Thursday 18 December 2014

The Mystery of Christmas

Every year I get out my ten or so Advent and Christmas CDs and perhaps play them a little too much!  One has the title: The Mystery of Christmas.

We've heard the story so often, watched a lifetime of nativity plays and perhaps sing our carols with a familiarity they don't deserve (many of them have highly complex points of theology!) - that we loose sight of just what a mystery Christmas is.  In its day it confounded the expectations of the temple authorities and the wise men from the east.  It's been doing it ever since!

I suppose that is why I told a 'monologue' about Mary at last Sunday morning's service rather than preach a sermon.  I can't really fathom out much of her story but somehow in simply retelling it we sense its profundity, even its relevance for us today.

'Worship' rather than 'explanation' is, I think, a more appropriate response to Christmas - and probably much else in the Christian narrative!

Like you, I suspect, we receive one or two 'round robbin' letters in with the cards each day now  One arrived this morning from our Baptist Regional Minister - he finished it with a prayer that went like this:

When the world was dark
and the city was quiet,
you came.

You crept in beside us.

And no-one knew,
only the few
who dared to believe
that God might do something different.

Next week I hope you have a happy and wonderfully 'mysterious' Christmas!  The blog returns in a fortnight's time.

Ian


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