Sharing some thoughts

Part of the wonderful introduction to John’s gospel that we have just heard says, ‘The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.’ This morning we celebrate the birth of the light of the world, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. We join with millions of Christians worldwide as we reflect on God’s greatest gift. I have to confess that I am not a huge fan of Christmas, but one of my favourite parts of the season is Charles Dickens’ novel, ‘A Christmas Carol’. It is of course the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, the man who hated Christmas and everything to do with it, until he was visited by three spirits, the spirit of Christmas past, the spirit of Christmas present and the spirit of the Christmases yet to come. This novel is particularly symbolic for Christians as we worship the God who was, and is, and is to come, and at Christmas time many of us will I suspect, if we get chance, stop at some time just for a moments thought or reflection on the past, the pres

There’s a true story I heard recently about a little girl who had been chosen to place Jesus into the crib on Christmas Day. She had practised hard and she was all ready for the big day – but somehow on the day as she approached the crib, and looked up and saw the minister smiling, she suddenly panicked. She threw the baby Jesus up in the air and turned and ran back to her mother. Incredibly though the baby Jesus landed absolutely perfectly in the crib, and the minister quickly commented that the baby Jesus had arrived by air mail. And that’s a wonderful story for Christmas, because just as the crib scene worked out ok in the end, despite the possibilities of it being ruined by the little girl, so with Jesus in our lives things will work out ok in the end. On that first Christmas night, the angel announced to the shepherds, ‘I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people…’ and that is the message of Christmas today... Every one of us will probably approach Christmas wi

A man had gone out driving to do some Christmas shopping, and his wife was at home watching the television when she heard the announcer say, "be very careful and watch driving on the M4 today, there is a motorist driving the wrong way"! And so his wife got hold of him on his mobile phone to warn him, and his reply was: "You’re telling me, there are hundreds of them going the wrong way here". Going the wrong way is something that is all too easy to do, particularly at this rather hectic time of year, but our readings this morning give us some guidelines on how we can put things on the right track. This morning we have heard the wonderful words of Paul from his letter to the Philippians (4:4), ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice…’ Now just for a moment let’s consider Paul’s circumstances – Paul had been a wealthy man who moved in the best circles, he had power and money, he had influence and probably a lot of friendships and acquaintances that

Begin by playing through ‘When a child is born’ Some of you may know what I’m going to say about that song, but I just thought it would be nice to play one of the popular Christmas songs, one that you will no doubt hear many times in shops or parties or at home. But… you must have guessed there’d be a but… if you listened in depth to the last verse you will have heard the words, ‘It’s all a dream, an illusion now – it must come true sometime soon somehow…’ the reality is that one of the most popular Christmas songs of recent years, is actually a song saying Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ, is meaningless, because that birth still hasn’t happened. And the sad bit is that for many people Christmas is just a dream or an illusion. There will be many people who will work desperately hard to enjoy Christmas because it is just a little bit of light in an often miserable life. There will be many who spend huge amounts of money that they can’t afford to try and bri

I’m going to begin this address by asking some rather difficult questions – Firstly what is this ?? Orange Secondly what is this ?? Ribbon Thirdly ?? Cocktail stick Next ?? Some sweets And finally ?? A Candle You’re all doing so well that I think if I asked you who the best rugby team in the world are you would probably all give me the right answer and say Cardiff Blues ! Now, one more question : if you put all of these things together what would you make ?? A Christingle As you will probably know the various things that make up the Christingle all represent something : The orange represents the world in which we live. The four sticks remind us of the four seasons of the year. The red ribbon reminds us of the blood of Jesus and the fact that he died on the cross for us. The sweets (??) remind us that God gives us a lot of great gifts in our lives, and of course the candle on the top reminds us of Jesus himself – the light of the world. And when al

Advent is a time of year when we, looking forward to Christmas, traditionally consider the message of John the Baptist who went out into the wilderness announcing that Jesus was on his way – the long awaited Saviour of the world was coming, and people were to be ready ! Now John was not the most conventional sort of person – he was in the wilderness, wearing wild animal skins, no doubt smelling very badly, and preaching repentance. He wasn’t genteel or polite, he offended all those who he could offend with his message that everyone has done wrong and every one of us needs Jesus to put it right. He was telling his listeners to cut through all of the distractions, eliminate the nonsense in their lives, and stop running away from God, and running after things that actually in the overall scheme of things don’t really matter. Now if John was here today I think there would be many people who would have a bit of a problem with him, not least Church leaders, but today I think John

Last Thursday was the Feast Day of St Andrew – most of us will know him as the Patron Saint of Scotland, but perhaps some will know him as the Patron Saint of Russia or even Greece . Apparently he became Patron Saint of Scotland because of a legend that his relics were taken there in the 8 th century – it seems that at the most this involved 3 fingers from his right hand, a bone from his arm, one tooth and a knee cap, but nevertheless this apparently inspired Hungus the king of the Picts, to defeat the English, and the cross of St Andrew became the standard of Scotland ! But whatever traditions and legends have surrounded Andrew he has undoubtedly left an example for us to follow today in terms of his service and his commitment to the cause of sharing the good news of Jesus. Andrew along with his brother, Simon Peter, was the first of the disciples to be called – responding to Jesus’ promise to make them fishers of men. He then seems to have remained with Jesus throughout his

Once again we have reached the season of advent – the season when we look forward to Christmas – it is the season when some of the old jokes come out such as ‘Why did the little girl change her mind about buying her grandmother some handkerchiefs for Christmas ? Because she couldn’t out what size her nose was !’ or ‘why was Santa’s little helper depressed ? Because he had low elf esteem !’ or just one more ‘Who can you find hiding in a bakery at Christmas ? A mince Spy !’ Anyway that exhausts my supply of awful Christmas jokes so we will just have to be serious right up to Christmas. Advent is a funny time of year though – it is a time in the Church Calendar just as solemn as Lent, although it is rarely regarded as such but, like Lent, it is a time to examine ourselves and our faith. Last week and the week before I went on two separate courses – one was on leadership and one was on Leading the Church into growth, and they were very different. One was very much theory based