Christmas message 2021

Christmas 2021

 O Come let us adore Him….Christ the Lord!

 “You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger”

                                                                                                                      Luke 2: 12b

Jenny and our family, join me in wishing you a joyous and spirit filled Christmas. My prayer for you is the prayer we have for ourselves….that you would cherish the pulse of life around you in your loved ones family and dearest friends.

A number of years  ago, as I sat in Saint John’s Church Bridgeport CT, experiencing Amahl and the night visitors, I felt a sense of wonder, intrigue excitement and marvel.

The culmination of the glorious music and indeed the message, taught me yet again the truth about giving and discovering the truth about the wonder of gift deep within the soul and in the strangest of places.

The crippled Amahl gave the very crutch away upon which he was dependant, and which he himself had made, without reserve or wanting anything in return….no strings attached

His giving of his very life support to some degree liberated his spirit, into a freedom beyond measure.

I became all chocked up, aware of the miracle of healing, wholeness and hope.

Somehow the unexpected creates a space for the extraordinary

A baby wrapped in strips of cloth….and lying in a manger. Ironically, the same Baby as the incarnate Christ draped in strips of cloth on a tree, is the one we adore on this most Holy and extraordinary night

While Saint Luke proclaims: “ You will find a baby,” The wonder of Christmas is that God is seeking us…we are found God.

The wonder of the incarnation is not so much in our finding as in God’s giving. God in the birth of the Christ, on this Holy night wrapped in strips of cloth, clothes us with a love given so freely and without reserve….no strings attached

It is indeed on this night, unlike any other night before or since, when God not only acted in history, but entered history….wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger………

As God gives God self to you tonight, we kneel in awe, wonder and adoration, as we do him homage and respond to the world’s need in his name.

I conclude with words of a song we sang at the end every Holy Eucharist in my last  parish in South Africa.

“ Send us out from here Lord to serve a world in need.

May we know no one by the coat they wear,

But the heart that Jesus sees.

 And may the light of your face Lord,

Shine upon us now,

You have filled our hearts with your love

And our cup is overflowing with joy.”

O Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!