Greetings to all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In this Advent season, we are preparing to welcome the Christ child into the world – again. We will gather together to celebrate the great gift of God in the form of a little baby. We will sing hymns and greet each other, and remember that we are each called to be loving and forgiving, thankful and reverent before a holy God.
We would do well to remember that we are not only called to come to the manger to experience a warm nostalgic glow, and then get on with our life, but to allow the encounter with Jesus to transform us into something new, something different, and something that will last for eternity.
This is easy to say, and more difficult to do, when some of the wonder and uniqueness of the event is perhaps encountered in the repetition, year after year, decade after decade. Most of us know from the top of our heads to the very tips of our toes that wonderful story of Jesus birth. Yet perhaps it is lacquered over with a bit too much warmth and serenity. Marilou and I have had four children. I can imagine a small portion of the terror that Joseph must have been feeling as Mary felt those first labour pangs. They were alone, in a far away place without knowing where they could go. Being born in a cave, wrapped in cloth and laid in a feeding trough would not have been as wonderful as we might see it through 2000 years of tradition.
Remembering Jesus birth in a stable, says something important to us about God’s love for each of us. It is not through a hierarchy of kings that Jesus reaches out to us, but it is in the very humanity and earthyness of a stable. He says to each of us, I come. I come to break into this world with all its problems, to show each of us a way, a new way, which involves not the striving for perfection, but the surrendering of selfishness, and the transformation of pain and death, into love and life. We each are called to come to a place where we encounter the living Christ. We are called to meet the baby in the manger who is destined to be a King. And we are each called to be transformed by that encounter with every breath.
May you each have a blessed Christmas, with all its beauty and wonderment. Be sure to come and worship at the family service at 5 pm, or at the main service at 8 pm on Christmas Eve. Come and sing at our service of Lessons and Carols on the 13th at 7 pm. And consider joining us to sing Carols around the village on the 21st at 6:30 pm, there will be a hay wagon to ride on, and hot chocolate in the hall afterwards.
May we all allow our encounter with the Christ child to enliven and empower each of us, not only for this Christmas season, but forever.
Steve Timpson +:
St. John the Evangelist Church, Bath
