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Dear
Friends
As we are well into the season of Advent focusing
our thoughts on the coming Christmas, we are no doubt getting tangled
up in the busyness of the season. It remains, however, that time
for reflecting on God's great love for the world where he came among
us, as one of us. Often we think others don't understand the frantic
nature of our lives, and certainly God wouldn't, because so much
of what we do in terms of faith, is taking time out of the busyness
to contemplate the greater things of life. We contemplate the otherness
of the God, the greatness and the power and the glory. Yet part
of Advent is remembering that God came as one of us into this frantic
world. So frantic was it, that when he came, there was no room for
Mary and Joseph at the inn in Bethlehem.
No doubt, every age has suffered that same sense of busyness, and
for every generation the pressures are different. However, they
were just as real to the people of that time. I suppose the challenge
we face when these pressures close in on us is much more about how
we handle them and how we prioritise to manage such times. What
is it that drops off the radar to relieve the pressure?
Others in the Christmas story faced these dilemmas. There were
the shepherds. Someone asked me the question recently, "What
did the shepherds do with their sheep when they journeyed off to
find this one who was born to be king?" In reality we of course
don't know, but no doubt they made other arrangements, in the light
of what appeared to be more important to them at that time. The
wise men from the East seemed to have travelled a great distance
but we have little idea of what they actually did for a living,
or what pressures may have faced them, but nevertheless, they put
aside other things to travel to see the Christ child. Herod on the
other hand, had little interest except in the threat that this reported
king posed to him so his only response at the time was to see if
others would report back to him.
The continued question that this whole scenario raises for us is
what priority at Christmas time do we give to the one for whom it
is supposedly all about? Do we make the time to worship him? Do
we find that time, as work dos and social engagements crowd our
diaries? Or is it easier just to put aside that aspect of Christmas
and follow the modern mantra that Christmas is about families.
The first Christmas was a time when heaven and earth came together
in unified praise as Luke tells us, "Suddenly a great army
of heaven's angels appeared with the angel, singing praises to God.
"Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to those
with whom he is pleased."
May this Christmas season be a blessed time as we focus on the
one who came to dwell among us, and the one who understands us in
all aspects of our lives
Richard Gray
Minister.
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