Pastor’s Thoughts – Winter 2022

Christmas greetings to you all!

After the year that we’ve had you can be forgiven for wondering what lies ahead. People are worried about the future, and we can understand why. But we have a simple message for people this Christmastime: Hope came down at Christmas!

After the celebrations of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee it seems to have been bad news ever since, including, of course, the death of Her Majesty. We know that everything has become more expensive, and that even the most basic things seem to have gone up. The war in Ukraine drags on and COP 27 barely achieved the things it needed to. Is there any room for optimism in the midst of this?

If I say: yes and no, I promise I’m not trying to be difficult. There’s room for hope but not optimism. Optimism is an attitude of mind that says: “Don’t worry, it will all be okay!” To me that sounds a lot like denial. This is a tough situation, and we cannot deny it. To pretend otherwise is an insult to people living in tough times. But there is hope, and this is at the heart of the Christmas message. Hope came down at Christmas.

The baby Jesus was God’s answer to the need of the world, the answer to our need. Paul writes: For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Colossians 2:9). God had come to us in our need because we could not help ourselves. In that tiny baby lived the fullness of God and of humanity. God and man had come together in Him. Human beings were separated from God’s presence because we rebelled against Him. Our disobedience allowed evil to have control of much of the world and of human nature. That image of God in which we were created has been distorted in us and has led to so much of human behaviour being self-seeking. In Jesus there is hope because only He could bring us together with God.

Jesus’ perfect life not only demonstrated how we should live but meant that He lived in perfection on our behalf. When He died on the cross, He was a sacrifice for us – He took our place – and He wiped clean our account with God. Now we can know the Father as our Father because Jesus took away our imperfections and failures, our sinfulness. We can live with Him for ever.

So Christmas means hope for eternity, but this isn’t just escapism, or hope for the future; this is hope for today. We’re called into this family, the Church, and we’re here to live as the community of God’s people. That means that we will care for one another and that as a community we will extend that love and care to those around us who are not part of His Kingdom.

God’s love for us is practical, and we are His hands and feet, demonstrating that love in this broken and hurting world. Hope came down at Christmas.

I’m delighted to say that The Bridge is now ready, and we are in the process of equipping and furnishing it . Our grand opening will be on the 21st January 2023 and we’ll be celebrating with a short service and afternoon tea. Please come along and celebrate with us. The Bridge offers us a more tailor-made resource to enable us to care for others. Exchange is already well established there and being wonderfully used. We’re also seeing people asking exactly the kind of questions that we would like them to ask: “Why are you doing this?” We’re doing it because hope came down at Christmas. Someone asked me the other day: “Why are you bothering to take time to listen to me?” Because hope came down at Christmas. We’re joining with other churches in the town to offer a network of warm spaces this winter, where people can have company, warmth and snacks because hope came down at Christmas. I would like to get Celebrate Recovery started again in the New Year because it is a great way of helping people overcome issues that are causing them difficulty. Why go to the trouble of this long programme? Because hope came down at Christmas. If you can help please let me know.

Finally I want to ask you to invite someone to be part of what we are doing this year. Here is a list of events that are happening over the next weeks. Offer them the gift of hope this year.

Happy Christmas,
John