Christmas Celebration

We had a good time on Friday at the Christmas celebration. We had some readings and some carols; 34 came along.

Mayor Ann Jackson took the first reading after the Reverend Alan Wynn- Rector of All Saints -started proceedings.

Steve gave a talk. Here is the transcript of it.

What is Christmas all about? Look over on the back of your sheet. Is it about a jolly fat man that comes once a year? Who has difficulty getting into a house, either by chimney, or whatever means, because he has had too many mince pies.

It’s all very well but the trouble with this man is he doesn’t stick around. We see him, (or maybe we don’t), once a year when he has left something under the tree. But after that special morning he disappears, not to be seen again for a whole eleven months until some impostors show up in department stores to encourage you to spend your hard earned money on things, you secretly admit, you don’t really need.

Not so the one we are celebrating today. He was promised from a long time ago. Mayor Ann Jackson read one of those promises; a promise of something big, something significant.

He chose not a major city, nor a big media event, but a backwater town, where it’s only claim to fame was it had the promise of God on it, or had a young shepherd boy called David live there.

This child, this Son, was going to stick around. He was going to be Immanuel, God with us. That is a promise too, from Isaiah 7, which the gospel writer Matthew quoted.

“The increase of His government and peace will know no end” we heard in the first reading. This speaks of continuation and permanence. Jesus was going to bring something about that was going to grow and stay.

How would this happen? Could a baby really do this?

Well, we know the rest of the story, don’t we? This baby grew up! And, after He was baptized, went around doing good and preaching the Good News of the kingdom; the Bible says.

He said seemingly audacious things like “God is my Father”, and “I and the Father are one”. Or things like “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Jesus wanted us to know He was going to stick around and had the authority and ability to do so; even death did not stop Him from keeping His promise because He was raised from the dead.

Some accepted; some did not. Those that did accept Him and his message where changed; changed from being fishermen, to being fishers of men. From being a penny pinching, thieving, tax collector, in the pocket of the Roman authority; to a writer of a book in the Bible. There are some here who can say that they have been changed too. They changed when Jesus met them at their darkest hour. And that’s the key: change.

Change comes from believing; from accepting who He is and what He had to say. That His Father could be your Father.

Christ kingdom grows by changing me, by changing you. Changing us on the inside, as Jesus said, like yeast in a lump of dough.

So as the last verse of that carol says:

"O holy Child of Bethlehem!
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!"

Ask Jesus for change and know His presence with you.