Many years ago i wrote this in a week in which one of the members of my congregation had decided to take her own life. A tough context for Christmas, but one which i know many are in this Christmas.
...The birth
stories are at the same time romantic and realistic.
In some ways the birth stories are out of
this world and fairy stories. Mysterious and magical, beyond anything most of
us have experienced. There are angels and strange messages and lights and a
heavenly choir singing praises and predicting peace on earth., and wise men
from the east, and a mysterious star.. romantic, unearthly, supernatural.
Yet there is
obviously another side to these stories. Something very down-to-earth and
realistic. The hard facts of human life also stare us in the face from the time
to time. King herod and the massacre of the children. The refugees and no room
at the inn. The birth in a stable., a preview of his life which culminates in
his ultimate rejection and death on a cross, finding no room in the hearts and
minds of many people.
At Christmas we
are often faced with just such a strange contrast. We are called upon to behold
a marvellous heavenly mystery, but are faced with the hard and often bitter
facts of existence. In the Jesus and Christmas story we are faced with eternal
truths that transcend time and history, but it is not so easy for us to do so.
But through it
all, in this little baby born in a crude stable we have the powerful God become
human. We have the message that God knows us and our pains and is one with us
in them, but also that God is still God and that the power of love and grace
and truth still holds and is somehow made even more powerful by becoming a
weak, helpless baby in a manger in Bethlehem.
Perhaps in all
of this there is a message. God is with us, and God is bigger than us. I said
on Wed that I would find it impossible to sing joy to the world his year.
However, maybe Joy to the world is not about being happy in this particular
moment, but allowing for the enormous act of Grace and love that is Christmas
to still have its life in my sadness.
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