Christmas time certainly means very different things to different people. With the religious and spiritual side, people look forward to spending time with family, giving gifts, the food and drink, catching up with friends, Christmas T.V and so on. In my own family, growing up, we would have added Monopoly to the list of “traditions” and with a big family it really did get quite animated. All too often someone would debate the rules especially when one felt hard done by, i.e. Losing the game. Life itself is full of rules and regulations and without them things could and would be chaotic. We need rules in our daily life but of course some are restrictive and unnecessary and so too with faith. Christian faith is not about rules and regulations. The truth of these Christmas celebrations represents true life and peace. Christian faith is centred on the person of Christ who showed us by His life and ministry just how transformational and liberating walking with God can be.
The real meaning of Christmas is Christ so perhaps all the other distractions need to take a backseat, not just this once, but
always. This is not to say that the lovely traditions of Christmas are not good in themselves, but not if they stand in the way of discovering the true meaning of this season and encountering the hope of the world. It would be amazing to see you out in church during the Christmas season, putting Christ at the centre of all the celebrations. But it is not only in church that we do this, it is everything leading up to this very powerful and meaningful time of year. Surely the birth of Christ deserves much more of our attention that He gets. This year it can, and should be different. Of course Christmas will be different for many of our church family. The passage of time has brought so much change and we are mindful of all of the mixed emotions during such a beautiful, yet provocative time of year. In all of the changes of life God is present and I feel humbled and privileged to share the good times and the sad times with my church family. Wishing you a very blessed and peaceful Christmas and New Year.
With Love
The Rectory Family