Revd Sara’s Reflection The Christmas Story
The birth of Christ is a call, an invitation, to reimagine the world, the whole universe, and our place in it. To do so in the image of the One who came as a Gift. The true nature of which, is to give itself away. Gift cultures have been known since the dawn of humanity.
There is ‘Good News’. and ‘Great Joy’.
Because… ‘The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. On those who live in a land of deep shadow A light has shone….(Is 9:1) For there is a child born for us, A son is given to us, And this is the name they give him: Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace….(Is 9:5-6)
The ‘Gift’ has come to us. Gratuitous. Self-emptying. A Gift that it is not worn out with use. That circles back to its source. How to replicate that and live it out, nurture and witness it in our own instinctively ‘ego-driven’ lives? Not allow it to be lost in an increasingly narcissistic entitlement culture, where the Gift, turned inwards and made redundant, becomes a burden? Impossible to do, it would seem, unless we avoid the traps, the potholes and the seductions of the journey and unless, like the three Wise Men, we find another way back to where we truly belong. (Mt:2-12).
The way back, I would suggest, is as a pilgrim people in a worshipping community, in solidarity with the brokenness of the world. A people with a ‘Centre’ without which we will lose our way. Jubilant at the birth of Emmanuel, the one who has come to dwell in our midst as one among us.
May you find the wonder of baby Jesus calling you afresh this Christmas, to stand in awe and wonder and gaze at the face of God in the manger looking back at you.
love and prayers Revd Sara
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