Advent calendar 2020

Advent 11 - Wednesday 9th December 2020

Isaiah 40
A voice of one calling:
‘In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up,
    every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
    the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

The train timetable said it would take us 14 hours from the Ferry at the Hook of Holland to Poznan in Poland, but that was wishful thinking!  It was 1969 and we were heading east to spend Christmas in Poland.  It was cold and snowy, and the train got later and later until we eventually arrived at Poznan in the middle of the night.  The train headed off, bound for Moscow while we looked for our connecting train to Katowice, another four hours away to the south.  But it was long gone.

When I climbed down from the carriage, it was like hitting a brick wall.  I had never known cold like it, -25º C. It took my breath away.  We were not on our own – crowds of people milled about, all trying to find if there were any trains running because of the arctic conditions.  And the short answer was no!

It was more than a little unsettling to be in a foreign country where we spoke only a (very) few words of the language, not knowing how long we would have to wait to find a train south.  Hours went by, and we got colder and colder in our inadequate Scottish winter clothes, until we picked out the word we were listening for from the loudspeakers – Katowice!  We joined the rush of people heading for a platform, hoping it was the right one and climbed onboard a train, squashing ourselves into a compartment with some young people heading for Zakopane with their skis. The carriages were in total darkness, no light, no heat   With much gesticulating and odd words here and there, we were assured that the train would indeed stop at Katowice.

Wed lurched off lurched off into the night. Eventually the lights came on and, joy of joys, heat started to come through.  But we had no idea where we were as the train picked its way through the snowy countryside.  The only way to see out when dawn eventually came was to breathe on the frozen windows and try to make a spy hole to read the names of the stations.

At last we arrived at Katowice and there was Mary’s Uncle Józef waiting for us.  He had waited the whole night.  We were so glad to see him and eventually to reach the warmth of the house where Auntie Krysia was waiting for us with a warm welcome and a spectacular breakfast.  That year we celebrated a joyful and very different Polish Christmas. 
Wesołych Świąt!

Our snowy journey was as nothing to the journey that faced the returning Jewish exiles.  Neary 50 years before, Jerusalem had been sacked and the inhabitants transported to Babylon.  Now in 539 BC the Babylonian Empire had been defeated by the Persians and King Cyrus decreed that the exiles could make the 800 mile return journey home.  Today you could drive it in 14 hours through Iraq, Syria and Jordan but they were on foot!

Isaiah promises freedom and a return home. He paints a picture of God making that long and arduous journey through the desert easy for them: steep hills levelled out and valleys filled in.  It was the vision of the where they were heading that kept them going through the long hours, days and even months of journeying. Our destination and the wonderful Polish Christmas made our bitterly cold train journey all worthwhile.

I invite you to look ahead.  The vision of vaccines giving us a journey out of pandemic keeps us going.  Today the Prime Minister is flying to Brussels.  The hope that the politicians will find a way through the Brexit morass brings us comfort. The confidence that in time we will be able to sit side by side again in church and lift up our voices in song, is a joy for us.

We look past our present troubles to the coming Christmas when the glory of the Lord will be revealed and we all will see it together!

Prayer

We cry in the wilderness.
The land we walk is rugged and rough.
We find no straight highways,
only deep valleys and high mountains.

Jesus,
a light for us and for all nations,
grasp us by the hand.
Open the eyes of the blind,
bring prisoners out from their cells,
and those whose eyes are blinded
out of the darkness.

Come to us with your power and might.
Come and comfort your people.

Like a shepherd,
gather us as lambs in your arms

Amen

Anne Osdieck

Blessing

May the Lord bless you
And guard you;
May the Lord make his face shine on you
And be gracious to you;
May the Lord look kindly on you
And give you peace.
Amen

A Polish Christmas Carol: Dzisiaj w Betlejem (Today in Bethlehem)

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