Christmas is about Identity-
God has become human for us.
God has been born in every one of us.
God is being born in us all the time.
A Medieval theologian once said:
God is giving birth constantly. Not only physical in nature surrounding us, but also spiritual, in the inner soul of everything alive. God does not stop being the creator after physical birth. It goes on and on in giving birth. So the soul that has its roots in God, is being born constantly, is like a new born baby constantly, as innocent and fresh as the One in the cradle of Bethlehem. Meister Echardt
Christmas is about connection- relationships.
Not so much about presents,
but about giving each other Presence of time and attention.
At Christmas we seem to gather around us
the most significant people in our lives.
People we love, those who care about us.
We may of course be asleep to this truth,
too exhausted, too busy to appreciate this,
or on the cell phone, or an asleep teenager.
15 of us sat down to dinner. Sounds lovely –
if there is presence. And an awareness of
a greater Presence, a presence that lovingly undergirds us all.
Christmas is about Wonder, awe –
we see in children-becoming a child again.
Give young people your presence this Christmas,
find a genuine way to connect with them.
Christmas is about the other, the stranger,
the refugee, the stranger, the other.
The world is a torn place. We hear and see
so much of the abuse women and children,
terror haunts the market places of so many countries,
greed and corruption eats away at our
hard won democracy and way of life.
Millions of people who are refugee’s
in flight from their own people and countries.
But for us the message of Christmas is realistic,
good inspiring news. God has entered into us,
to encourage and raise us up. First to break through
our own hardened hearts and habits,
so that we can change from the inside.
We first, we can be the change and presence
that we want to see in the world.
Christmas seems to be saying that there is a river under the river of life.
A spring of fresh creative energy within us, that we can tap.
That will flow in and through us,
and open us up to new and creative responses
to ourselves and each other.
So clear the muck, open up the well points.
This is happening to us now.
And we must take it forward into our lives!
For our good, our family’s Good,
our country’s good and the world’s good.
“The true source of joy is love – love of God,
love of beauty, love of wisdom,
love of another human being, it does not matter which.
It is all one love, a joyful awareness of
dissolving boundaries of our ordinary narrow self,
of being with the reality beyond, of being made whole.
So while you are enjoying the company
of your loved ones this Christmas,
take a moment or two to glimpse anew into the stable of your being.
Look again with the eyes of a child, with the eyes of wonder.
Reconnect with the profound simplicity of it all.
God is Love. ” Billy Kennedy
For me the poet e e cummings comes closest
to the meaning of Christmas and incarnation
when he says in a poem about love:
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
This is what God is saying to us in the Child of Bethlehem:
You matter to me, I carry your heart, I carry it in my heart. This is what we can say to others.
And by living it, make it true.
The St Stephen’s Church, Pinelands, Garden Chapel is celebrating its centenary this year. There has been a programme of wonderful events. Last Sunday there was a celebratory evensong. The bishop of Saldanha Bay, Bishop Rafael Hess was in attendance and blessed the foundation stone of the Garden Chapel.
Below a choir of St Stephen’s that came together under the baton of Chris Gilmour, singing the anthem: Now we are come to the Sun’s hour of rest, the lights of evening round us shine.
I shall be organising a community Art Exhibition in July in our newly decorated parish hall. Below, the hall bathed in light and celebration.
bobcommin.com 