Vicar's Message

by Revd Martijn Mugge

 

REMEMBER CHRISTMAS

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I love Christmas. I love the lights, the sounds, the colours, the food, the presents, the Christmas tree. I love it all. And yet as I look forward to all these wonderful things, I wonder whether I love Christmas for all the wrong reasons.

 

Not that there’s anything particularly wrong with the things I so enjoy about Christmas. However, it does worry me, that what the story of Christmas is really about, has become so familiar to me that I don’t pay it the kind of attention that I should. And as I come to realise that, I know what it is I really need.

 

What I need, again and again, is to revisit that story of Christmas, and to revisit the spiritual truths that are found in it. Truths about life and love and the amazing news of God’s grace towards us. The other thing that worries me is that I’m not alone.

 

You see, this Christmas is exciting for all of us, but maybe it’s exciting for the wrong reasons. Maybe the deeper joys of Christmas are so easily lost on us because we’ve stopped paying attention to what the angels are telling us, what the worship of the shepherds is showing us, what the manger is revealing to us, and what the wise men confirmed to us.

 

I know what I need. I need to re-examine and re-experience that Christmas story again and again and again and again, because it is in that story of ‘God with us’ (Emmanuel) that true spiritual blessings of hope, joy, peace and love are found. I know how easy it is to celebrate Christmas for the wrong reasons. And I guess I am not alone.

 

Will you come and experience the true Christmas story with us? Join us 15th December for our Choir Concert at 6.30pm, 22nd December for our Dress-Up Nativity Service at 10.30am and our Carol service at 6.30pm, Christmas Eve for our Christingle at 3pm and Christmas Day for Holy Communion at 10.30am. Let’s not forget the deeper joy of Christmas this year.

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HAPPY CHRISTMAS