Post by Alfred Dunholm on Dec 21, 2010 22:50:50 GMT
As we come up to Christmas and the unavoidable decline in activity which surrounds the festive season I thought it’d be a good idea for the church to create a reminder for us all at this time of what Christmas is all about, given the distortion which modern society has inflicted on this important religious occasion. Christmas in the modern world is a time for families, which isn’t an entirely Biblically inaccurate interpretation given the emphasis given to the Holy family of Bethlehem within the scripture, but it is also a time for shameless materialism which has no place in a miracle such as the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Many, if not all of you reading this, will know that the Christmas story is relatively simple; the son of God is born to a virgin Mother within the humble confines of a stable, he is named Jesus in line with the instructions handed down through the angel Gabriel and the child grows up to become the sacrificial lamb which redeems the sins of the whole world. On paper at least the birth is a reasonably simple concept, but I’d like to take a few minutes just to examine what it actually means at a basic level. All this must start with a question; what was the purpose in Jesus’ coming to be amongst us?
In line with the principal of Trinitarianism (that being the theory that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one and the same in the same way that ice, water and steam are the same) we know that Jesus was essentially God the Father in human form; the God who spoke powerfully down to Moses upon the summit of Mount Sinai was now physically with His people. He came to us to guide us from the path of self-destructive sinfulness upon which humanity was walking and lead us to a better life. But why? Because God loves us. For centuries we, the people God created, were living immoral lives and when we died our sins meant that we could never be with God because we had failed Him too severely and tarnished the image which He had implanted in us when He created Adam and Eve within the Garden of Eden. But God didn’t want us to suffer this fate, God didn’t want us to wander blindly into the abyss, and so He came to show us the way.
By being born in that stable God breached the barrier which had existed between Heaven and Earth, by the crucifixion that barrier was removed and with the descent of the Holy Spirit we can be assured that God is with us at all times and in all places, always. In this story the love and infinite compassion of the Lord our God takes the form of the most vulnerable thing imaginable; a human child. That love is at the mercy of those around it; there for us to cradle and cherish or for us to cast off and allow to perish, but ultimately in this story the love of God triumphs and overcomes even the will of an earthly King who sought to have it destroyed. But never forget that it wasn’t just for the sins of those living in the Roman Empire of over 2000 years ago that Jesus died, the sins of all of us living today were also redeemed by that sacrifice upon the cross. It was for us that God sent his Son; His compassion and love for all of us came down from Heaven and took a form which we could understand. Therefore this Christmas I ask you all to remember why it was that Jesus came to be with us; cradle that child of infinite compassion within your heart and carry it with you each and every second of your mortal life, until the hour comes when we may follow the path that Jesus laid before us and dwell in peace and happiness with God our Father forever and ever.
Heavenly Father, who chose the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the mother of your promised Saviour: fill us your servants with your grace, that in all things we may embrace your Holy will and with Her rejoice in your salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
I would of course like to finish by wishing you all a blessed and very merry Christmas, may God be with us all this coming year and always.
