This was the reflection I used at the two Carol Services I led last Sunday - I thought I would share it here also!
Christmas is a time of contrasts. In our modern world, we go back to a story from 2000 years ago. In our Information Age, when the whole of human knowledge seems to be at our fingertips, we hear once again a story that we have heard every year. In the darkness of winter, we celebrate the coming of Christ, the light of the world. In a world that seems to stumble from crisis to crisis, we bring a message of hope.
The contrasts are all the more between our life today and the world into which Jesus came. We, by the standards that most in our world have, are rich; he was born in a stable. We have freedom to help choose those who represent us; he was from a nation occupied by a foreign power that had just ordered a census.
The images we have on our Christmas Cards – a radiant child, happy mother Mary, splendidly dressed Kings, tidy-looking shepherds, all in a Stable that looks warm, cosy and well ordered – they are a long way from the reality of the Christmas story that we have heard again today. Expectant parents today may be planning the best route to hospital, and worrying about whether they are as antiseptically clean as they should be; Mary faced a long journey, on foot or by donkey, that could hardly be ideal preparation – and then gave birth in what was probably a grimy, smelly, animal shelter.
This is so far beyond our own experiences that it is hard for us today to understand what it was like. And yet, today, we have heard the story again, and it still holds us. Why?
The answer is, for me at least, that ultimately it is about God’s love. God comes down as a baby, in humble surroundings, because of Love. God lives among us, sharing his love. God goes to the cross, to prove his love for shattered humanity. God comes to us today, calling us with words of love.
How are we to respond? How else can we respond, but to love in return? We find ways to share that love with others, devote ourselves to serving God, and in doing so serve others, not because it is our duty but because of the love that is within us. “We love, because God first loved us.”
Whatever else may be going on over this Christmas period, may the love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit bless you and stay with you each and every day.
