Christmas Message

I’ve recently received a Christmas card from a friend in which he wrote, “I could never have envisaged this time last year that neither of my parents would be with me this Christmas.” His parents died in March within 36 hours of each other.

I am very aware this year, that there are many people whose Christmas will be filled with sadness, because a loved one will not be with them this year, not least the families of the soldiers who have sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan whilst fighting for peace.

This Christmas, churches will once again be filled with people attending carol services at which the Christmas story will be read. Part of that story includes the passage from Luke Chapter 2 where the angel announced the Good News of Jesus’ birth to some shepherds out on the hillside. The angel brought a message of hope to the world – a message of hope that is still valid for us today, more than 2000 years on.

If we look at the story more closely, we see how the angel offered joy in place of fear. Very often fear comes more naturally to us than joy, especially at this time of year. Pressure is put on us to feel joyful when really, like the shepherds we feel sad, tired and anxious about the future. The television adverts try to persuade us what will bring happiness, but what they offer seems hollow and unreal. Real joy comes from understanding that God, who was once far off, has come among us and is present with us in Jesus.

It’s not something we can explain. It is something which is beyond understanding and the angel didn’t attempt to offer an explanation – he offered a sign. He said “You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” The sign is not that God has come, but the way in which he has come. God has moved from the heights of heaven to the lowest possible place, so that he can be Immanuel, God with us.

God in Jesus, was not born in a royal court or a private hospital, where only the privileged few might enter. Instead, Jesus was born in a stable in vulnerability, and in so doing God made himself accessible to everyone – to you and to me. God’s joy is in selfless giving.

Finally the angel’s message anticipated peace on earth. Imagine what this must have meant to shepherds who were living in a country occupied by an enemy army. Peace on earth is something that I am sure we all long for. But the peace the angel promised is not a peace that comes about through a powerful victory.

It is a peace of mind – one that comes when human beings stop fighting with God and find friendship with him. It comes through ceasing to struggle on by ourselves and through admitting our need of a Saviour. This Saviour was born on earth as a baby and who, through his living, dying and rising, offers us the promise of eternal life.

May you have a blessed Christmas filled with the joy and peace that only the child born in the manger can bring.

Helen