'Light of the world you stepped down into darkness, opened my eyes let me see.'
On the second Sunday of Advent it was a great pleasure to attend the 9:30am and 11am services at St John's church to share something about our vision for partnership between the school and church.
Light is such an important aspect of Advent, as we light a candle each Sunday we focus on the coming of the one that the bible describes as 'the light of the world.' His birth at Christmas was the fulfilment of God's promise made a long time before, but His light is something that is just as real and present this Christmas. For Christmas is only one part of the story, a story that draws to a conclusion in the resurrection of Jesus at Easter. The light that shines is not that of the past, the light from a star extinguished long ago. Instead Jesus, the light of the world, is alive and present today, the good news that the angels proclaimed to the shepherds is still good news today. The news of God's grace and love for each and everyone of us.
The sharing of this grace and love is at the heart of the partnership between school and church, it is something we are called to share together and in doing so to proclaim the good news that 'Christ was born in Bethlehem.'
Today was a wonderful opportunity to begin to explore together how we develop this partnership. For those who were there, we won't be needing the map or the Sat Nav! Instead we need to seek to listen and to look, to hear what God is saying and to see what God is calling us to. Like the Magi, we are called to follow the light, but in this case not the star, but the light of the world himself.
