The Moderator urges readers to ‘listen for the spirit’ during Advent.

OUR sacred story of incarnation tells itself to us every year, makes itself known in our every-day, walks and waits with us through Advent.

What will it whisper to you/us this time? Mulling over what to write for December, I read the stories again, and a question kept asking itself … What if they didn’t go? The wise ones from the East, the shepherds on the hills, those unexpected ones who felt the call. What if they’d stayed put, held fast, stuck with the familiar, the safe, the sensible? What if, when offered a chance to meet love, they chose not to go?

The young, soon to be married girl, the gentle man she was to marry - what if when the messenger came, they’d refused; been too afraid of what others would think, of what the future might hold, of what the commitment might require? What if the angel’s assurance that ‘nothing will be impossible with God’ sounded more like a threat than a promise?

What if they didn’t listen to dreams … and the wise hadn’t gone home another way, and the new parents hadn’t taken the child, protected him in a foreign place?

The incarnation stories sing to us of the power and the peril of believing in our dreams, of forging ahead with bold faith, of saying yes to risky, unexpected opportunities; for that is where we are most likely to meet challenge and love. So, as we walk and wait expectantly through Advent, what will we say?

We, as a denomination, are living through monumental change and challenge, the reconsideration of our buildings, the reconfiguration of our presbyteries, the Christ-centred call for partnership and nurturing new relationships. With this come huge opportunities to embrace the new life emerging. As I’ve travelled among our faith communities, I’ve been inspired by the openness and willingness, also with the honesty. Closing a building that has been part of the fabric of your life is painful, and there has been such genuine ownership of that bereavement. But there has also been the surprising release of new energy - energy that had been invested in a place, now freed up for people. The uniting of our congregations is and will take energy and commitment, love and imagination. It also has the potential to unleash new vibrancy, more hands to the deck and a renewed sense of call to our communities. I have seen the energy, the enthusiasm, the fear and the fragility too. All these feelings and experiences are right and proper, but we as part of the body of Christ in our neighbourhoods, communities, country and global home, are called to answer the question … What if we say yes? What if we choose no?

We, as part of a global neighbourhood, are living through monumental change and challenge, a cost of living crisis on our doorstep, with levels of poverty not seen for generations; a climate catastrophe no country can hide from, but with particular potency in places that have had least to do with its creation; we see war and violence shaking its angry fist and bringing a fullfrontal assault on our shared humanity. We are needed in all these places. The love we have to offer, the feeding and healing and forgiving Jesus called us to embody, is a gift that desperately needs given without reserve. I have seen the incredible responses of church communities across Scotland – practical solutions to need that lives next door. I’ve been inspired by the clear calls for justice, led by communities of faith.

We, as part of the body of Christ in our neighbourhoods, communities, country and global home, are consistently called to answer these ever-pressing questions … What if we say yes? What if we choose no?

I encourage us all this Advent to listen for the Spirit, to have the audacity to believe that love and peace and justice are possible - to believe it with every fibre of our beings, believe it enough to say yes. Nothing is impossible with God.

The Rt Rev Sally Foster-Fulton is Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2023/24.