Category: ‘Christmas Contemplations’

What are you hoping for this Christmas?

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 13/Dec/2020]

Maybe it’s that special gift that you’ve been wanting for so long. Maybe it’s the joy of giving gifts to others that excites you. For many it’s not about the gifts, but more about time off from work to relax and see family and friends – those few days when we leave all the usual chores, we slow down and put our feet up, or go for long walks, and notice perhaps for the first time in ages; how beautiful nature is, how healing it is when we let it invade our lives and our senses.

I think this year, like no other, we are more desperate than ever to be with loved ones, and to know that they are healthy and happy, and perhaps our “hope” is that next year, the vaccine will be our saviour, Covid will become a thing of the past, and Brexit will no longer be the headache that it seems to be right now!

Hope is so important, because without it, we feel ‘hopeless’, ‘without hope’. If you Google ‘hope’, you find many descriptions of the word, and how having it in our lives makes such a difference, including “to expect with confidence” and “to cherish a desire with anticipation”. Whereas ‘hopeless’ doesn’t just infer the absence of hope, but goes much deeper and is aligned with words such as despairing, despondent, desperate and sad. And when we feel like that, hope’s friend ‘cynicism’ moves in too, bringing warnings to “not get your hopes up“.

But as Christians, we do not set our hope on the hope that the world offers, which often seems fickle, fragile and uncertain. The hope we have as Christians is solid and firm, so much more than just optimism, and we only have to open our Bibles to find that hope is central to the message of the gospel. So how do we live and walk in that hope? How do we share that hope with others? I love how Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian, Henri Nouwen, described it before he went to be with the Lord:

“When we live with hope we do not get tangled up with concerns for how our wishes will be fulfilled. So, too, our prayers are not directed toward the gift but toward the One who gives it. Ultimately, it is not a question of having a wish come true but of expressing an unlimited faith in the giver of all good things … Hope is based on the premise that the other gives only what is good. Hope includes an openness by which you wait for the promise to come through, even though you never know when, where, or how this might happen.”

In other words, our hope is not in hope itself, but in the Source of that hope.

So, this Christmas, and as we go into 2021, let us be filled with hope from the Giver of all good gifts – the One who was, and is, the ultimate gift to you, to me, and to our world; Jesus Christ, OUR HOPE!

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
[Hebrews 10 v23]

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Contributor: Lesley Edwards
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Think Not Just of Presents, But of His Presence this Christmas

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 06/Dec/2020]

The sermon series for the last few weeks have been on forgiveness. Rubbing people up the wrong way comes naturally to just about all of us and I’m sure you know some people who seem to have a particular gift in this area. I joined the Connect in Faith meeting on Zoom yesterday and one of the comments made was that it is hard enough to forgive your enemy for something they’ve done wrong, but perhaps even harder to forgive a friend, because the sense of betrayal goes even deeper.

Let’s examine the relationship between us and God. He creates the most beautiful garden in the world, gives us charge over it and we then decide we know better than him and disobey him. Not long after, Cain murders his brother Abel, and we go on to excel at all manner of rebellion and evil. Genesis 6 verses 5-6 state that “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.”

Think of children making a racket upstairs, and their mum says: “If you don’t stop that noise, I’m coming up and you won’t like it when I do …” Well, we had pushed and pushed and now, God was coming to earth. It wasn’t quite what we were expecting though. Eugene Petersen’s rendering of John 1:v14 says that “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.” It captures in one short sentence what Christians believe happened – Jesus Christ came into the world as a human being and we celebrate this at Christmas.

Having described what happened, it is helpful to think about why. On different occasions, Jesus explained this to his disciples and others who were listening. He said he had come: “to preach the Message of good news to the poor, … to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, ‘This is God’s year to act!’ ” Jesus mentions again in that famous verse John 3:16, that “God sent His one and only Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life.” Perhaps less well known however, is John 3: 17, which states that: “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” In Luke 19, where we read about the story of Zacchaeus, Jesus says in verse 10, that he came “to seek and to save those who are lost“.

It is comforting to know that long before we knew that we were lost, or that we needed help, God had made provision for our salvation. We had broken his heart, but when Jesus came down to live with us, it was to show us that God was not intent on condemning us for going astray, but rather that he wanted to forgive us and reconcile us to him. To wipe the slate clean, to embrace us in His arms, if only we would, like the prodigal son, come back home. There is something about Christmas time that lifts the spirits. For many, it is the presents, the commercialism, the thought of meeting up with family and friends to celebrate. These are all laudable, but sometimes leave us with a hollow feeling on Boxing day when it’s all over. Perhaps this year, our joy should come from the realisation that we matter so much to God, and Christmas time should remind us again that He cares and as Jeremiah says, His faithful love never ends, His mercies never end and they are new every morning.

