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The Christmas Good News... sent by Father Roger at S James the Less, North Lancing |
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I heard of a city church where one Christmas they made a life size crib. They made the stable out of thrown away planks from a building site and the manger out of an old box, and they scattered dirty straw on the floor. A tramp came and settled down to sleep in a corner. Members of the congregation dressed up as authentically as they could in poor people’s clothes, and made a tableau.
Two elderly ladies were among those who came to look, and one said to the other, ‘That’s nice.’ her friend replied, ‘Nice? It’s not nice at all; it’s ghastly place to be born.’And, of course, that’s just the point. It was God's choice, when he came among us as a human being, to be born right in the middle of the mess of the world – homeless in a war-torn world. like so many people today.
The Christmas Good News is that ours is not a God who stands aloof from the world’s pain and suffering—nor even one who smiles compassionately down—but one who enters in and shares it with us. And by sharing it he redeems it, and by the power of Jesus’s death and resurrection does make Peace and Goodwill a possibility on earth. No, more than that. He makes Peace and Goodwill the final guarantee. For it will be his gift to all his people when his kingdom comes as surely as his present gift is his own Son to be our Friend and our Saviour.
A very blessed Christmas to you all.