Advent and Christmas 2024
Advent Reflection from Rev Brian
Luke 2:11-12 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Churches are usually very busy places at Christmas.
With all the events, the goings on, the celebrations, the final year events and meetings, the services. So many events that may include oranges or candles or Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes or little knitted angels or excited kids.
And in our focus on the majesty of this time we can be tempted to miss the muck and mire of the moment. If we romanticise this image of Christmas too much, we might just miss the meaning.
Just look at a common £1 pack of Christmas cards and you will discover a collection of colourful cosy backdrops of the birth of Jesus with sparkling stars and twinkly angels. They reveal a beautiful space prepared for the Son of God to be welcomed.
But the truth is… the place was not colourful or cosy but bleak and surrounded with signs of poverty. The birthplace for Jesus was filthy, cold, smelly and not so warm. And by the way a manger is a feeding trough for animals-for Jesus would be food for the world. God born amongst us in all our poverty: whether it be financial, emotional, mental or spiritual. God born in our neighbourhood. God transforming places like feeding troughs and barnyards into holy spaces. And if it can happen in my backyard and kitchen, it can happen anywhere and everywhere with everyone. God is with us. With you. Right where you are in this moment here and now. God in my kitchen with me singing. God with me in my deep grief. God with me in my little hospital room. God with me as I worry and pray and then worry again. God with those who experience poverty, God with the broken, God with the lonely and those not quite feeling celebratory at this time. God with those wishing their extended family would leave earlier than planned.
We can become so busy romanticising the Christmas picture we miss the clarity of the celebration of the moment that God shares in the complete totality of our humanity-God born amongst us. And we do not celebrate a time so many years ago-but we celebrate an ever-present reality-that God is with me, God is with you, right now. Christmas is happening again right now.
So, what can you do to open your eyes to this Christmas reality? What can you do to follow God in reaching beyond yourself towards others in need? What can you do to discover God right there in your own poverty? And do we really want the truth of Christmas in ours?
