CHRISTMAS DAY - Friday 25 december, 2020

Reflection:       It's Time

Isaiah 9:2-7

Psalm 96     

​Luke 2:1-20   

​Titus 2:11-14

Well, the waiting is now over. 
It’s Christmas Day and we’re celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus.
All that waiting during Advent has paid off, hasn’t it. 


I wonder how many times you’ve either read, or heard read, the Christmas story from Luke’s Gospel?
It’s a story about simple shepherds, in a field, watching over their flocks, when suddenly, in a starlit sky, there comes a bright light – which turns out to be an angel and all the heavenly host – proclaiming good news to all of humanity.  A scary thought for a bunch of uneducated farm workers.

Amazingly, the shepherds leave their flocks (which is something that they wouldn’t normally do) to
follow the directions given to them by the angel and they are led by the star which is hovering over Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.
They find him lying in the straw of a manger, surrounded by the silent, innocent animals in the stable.
No kings, nobles, or well-educated folk – just shepherds.
Jesus was God’s gift to the common people. Have you ever thought how you’d feel if you gave a beautiful present to somebody, maybe a child, only to find that either they haven’t opened it, or they’ve opened it and then ignored it, or they’ve played with it for a short time, but then forgot about it, or, worst still, they’ve broken it.  If you can identify with this feeling, you might start to understand how our heavenly father, God, feels.He gave the world the best gift, ever, at Christmas about 2,000 years ago - in the shape of his son, Jesus, but the world wasn’t too appreciative.Some people refused to believe that he was God’s son and the religious leaders even plotted to have him killed. Other people followed him for a while, before going back to their old ways. Luckily, many people HAVE accepted God’s gift – wholeheartedly - and are still following Jesus today.I pray that we may all find ourselves in that last category and that we remember to thank God, every day, for his fantastic present. Christmas is usually a constant celebration - year after year, we tend to follow tradition.
But, in reality, no two years are ever the same and our lives will never the same.
Every year we are, in fact, older and, hopefully, wiser.
And this year has certainly been unlike any year that we can remember, with the deadly Coronavirus spreading throughout the world. At this time of the year, most of us are usually busy, running around, seemingly chasing our tails, buying presents for our loved ones and even people that we don’t really see for the rest of the year.
We’re stocking up on food for parties and meals with family and friends, or visiting others.

But is all this usual “busyness” really helpful?This year we have a bit more time.
This year we buy presents online, instead of visiting stores.This year our options to travel to be with family and friends are limited.
We can’t visit as many people as we would like to, so we need to look in other directions.

Maybe we should be giving more thought to how WE can be a “gift” to other people, sharing the news of God’s gift to us. 
This year has really been a challenge in respect to how we interact with those around us.
Maybe we could ring lonely neighbours more often, or invite someone to join us for Christmas lunch, of course keeping within COVIDSafe guidelines, etc. 

But, whatever the circumstances, we should be comfortably confronting change and being active in doing work in the Kingdom of God, even if it is different to the ways we’ve done it in the past.
We’re called to partner with God, working for him in the world around us.
The job has been difficult this year, so we can pray that 2021 will be a year in which we can be even more effective in passing on God’s love to the people we come in contact with (however that may occur). 

I encourage you to rejoice this day, for the light (Jesus) has come into the world and I encourage you to take that light out into the darkness and be a beacon for God’s love of humanity.

 “Christ was born amongst us and bids us to go in his name:
    to declare the goodness and justice of God,
    the joy of salvation and
    the promise of abundant life for all.
May the God of new beginnings fill our lives with love.
May the call of Christ inspire our service.
May the presence, power and joy of the Holy Spirit be in our gatherings today.To the glory of God.        Amen.”            

May the Lord be with you – now and forever.
Pastor Rick