Rectory Ramblings…

“A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.’”        (Isaiah 40:3-4)

You may not have noticed, or you may be fed up with hearing it – that it’s nearly Christmas. In fact, judging by some of the high-street shops it’s been nearly Christmas for months. A while back I went to buy a greeting card in August. Despite looking in several shops I couldn’t find a card for the particular event I was after, but I could have bought plenty of Christmas cards! On our TV screens and in supermarkets we are bombarded with adverts telling us that “Christmas is not Christmas without fancy but expensive food, or drinks, or gifts for our loved ones. We are currently in the church season of Advent. This is supposed to be a time of preparation for celebrating God becoming human in the person of Jesus. Jesus IS the reason for the season. So I wonder about how we prepare for the celebration of our saviour’s birth, because actually Christmas can’t be Christmas without Christ. 

So if preparation for Christmas goes no farther than buying a forest’s worth of Christmas cards and enough food to feed half the county we are missing the point. The words I used at the start of the piece were originally spoken by the old testament prophet Isaiah, and then quoted by John the Baptist about Jesus. They are not really a plan for some serious landscape gardening They are about getting into the true Christmas Spirit by preparing our hearts and minds to receive God’s message of hope and love in Christ Jesus.

I hope you do enjoy eating a few mince pies over the coming weeks, even if they are now unrecognisable as being edible nativity scenes. Hundreds of years ago nativity figures were moulded from minced meat and fruit, and the pastry was the stable. I hope you find time to enjoy singing some Christmas carols, or at least listening to them: they tell the story of the night that God became human to save a human race that could not save itself. I even hope you manage to enjoy a Christmas movie on the TV. Yes, I know most of them have the same cheesy plot-line of Christmas grouch who meets Santa in disguise and is spreading Christmas cheer to everyone in sight by the end of the film. The interesting twist is that such films are about the advent journey of inhospitable hearts being made a smooth highway for God’s love.      

"All glory be to God on high and to the earth be peace; Goodwill henceforth from heaven to men begin and never cease"
(Carol: While Shepherds Watched, last verse) 

Revd Eddie