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Rectory Ramblingsā€¦ December 2024

Tuesday, 26 November 2024 18:29

Rectory Ramblings…

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.                (Isaiah 9:6)

As I look back on 2024 and the stories that have occupied our newspapers and television screens we have seen: headlines on Ukraine replaced with Gaza and the Middle East; Refugees in boats, in the Mediterranean as well as the Channel remain a challenge; and more recently storms and flooding in the US and across Europe, probably as a result of climate change, have decimated whole communities. 2024 has also been the year of national elections. In some countries the election process might seem to us rather dubious or false, with little real choice for voters. In other countries it seems people have voiced their discontent by voting for a change in regime, sometimes with unsettling results as the political and economic landscape completely changes. There are no easy answers to these man-made humanitarian crises. We can only pray that somehow the message of Christmas, that Christ came into the world to bring peace and goodwill between Heaven and Earth and on the Earth, and “the peace of God which passes all our understanding” will somehow break through into our world. 

In all of this, we must remember that Christ knows what life is like to live in a country occupied by a harsh regime with religious ideals different from your own: he was a Jew living in land occupied by the Romans. And Christ knows what life is like as a refugee, forced to flee your country through threat of death: he spent his early years in Egypt to escape from King Herod who wanted him killed. His response was not to go to war to eliminate those who thought and believed differently. His response was to show us how to live among and to love those who are different, and to show us how to value those that our society considers are of lesser or little worth. This is why the Christmas message of Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all men is so important. If our approach to life is to go to war with those who are different there will always be someone to fight, but if our approach is to be at peace with those who are different then we will always be at peace.   

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’                 (Luke 2:13-14)

Revd Eddie