Happy Christmas!
Welcome
to our Christmas Celebration! And a special welcome to old friends returning
and new friends here for the first time. It seems a long time since the first
of our Christmas services: it was back in November when Year 7’s from Pittville
school joined us for their Christmas Carol Service. Since then we seem to have
had so many Christmas services! They’re the same carols, the same readings and
the same story. And yet, somehow, there’s something fresh each time we come to
them. A lot has happened over the last year since last we sang those carols,
read those readings and told that story. We come to them as different people in
a world that’s changed. One theme has emerged through all those services. It’s
a theme of welcome. There was no room for Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem: but
someone found them somewhere to stay. No one had time for the shepherds: yet
they were welcomed with open arms as they came to see all that had happened in Bethlehem.
The Magi came from lands far away, from a different culture, from a different
religion, with a different language: yet as they presented their gifts of gold,
frankincense and myrrh they too found a warmth of welcome. When Mary, Joseph
and the Christ child fled the brutality of Herod they had a gruelling journey
to make across a desert: but in Egypt they were welcomed and given refuge.
Together with churches across the town we have joined Cheltenham Welcomes
Refugees in giving a welcome to the Syrian families who have found refuge here
in our town. It’s good to welcome everyone to our Christmas services … may that
Christmas spirit of welcome shape the way we think, the way we talk and the way
we act in response to the refugee crisis that’s not going to go away for a long
time yet.
Welcome
65
O come, all ye faithful
Prayer
and the Lord’s Prayer
Reading:
Luke 2:1-7
Lighting
the Christmas Candle
Reading;
John 1:1-5 and 14
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Away in a manger
Christmas
Greetings
A
welcome’s not just for Christmas!
There’s
something about a baby that brings people together!
There
was no room for them in the inn
But
they were given a welcome nonetheless
The
shepherds were outsiders
But
they were welcomed into the stable
The
wise men came from the East far away, a different language, a different
culture, a different religion. But they
were welcomed as they presented their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
There’s
something about a baby that brings people together
But
babies are very vulnerable. And Mary and
Joseph and the baby Jesus were up against it.
They lived under a brutal regime and they had to flee. Their flight of
fear took them across the fierce Sinai desert to a country far away with a
different language, a different culture, a different religion.
But
there’s something about a baby and they were given a welcome all the same.
Not
until the brutality of Herod’s regime came to an end with his death were they
able to return and even then they could not go back to Bethlehem for fear of
reprisals and so they went back to Nazareth far off in the North where they
were welcomed home and the child grew and became strong and was filled with
wisdom and God’s blessing was on him.
There’s
one image for Christmas that sticks in my mind this year. It’s a sculpture by
Josefina de Vasconcellos, one of the great sculptors of the 20th century.
Commissioned by a fiery, campaigning vicar of St Martin-in-the Fields, the
church in Trafalgar Square, who himself had been a prisoner of war in 1958.
It’s now in Cartmel Priory in the Lake District.
It
captures a moment in the flight of Mary and Joseph and the Christ child.
It
has a stark title.
They
fled by night.
Joseph
and Mary are sleeping. They are worn out. The child has woken and is looking
around. Has something woken him up? Has something frightened him? Has he caught
sight of the beauty of the dawn?
It’s
an image that captures a moment in the Christmas story that this year speaks to
our hearts.
It
has been a year of divisions in our society, in our world. A year once again
torn apart by war. Maybe the message of Christmas this year is that we pull
barriers down and build bridges up and give a welcome to those in need.
We
have been involved with other churches and others in the town in Cheltenham
Welcomes Refugees. It was moving to join with people from other churches and
indeed from other faith communities in a meeting in the university when we
heard a woman from one of the five Syrian families welcomed into the town this
year. She spoke of the warmth of welcome she had received.
There
are practical things to do … and we have helped with practicalities.
There
are political things to do. The scale of the refugee crisis demands a greater
response from our country not least because of the involvement of our country
in the catastrophic wars that have led to the refugee crisis.
Most
importantly there’s a personal response we need to make. There’s a divisiveness
in the air. A hostility towards ‘others’. A rising Xenophobia.
Someone
made room for Mary and Joseph. The shepherds were welcomed, though they were
the outcasts of their day. The Magi were welcomed too in spite of their
different way of speaking, their different way of thinking, their different way
of worshipping. And Egypt welcomed Mary and Joseph and the Christ child when
they sought refuge in a far off country. The conversations each one of us has
are important – they make a difference in the atmosphere. Will we make sure
that a welcome’s not just for Christmas?
A
Hy-Spirit song
Our
Christmas Prayers
59
Hark the herald angels sing
Words
of Blessing
Glory
to God in the highest
And
on earth peace
Peace
in our hearts,
Peace
in our homes
Peace
in our communities
Peace
in our world
Open
our hearts that we may be Peace-makers
This
Christmas and through the year to come.
