Christmas!

Christmas

• What a season! Rich with music and activities.
• What a reason! That God would come to us in such humility, as a child born into poverty.
• What a gift! Life eternal, a transforming companionship through this world, and of growing excitement in the new heaven and earth to come because of the intriguing hints He has left us.

We pray you all rejoice with us in this celebration of new life!

The pictures are from the Advent Pageant involving all the children from two country schools in one of the parishes I'm serving in a pastoral capacity - though the program in these schools is the work of a wonderfully gifted chaplain who has a longstanding and very effective ministry there, and also part of one of the churches in the parish. In case you are wondering we have permission of the parents of the key children to use these pictures in our Christmas card.

We would love to have had this up much earlier but with our administrator off work with a severe illness, my associate in ministry moving house the week before Christmas and having to prepare for Lessons and Carols in three churches the week before Christmas; plus two services Christmas Eve and two more Christmas Day, I simply have not had time to even think about it! To all our dear friends, we offer this as a token Christmas card with the hope we can in the near future be more personal in our communication.

If you are really interested ... here is my Christmas sermon:

Imagine what would have happened if God had looked down on the human race and saw we were doing it tuff – so at the appropriate time he sent some angels to cheer us up!

Instead of singing “Glory to God in the highest and peace to men of good will” or as the carol paraphrases it  “Joy to the world the Lord is come!” they sang :

Don't worry, be happy ………..(who can remember that song?)

 In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy

Ain't got no place to lay your head
Somebody came and took your bed
Don't worry, be happy etc

For those who can remember it the song is VERY catchy but I find it has very little substance.

And what does it actually mean to “have a Merry Christmas” ?

Now I actually think it’s wonderful to have a time in our culture when everyone really genuinely want all their friends and acquaintances to be happy. It’s great!

And there is a psychological truth, I’m told, that if you actually make the effort to laugh often, it does, to some degree, help your disposition.

But, affirming though that may be, unless there is already a trusted framework of relationship – ie a degree of commitment / substance – telling people to “have a merry Christmas” has a very limited effect.

But that is not what the angels said: They said: “Hey guys, if you duck into that little village over there on the ridge, the place called Bethlehem, you will find a baby who will grow up to be the one person who will save the world!”

Whether the shepherds realised the full import of what they were hearing or not, it was not lost on the angels! It is as though heaven could not contain itself – certainly the angels couldn’t.

They burst into vision and song ; singing “Glory to God in the highest…” It was as though they could not remain invisible any longer , they just HAD to burst forth.

But why was a saviour born? Do we need saving? Have you listened to the news lately? I remember my own pride in living in Tasmania where such things NEVER happen … but then there was the Port Arthur massacre, and I have since discovered it was not the first.

In terms of the history of mankind there seems to be a fairly dramatic swing in how we perceive ourselves.

It was not that long ago that it was thought, in the West, how absurd it was to not consider mankind to be the centre of all creation, to think that everything revolved around us.

Now of course the total reverse is true, we see ourselves as an almost insignificant life form on a small planet of smallish star that’s part of an average solar system, in just one of innumerable galaxies.

But the real question is, how does God see us?

God sees us several ways, in fact an infinite number of ways - because he is an infinite being who lives in infinity.

And we keep getting these little hints from questions that arise from the New Testament writings. The star the wise men followed for instance.

Modern Astronomer have been fascinated by the wise men’s star – is it a cycling Nova? Until recently, they thought not, because the time frame was too small, but now novas have been discovered to cycle within 2 years which, for some, fits perfectly into their calculations (which I can’t follow).

That God would come to us in Christ Jesus is amazing enough.

That he told us he was coming through the prophets hundreds of years before is stunning.

That he would plan things like the wise men’s star hundreds of light years in advance is incredible.

To what lengths would God go in order to demonstrate to us his commitment that we should know his love for us?

He would go to these lengths:

He would come as one of us!

                        But one that all could identify with, we certainly can’t all identify with one born into privilege or money (In a study, I heard of a little while ago, to find out how people became billionaires, they discovered a very interesting fact: over 90% of them were born into families of millionaires.)

We all know there is some things common to all mankind, death, grief, loss, pain of rejection. There is nothing that can prevent these … and it was into such a state that the King of Glory came. Born into poverty and inconvenience. Born into social stigma and rejection – a situation not talked about in polite company – except in derogatory tones. 

He was born into trauma such that those in the news over the last week in Sydney, Cairns, and Pakistan could identify with.

Political power has always attracted two types of people, those willing to serve to change the world for the better, … and those who lust after power for their own selfish ends. In fact when Gaius became emperor he said: “This is good, I can now do whatever I like to whomever I like.” It seems He did just that!

King Herod was such a person – he immediately eliminated any threat to his power including his wife, his mother in law, and three of his sons!

And he eliminated every child born in Bethlehem once the wise men alerted him to the fact that a king had been born there!

Grief and mourning were a significant part of Jesus life from the time of his birth to the time of his death.

There was nothing privileged about Jesus life.

Yet there was something special, in the midst of all this suffering, Jesus was never separated from the love of the Father – the love of God. And the reason is because there was nothing selfish about him at all. You could say in terms of attitude and action his life was perfect.

And the love of God flows through Jesus to all who meet him.

In fact Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson were likened to Jesus in that they gave their lives to save others. They did in the immediate, and local situation, for the other hostages, what Jesus has done for all people for all time. It is as though we are all hostages to the dark side of selfish human nature that separates us from the love of God, and Jesus has set us free.

He was willing to suffer rejection from God and die in order that we may know the loving acceptance of God and live.

But that is not all: Jesus rose from the dead to show us there is life beyond this sin-sick world and we are welcome to join him there when the time comes.

The great thing is that we don’t have to wait, we can be in fellowship with him now as we negotiate this life.

Quite frankly I would not want to negotiate this life with out him!

It does of course mean that we have to let go of every selfish desire and action, and turn from them, and consciously and actively accept the gift Jesus gives through his life and death and resurrection from the dead.

One thing we can be grateful for is the depth of God’s love for us, and the substance of it – it has weight! It has dimensions! Paul says to his friends in Ephesus “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,...

So at Christmas we are celebrating not just that a baby is born, but that God has come as one of us to be our saviour.  This was the pivot point of all time. This is the time when we actually see the evidence of God’s love for us, and it is the greatest, most wonderful, incredible reason to celebrate.

It is a time of great joy and hope that transcends our pain and loneliness.

We pray you all rejoice with us in this celebration of new life!

John and Roslyn