“Let us go up to the hill of the Lord he will teach us what he wants us to do…we will walk in the paths he has chosen” Isaiah 2: 3 –

in so doing our simple lives will become extraordinary through the Lord. Are we preparing ourselves to walk in that path? I know it is not easy, we try each day and find we come up against many hurdles. But Advent is a time for renewal, to try again.

If you look it up in a dictionary for the word Advent you will get words like: onset, beginning, dawn, coming.

Advent marks the first coming of our Lord and so it is the beginning of the Christian year. Christian congregations all over the world will be hearing the same readings as we do, today and every Sunday throughout the year – we are sharing the word of God with great numbers of people. Advent is also a period of preparation for the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Just let us pause and think about the other people who appear in the Christmas story.

A young woman called, Mary and Joseph, and also Elizabeth and Zechariah. The stories of the angels visiting Mary and Joseph are well known. We are told that Zechariah and Elizabeth were old and had no children of their own. Zechariah was a priest in the temple and one day when serving there he saw the angel Gabriel but was so unbelieving of the power of the Lord that he was struck dumb until his son - John to become John the Baptist - was born.

We know very little else about any of these people, but they were pivotal in the story. What we do know is that they were ordinary people, like us. Not princes or aristocrats. It is important that we think about them as real people not simply as figures on pretty Christmas cards. This is their time as we start to focus on the celebration of Christ’s birth. What were they thinking? How did they feel? How would it change their lives?

As both sets of parents looked forward with a mixture of fear, excitement and anticipation, what they could not have foreseen was the impact that both of their sons would have for the rest of time. These ordinary people would become extraordinary.

Throughout the Bible, God chose the simple people of the world to shame the wise…..you will remember the story about the Samaritan woman. She was singled out by Christ to set an example of how to relate to those who are not like us – she has become extraordinary – The Samaritan woman lives on!

God also chose the weak people of the world to shame the strong – the little boy David with his mere sling defeated the giant Goliath who came with sword and spear.

God takes ordinary lives like yours and mine and makes them extraordinary and meaningful.

Almost 250 years ago, God brought a number of ordinary people together to do an extraordinary thing. They were the Abolitionists who brought down a very powerful and wealthy group of men by ending the Atlantic slave trade.

Throughout this year we have been remembering and reflecting on this system that transformed large parts of the Americas, Brazil, the Caribbean and of course Africa where millions of its sons and daughters, at the prime of their lives, were taken into bondage. According to Professor James Walvin, historian of the Atlantic Trade for over some 35 years, said, “The British slavers of the 17th and 18th centuries did the most to hone the African Trade where they benefited financially more than any of their competitors”. He added, “Britain became great on the backs of over 12 million Africans.”

But from 1787, the British Abolitionists became the most successful pressure group in modern parliamentary history. This movement was inspired by what was talking place in the colonies where the enslaved themselves were resisting and taking a variety of actions to bring about their own emancipation. This news reached the British Abolitionists.

What was taking place in Britain was more than a parliamentary affair. It was also the first mass movement in Britain when the conscience of many ordinary British people was stirred, particularly women who, like the enslaved, were mere chattels of their husbands. Thousands of British workers were also trapped in the factory system during the 18th and 19th centuries, a system which we could only describe as a form of slavery, where small children at the age of 4yrs were working some 12 hours in horrendous conditions.

Today, we are here enjoying the benefits of their sacrifices - a shorter working day which came later of course, but from 1780s they were prepared to take the first steps to sign their names on petitions that will help to end the slave trade. Ordinary people who were to become extraordinary by helping to bring about the first major social reform in Britain, to benefit future generations – that’s us!

A group of Black Britons called the Sons of Africa were also involved in the campaign. Their leader was Olaudah Equiano. He was a former slave who bought his freedom to become an extraordinary man. He learnt to read and write English. He wrote a book that enjoyed 9 editions. Using this publication he travelled around Britain spreading the abolition message. He and the Sons of Africa collaborated with the British Abolitionists, men and women of deep Christian faith – black and white joined in an alliance which proved important in the genesis of the early campaign against the slave trade. Held before them was the Word, the scriptures that said “I have come to give life and give it abundantly” to all – not just a few and All are made in the image of God – not a selected group.

The Abolitionists gathered evidence, namely Rev Thomas Clarkson travelled over 30,000 miles. He collected the tools of the slave trade such as manacles, branding irons, neck and tongue clamps, he listened to stories from sailors, and enslaved people. He wrote that he was uplifted to find people in every small town eager to tell him that they had stopped using slave produced sugar.

Granville Sharp son of the then Archbishop of York, taught himself the law to be able to argue before one of the highest judge during the 18th century, Lord Mansfield. Through the work of Sharp, many enslaved Africans who found themselves in Britain won their freedom.

And we cannot omit the great politician William Wilberforce whose debating skills won the battle in parliament. Wilberforce entered the House of Commons in 1780 where his first speeches were considered pedestrian efforts. He was later to be described as “a mere shrimp who became a whale” as he impressed the famous biographer James Boswell during a speech in York.

Wilberforce and the other Abolitionists prepared their case over 30 years to finally bring about an end to the transportation of humans across the Atlantic like any other commodity. Freedom did not however come to the Africans for a further 27 years.

In many ways the Abolitionists’ campaign was the David and Goliath story of the 18th century. These were not people with large funding supplies. They all gave from their own pockets to bring down men who were earning such great sums that the Duke of Clarence, son of King George III, claimed in 1799 “British capital in the West Indies is equal to £100m sterling”. A trade where so much money and prestige was involved naturally exercised a good deal of influence in Parliament and the country.

But the Abolitionists were living proof of how faith could move mountains and how the message in the Gospels can transform lives.

So Advent is not only a time to think about what present we would like to receive in 4 weeks time. It is a time of preparation and reflection of what the Gift of Jesus Christ means to us in the 21st Century. How we as ordinary people can work to end the negative legacy of the 18th century slavery and also work towards the abolition of modern slavery to improve the quality of life for future generations.

Slavery today is also earning many people large sums of money and they too do not want to give up their profits. But each of us, in our small way, must prepare and be ready for when the Son of Man will come. When we will have to answer to our God: The God in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. The God in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. The God in the cries heard under the rubble of war. The God in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives. That God is with us if we are with them.

Over 12 million people are living in some form of slavery, a great majority being women and children. Stories abound – of child soldiers, children working in factories producing football gear and cheap clothes, in agriculture producing cheap food for our insatiable appetites. How will historians of the future describe us? As the ordinary people who said no to human trafficking to bring about extraordinary results for our brothers and sisters? Or as the slave owners of the 21st century?

Can we the ordinary people of Britain act now to bring about a more just world and so become extraordinary too?

Towards the end of his teaching, Jesus promised his disciples, as he promises us, that he will come again. But the point that he makes is that we will not know when he is coming. There will be no warning, so we need to be ready. (Matt 24: 41-44)

Finally, Advent gives us another chance to think about what we can do, how we can serve the Lord. Let us be guided by His ministry and the many examples about how we should treat one another with love.

“Christ is present in us insofar as we are present in one another.”

One of the questions that Advent should bring to our minds is: “Am I ready to meet Jesus, if he comes again?” If the answer is yes then you are very lucky. For me, and anyone else for whom the answer is no, we have a great deal of work to do.

May God bless and keep us all as we prepare for His coming.

Thank you.