarnation is the serious business of God; the belief that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity “was made flesh” by being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The doctrine of the Incarnation, then, entails that Jesus is fully God and fully human.”
Incarnation is everything we will celebrate at Christmas when all that the Prophets, John the Baptist, and the angels had announced really happened in real human time. It is indeed true that God left the glory of heaven to be born as a baby in Bethlehem in order that for ever after, human beings could know God in a real and personal way. It is indeed awesome, even discombobulating! You may be relieved to know that we do not need any such long words to describe God or even to welcome Him into our lives. All we need to offer is our consent to Him coming to live amongst us. A simple YES will do!
Will you add your YES and make room to receive God with us – Emmanuel?
Blessings upon you and Happy Christmas to you all from the circuit staff.
There will be no circuit letter next week and no Wednesday prayers on either Zoom or WhyPay, but they will all return in the New Year.
Rev Deborah Wainwright On behalf of the Bede Circuit Staff Team