Rev Paul's Thoughts for December 2015

 

H

ERE we are amid our wonderful Christmas Tree Festival in the second week of Advent. It is a time for the church to prepare for the Christ child to be born, and also for Christ to come a second time. There is wonderful expectation by many Christians at this time of the year. However, every year, as we are drawing closer to Christmas Day, I wonder if the impact of Jesus being born in a lowly stable in that small town of Bethlehem becomes less and less important today. As we look at the secularism of today’s world, I can’t help feeling that we as Christians should be making more of an effort and promoting our Christian faith, allowing Christ‘s love to shine into those increasingly darker places within our society.

The impact of darkness on the world is very plain to see with the vast refugee problem and also the increasingly worrying situation in the Middle East.

Advent is the lead-up to Christmas in the Christian liturgical calendar; and it is about Christ’s light shining in the darkness. John’s gospel reminds us:

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Advent is used to focus our minds on three things: the coming of Christ at Christmas, the coming of Christ into our lives today, and his second coming at the end of time.

 

W

E are God’s children and so we should be promoting Christ in the world, being wary of the way in which the secular world can engulf us and draw us into commercialism and the desire for more. This should be a time also for reflection, a time to take stock of our personal relationship with our Saviour, a time perhaps to re-evaluate what is really important in our lives. Turning to the Church here at St Hildeburgh’s, it has been really encouraging to move forward with our vision and see its impact – growth in our Family Praise service and our new Open Worship service on the second Sunday of each month at 6pm has been wonderful.

It is very important for the church to keep moving forward. Change is always difficult, whatever the circumstances. Change can and does unsettle people and can have a negative impact, particularly in the Church. Change can make people anxious, and that is especially the case when it threatens their comfortable and established routines. The Church is a family and when things become unsettling it is good to talk problems through. Please always feel free to express any of your worries or concerns to me or the wardens.

 

W

ORRY is an area that many Christians struggle with continuously. I personally need to read scriptures often and be reminded that God has asked us not to worry but to trust Him completely. It is this reassurance and reading of scripture about worry that may help us all during stressful times or times filled with anxiety. Matthew 6:25-27 says this:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Let us look forward to a wonderful Christmas in the sure knowledge that Jesus our Saviour loves us all, whatever we may be struggling with.

 

 Your friend, Rev’d Paul

Advent 2015