Dear Friends,

 

One of the things I don’t like about living in the Rectory is that, because of its position in the furthest corner of the Elms, no-one ever drops in when passing by; in fact, it takes determined effort to find us out, and even the help of sat. nav., and even then, people get lost.

I don’t have the dilemma faced by many clergy who live in more visible Rectories or Vicarages, who have frequent callers asking for the price of a ticket to Glasgow to get to their mother’s funeral, or whatever. Perhaps I should be grateful, but I think it’s a pity to be so tucked away from other people’s comings and goings.

 

Of course, having people just drop in can be inconvenient, when you think you’ve got your day all worked out -  then an unexpected visitor means that your plans for the day go out of the window. I suppose this is the theme of a picture I bought recently, which hangs in my study, and I often find myself looking at it. It was painted by Rev. Nigel Done, a talented clergy colleague in our Bath & Wells diocese, and it depicts the Annunciation – the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, bringing the astonishing news that Mary was to have a child who would be the Saviour of the world. This story is one of the Advent readings leading up to Christmas, telling the story of the preparations for the birth of Jesus. But Mary wasn’t at all prepared for this unexpected visit of the angel, and in this picture she is shown, not in the pose of familiar Renaissance art, demurely kneeling as the angel addresses her, but naked and about to get into the bath, so taken aback by what has happened that she’s actually let the water overflow. The artist explained that he’d painted it like this because God always catches us at the most inconvenient moment, when we’re least prepared for him, and, like other unexpected guests, may throw our carefully prepared plans into confusion.

 

In this busy time of getting ready and trying to get ourselves organised, let’s not forget that what we are planning for so carefully has its origins in the story of an unexpected guest for whom nothing was ready, and whose visit resulted in many people down the ages having to change their minds about what they had thought their priorities were.

 

Come to think of it, maybe one of the best ways we could get into the spirit of Advent preparation would be to take a leaf out of his book, and drop in on one of our neighbours, perhaps someone who is housebound or lonely, someone we haven’t seen for a while. Surprise someone with a visit this Advent – you never know what might happen!

 

With love,

Rosey