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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