UNITY OLDLAND METHODIST CHURCH
Established 2004
ANDREW'S ARTICLE
Andrew's article
Dear Friends...
Luke 2 vv 10 to 12
And the angel said to the shepherds, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born; He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger'.
Christmas is a time of joy and celebration. Families and friends come together, trees are decorated, mince pies are cooked, turkeys are prepared and presents are bought and given. These things are all part of what makes Christmas special but behind them lies something quite incredible and spectacular. It is important for us all in the midst of the festivities to remember the true 'reason for the season'.
God's son took the form of frail flesh and bone. Named Jesus (in
obedience to God's command and which means God saves), and later called
Christ (Messiah), He came and was born 2000 years ago to save us from
our sins, to speak of the Kingdom of God and to call us to a new life.
e came to share our joy and our pain and to make it possible for us to
meet and to know God. He came to hold before us the wonder of Heaven and
to leave us in no doubt that the God in whom we have our hope and
salvation is neither distant nor remote. Rather He is a God who is
always near and one whom we may know and name as 'Our Father', an
Incarnate God prepared to make His Son so small and vulnerable that even
hill shepherds could bow down and look Him in the eye. These same
purposes are what led Jesus one day to suffer His Passion. What we
discover as we recount the story is that it was all for us, every moment
in His life... from the Cradle of Bethlehem to the Ministry in Galilee,
from the Streets of Jerusalem to the Cross of Calvary.
Twenty years ago, it particularly dawned on me how great God and His love for the world is, when I visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Church is built on a hillside. It is ornate and beautiful, but as you go inside first you must enter through a tiny door that requires you appropriately to bow. You are then invited to descend some steps leading down from this ancient Church into a small cavern hewn in the rock. In this dirty and dank cave a small altar marks the place where it is believed Jesus may have been born.
The site of this altar reminded me that when God chose to send His Son to the world it was with no special rights or privileges. He chose for Him to be fully human and to be born a pauper in a dirty and dark cave usually reserved for animals and livestock, and the reason? Love, and a desire to see humanity find its true purpose and for people to find true life and peace, in this age and in the next. It was the only way. You might say that Jesus became like us that we might become like Him...righteous, holy, pure, whole and named as children (true sons and daughters) of God. No wonder the angels sang and the Heavens declared... 'Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace to all people'.
This we discover is a God prepared with His Son to sacrifice and give everything for us. Will you therefore with me praise God this Advent and Christmastide? Yes, there will be time to spend with family and friends, there will be trees to decorate, and gifts to give and receive (and may all these things be for us a source of blessing). But most of all, as proclaimed to shepherds long ago, a 'Saviour' in Christ is born, and with it hope for us all and hope for the world in which we live. Hope in the form of a light that shines in the darkness and which the darkness cannot and never will overcome. Let us then with those shepherds bow in humble adoration. Peace and blessing to you all this sacred season.
Peace and Blessing
Andrew
Last updated: 18/04/2008