From the Minister's Study
Googling 'Bethlehem at Christmas' I discovered an extremely moving and disturbing song - "They've cancelled Christmas in Bethlehem". The words go on to say they have cancelled Peace, Hope - "In a land once known as holy, they've cancelled Christmas". "If peace on earth is to come, if our Christmas songs and prayers are not to be in vain - the Wall must fall."
I had been set along the line of thinking by an email I had received from our national co-ordinator for Commitment for Life, Linda Mead, inviting us to remember in our Advent prayers Christian people of Bethlehem unable to travel to Jerusalem to visit friends and family and to worship. The wall has become a terrible symbol of separation and division, from workplace and livestock, water supplies, trade and friends. It is frequently crippling to the life of the Palestinian people, in a land once known as holy.
This Advent we launch, in the United Reformed Church, the Vision4Live programme - a three-year programme to transform the life of our churches through the Bible, Prayer and telling the story. The creation stories for me point to the time when humankind developed to the point of being able to think and search for meaning, and the Old Testament is part of a continuing search of people to discover God. In Jesus we see that search coming to fulfilment in a man in whom we see humanity at its best, the overcoming of evil with unbridled love, a human being who most closely points us towards God.
Advent is the period of preparation, getting ready for the arrival of the Prince of Peace, Immanuel, "God with us", the Word made flesh; Jesus, the symbol and sign of God's love for each and every one of us, without exclusion. It is a time of excitement, looking forward in hope and expectation, sharing the gift which is without price (significant for us in these troubled economic times!) So may this Christmas not just be a time of giving and receiving gifts, some of great expense, which might be obscene to those who will have none. Let it rather be a time when we search for the real gift of Christmas, and new meaning in our lives, and a renewal of hope for those who live in despair, like the people of Bethlehem. Let us not allow Christmas to be cancelled - but let us make it real for all people. The walls that divide us must come down.
With Christmas greetings to all,
December 2008 / January 2009
- Previous letters:
- November 2008
- October 2008
- August / September 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
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- December 2007 / January 2008
- November 2007
- October 2007
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- December 2006 / January 2007
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- September 2006
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