Presents and Presence

When is it the right time to exchange gifts at Christmas?

The answer to that Yuletide conundrum might be influenced by where you are at this time of year.

For example, in the Netherlands our Dutch friends will already have unwrapped a present or two on St Nicolas’ Day Eve, 5^th December, when Sinterklaas brings gifts for children.

However, travel up to Scandinavia and we might find the exchange of presents in Estonia, Finland and Denmark all taking place on Christmas Eve rather than our norm of Christmas Day.

Further south, in Spain, where my brother lives up in the Andalusian mountains, and he tells me that in his village it’s January 6^th when people get their presents, Epiphany Day, remembering the gifts of gold, frankincense and myhhr offered by the wise men.

In Louisa Alcott’s classic: Little Women, the book starts off like this:  Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.  Well, of course, you could have Christmas without them, and perhaps many do, but the book has a point in that the very essence of this Christian festival recalls at its centre the gift of God to the world of Jesus.

The bible describes God in terms of generosity.  His present to us at Christmas is the presence of Jesus – whose birth, life and death shows us what God’s love looks like in a human life.

The gift of God’s presence with us is something to celebrate not just on December 5^th, 24^th, 25^th or January 6^th, but every day.

The gift of God’s presence with us brings love and light into our lives.

We recently received a family wedding invitation, on it my niece made it clear that what she’d value on the day is our presence rather than a present.  Of course, she and her husband to be will willingly be offered both, but it’s a lovely thought – the best present is often our presence.

Just as God shares his love with us in the presence of Jesus – so we are then called to share love, kindness and generosity of spirit with each other in our presence to and with them.

So, this Christmas let’s give thanks for the presence of love and light in our world – found in God, made real in Jesus and encountered too in the companionship of those around us.

Whenever you open your presents this year, may the presence of love be for you the best gift you both give and receive.
Blog holiday now for a couple of weeks!

Election Day

Later this evening I’m off to Amersham Common Village Hall to vote in the first December election since 1923!  I’ll probably not wait up to hear the result, due in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

I did attend a local Hustings, organised by the churches of Amersham on the Hill, last Saturday.  Many ‘activists’ from the community attended and although the four candidates all spoke with mutual respect the same, alas, could not be said of the audience.  The tone of many of the questions and the reactions of the majority to the answers offered by the platform party bordered on ‘thug-ish’.  I was deeply disappointed as I left to think that the democratic ‘process’ had sunk to such a low level.

I’m reminded on a day such as this of the efforts of the minister of Westbourne Park Baptist Church, Paddington, at the turn of the 20^th century.  The Revd John Clifford was also an activist and unashamedly put his support behind the Liberal governments of Asquith and Lloyd George.  In the early 1900’s most non-conformists would have automatically voted Liberal even as most Anglicans would have Tory!

Every week the Baptist Times used to carry a front-page article outlining the activities of Parliament as chronicled by a Baptist MP – amazing to think that the Free Church Grouping of MPs in the Commons in those days numbered just under a hundred!

The Revd Dr John Clifford really did believe that the social reforms of Lloyd George, including the introduction of the Old Age Pension in 1907, were evidence of the manifestation of the Kingdom of God.

A hundred years on and the world seems a much more complex place – and I, for one, would never feel comfortable bringing party politics into a sermon, let alone declare publicly in church my position on Brexit!

My prayer today is that those elected tonight will be able to sit in the Commons from Tuesday onwards and ‘collectively’ work together for the good of the country in these difficult days.

Alas, gone are the days when my predecessors would instinctively and automatically have voted for Lloyd George for no other reason than that his background of growing up was that of being a Welsh Baptist!

Ian

View from the Pew

I've started a Sabbatical Project entitled View from the Pew.  Once a month, for about a year, I'll be writing a blog on another site and it can be accessed from a separate blogspot with the following address:

https://viewfromthepewsabbatical.blogspot.com/