That’s something that will last even after Boxing day.

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Contributor: David Makanjuola
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It’s That Time Again

[This Reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 15/Dec/2019]

Perhaps it has something to do with my Grandfather’s first name being ‘Ebenezer’ but I am not really a great fan of Christmas. More accurately, I am not a great fan of what Christmas has become.

The holly and the ivy have been supplanted by cheap Chinese leds and silent nights are rent by decidedly un-angelic choirs. Behind the butcher’s shop the cattle are no longer lowing and away from the manger the herald angels are glorifying the latest offering from Burger King. In the little town the glad sound is that of tills ringing, the merry gentlemen are all down at the Six Bells and, amid the winter snow (availability subject to global warming), it is not just the shepherds who are lying on a bed of straw.

As the other Ebenezer would have said – Humbug! (Actually, humbugs are one of the best parts of Christmas – they refresh the palate in a way that even Christmas-pudding flavoured ice cream cannot do.)

Why is it that Christmas-present never matches up to our recollections of Christmas-past? The gifts are no longer worth their weight in gold and are discarded quicker than a flask of myrrh.
And as for the turkey …

But wait!
Who is he in yonder stall?
What child is this?
Mary, did you know?
 
Might there still be, somewhere, a vestige of curiosity about Christ at Christmas? Two thousand years ago three kings came looking for Jesus and wise men still seek him. Are we willing, like the good king of old, to go out of our comfort zone and show them the way?

If you get bored with the sermon then try counting the carols …

  • The Holly and the Ivy
  • Silent Night
  • Away in a Manger (x2)
  • Hark the Herald Angels
  • O Little Town of Bethlehem
  • Hark the Glad Sound
  • God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
  • Carol of the Bells
  • See Amid the Winter’s Snow
  • While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
  • See Him Lying on a Bed of Straw
  • Who is He in Yonder Stall?
  • What Child is This?
  • Mary, Did You Know?
  • We Three Kings
  • Good King Wenceslas

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Contributor: Steve Humphreys
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Advent

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 08/Dec/2019]

Advent: The Season of Hope and Expectation
It’s hard to believe that we are now just a few weeks away from Christmas! The usual flurry of decorations, lights, cards, present-buying and menu-planning fight for our thoughts and attention, despite that we said we would be ahead of the game this time (well, I did)! Each year I too get caught up in this whirlwind of activity, and my appreciation of the Advent season and the real meaning of Christmas can take backstage instead of centre stage.

But I set out with intentionality this year, to change pace, to grow in my relationship with God, to “listen” more for what he is saying to me, to us, to “see” more of where he is working in my church, my family, my own life, to “enquire” more of His heartbeat for our world, to be “present” more to his presence within and around me. Whether aided by this process I am not sure, but my thoughts seem to be constantly taking me to the Kingdom of God – what does it look like, am I walking in it, do I notice it around me, do I see it in others?

I think we often think of the Kingdom of God as something mainly “to come” or “in the future”. For now, we live in this fallen world but when Christ returns, he will bring the Kingdom with Him – some refer to it as “the now and not yet of the Kingdom of God”. It’s easy to feel like that when we look at our world which, at times, feels like it is imploding under the burden of sin, wars, pain, politics – not to mention our physical planet which is suffering and shrinking under the effects of plastic over-use, global warming, tree deforestation and more. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:22)

And yet we read in Mark’s gospel that “The time has come,” and “the Kingdom of God has come near”. Note the words has come, not is coming! I believe we see or bring the Kingdom each time we help one another, pray for each other, bless people, listen to our God. The Kingdom comes with the birth of a baby, knit together in the Mother’s womb, a miracle in the making. The Kingdom comes when we walk alongside another in their pain, their spiritual journey. The Kingdom comes when we use our voices to stand up for what is right, to support those who don’t have a voice – the poor, the weak, the unborn child, the sick. The Kingdom has come in the heart and spirit of every Christian, and everywhere we go, we take the Kingdom with us. Romans 14:17 says “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit …”

As we journey through ‘Adventus’, which means ‘come’, let us pray “Maranatha” which means ‘Come, Lord Jesus’. As we do this and our prayers rise to heaven, we invite the Kingdom to come more and more. And let us not forget that, to Jesus’ disciples (us), He has not only come, but He stayed and dwells permanently in our hearts. The Kingdom of God is that near!
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Contributor: Lesley Edwards
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