Dear Friends,
It is the most beautiful time of
the year. A time of light, food, parties, fun and presents. We must not forget
how much it means to children. The other day I was in Toronto. There were
children all around me. There was snow on the ground and a log fire burning. It
was reminiscent of everything you could imagine about Christmas. Despite being
in Church one of the parents told her child "If you are not good, Christmas will
not happen". So the little boy no more than 6 said, "What if we are not good
won't Jesus be born". With me the preacher sitting there the parents did not
dare answer.
The fact is that Christmas has
one reason only, that Jesus was indeed born. Throughout history from the Jewish
tradition there was the profound belief that one-day the Messiah, the anointed
one of God would be born. He would be the one who would lead people to their
heavenly father God. He would be the one who would change peoples understanding
of God forever. He would be the one known as the King of Kings.
Yet he was not born of the right
stock, he was born of an unmarried mother who was no more than a refugee. She
gave birth to her son in a grotty stable, in a grotty little town just outside
of Jerusalem called Bethlehem. Not a very grand start for the person who would
change history. From the day he was born history was divided into before him BC
or after him AD. Those who follow that refugee child now call themselves
Christians.
Christmas is also a time when you
assess what has happened over the past year. For me this year has been so hard
because I am not the vicar in a leafy Parish in the Hampshire/Surrey boarders
where my family live. My parish is Baghdad in Iraq. The nation where the
Christians have been dismissed from their hometowns in there hundreds of
thousands. They have fled in their masses to the very North of Iraq fleeing the
onslaught of the terrorist group known as ISIS. There for weeks my staff team
have fed and clothed, provided mattresses and cradles for the thousands and
thousands of internally displaced people.
Here in their refugee camp, the
Christians with no Christmas like us in the West have placed a refugee tent for
Jesus and there in the camp is a tent for another person who was also a poor
refugee who had nothing.
This Christmas as we celebrate
what we have, let us not forget that we too are celebrating the birth of a
refugee who had nothing but gives us everything. As we delight in what we can
give to people this Christmas let us not forget what this Christmas is really
all about the time when this refugee child comes to all of us as the one who
leads us to God and offers us the most wonderful gift possible this Christmas.
Christmas is all about relationship with our ultimate creator.
I will never forget the day in
Baghdad when we had some visitors. They had come to see what it was really like
for Christians in Iraq. They were so surprised by how happy the thousands of
people were in our congregation. "How can you be so happy when you are
surrounded, suicide bombs, mortar's rockets and such violence". One of our young
people answered the statement. "You see when you have lost everything, Jesus is
all you have got left".
All you have got left is the love
of that refugee child. That to us in the Middle East is all that matters this
Christmas. The terrorism has got so bad in Iraq that I have had to leave. So I
have moved to the other place where I work Bethlehem. That little town where
Jesus first came. Two thousand years after he first came he is still everything
to the people, He is still everything to our Christians in Iraq and he can still
be everything to us. You see when Christmas is over, when you have had all your
presents and food, Jesus is all we have got left.
So Christmas is a time when we
should never loose the meaning of this Christ Child who came to us so that by
simply trusting in him we will have a life filled with hope and purpose and
love. He is still with us 2000 years after he first came. This Christmas let us
not forget that he so loves us that we must love him and in response our life
will be changed forever.
Wishing you a happy and blessed
celebration on the birthday of our Lord.
Canon Andrew White
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