From a dark womb,
bathed in starlight,
into a world sorely in need of you,
you are born.
Lighting of all 5 Advent Candles
When you knock on our door looking for room,
may we welcome you,
and like the angels at your birth,
share Gods good news
with those who are poor, excluded and afraid.
Carol “See him lying on a bed of straw”
We say the Lords Prayer in our own language
Christmas thoughts on Luke 2v1-14
Isaiah speaks of a light in the darkness. There will be light in the darkness for Gods people.
Against the backdrop of Roman oppression and a loveless census the angels were singing a new song. How many people still live under oppression today? The song is in contrast with the decree. It begins with a barren old woman, Elizabeth, a dumb old man, Zechariah, Elizabeth’s young cousin Mary and shepherds, who were poor. Those who have groaned under the oppression of the Romans, the King and the religious leaders will find they have a new freedom and the old order will soon be gone.
The old order was about laws and judgement. Just when Gods people had almost abandoned hope, the new order comes in the prophesies and songs of Elizabeth, Mary, and the shepherds, and is expressed in amazement because it cannot be contained in the old ways of thinking and the promises are back on the agenda. The old order will pass away.
Jesus birth begins with solidarity with ordinary people, shepherds, animals, and conflict with the authorities. The old order is ending and indeed does end, but people rarely give up power peacefully. Herod’s reign was oppressive and seemed eternal, but it like the Roman Empire eventually ceases. Lets hope our old oppressive regimes end soon too.
We have remembered the pregnant waiting of Christmas and the hope still to come of Peace on
Earth. We wait with the poor, the homeless, the refugees. We have heard again the cry of John the Baptist, and the call to justice which cost him his life as it does others throughout the world today.
We have reflected on the choice of God to use a young woman as the
vehicle for the divine plan. The focus of this journey centres on a baby and as so often they
do, that baby becomes a vehicle of hope. Hope is brought into being, a hope which grounds itself in love. Christ is not born today in a stable but in us, which gives hope, hope to the hopeless and love to the unloved, a light that will never go out because it has an eternal fuel.
Here is our call, our responsibility this Christmastide and all through the year. God encourages us to face the powerful, to protect the vulnerable and the needy. God challenges us to see his face in every stranger, every homeless person, every refugee. The Prince of Peace calls us to look away from the comfortable and to see the suffering and terror in our world. Christmas is a time not just of looking in but also of looking out, seeking the family which has been left outside. Where are they today? In Bethlehem today there is no Christmas.
God comes to us in many ways, through prayer, through a dream, through someone else, a word in time. May this Christmas be a vehicle of hope for us all to feed our spirits and our imaginations and to inspire us, with the angel’s message, to bring hope and peace on earth.
God spoke to the poorest of people and honoured them. Help us this Christmas to be brave and focus on what is really important in our lives and in our world. We pray that God will be incarnated, born again in our hearts, in our lives, in our communities, in our nations and that we will see the powerful humbled and the humble exalted and a new way of being inaugurated. We need this to happen. We need change, our world needs to change. God with us. Immanuel. Amen
Song “Tua Bethlehem Dref”
Take us to Bethlehem, House of Bread
Where the hungry are filled
And the satisfied sent empty away
Where the poor find riches
And the rich recognize their poverty
And all who worship are filled with awe.
The Nativity Rap2 https://youtu.be/LvCAYceUBxc
