Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve, some of us will be gathering at St. David’s Uniting Church. Some will be watching online. For the rest of us, we are encouraged to take a moment, before the rush of tomorrow and all it brings – joyful and otherwise – and consider the mystery of Christmas afresh. For in this time of ongoing uncertainty, some things remain ever-true…like how we are always in need of a story of grace, a promise of peace. Like how no pandemic or plague or any single thing in all of creation can separate us from God’s love. Or like how, at Christmas time, a voice can be heard whispering:

‘I know the losses you’ve had and the anxieties you hold.

I know the hard time you often give yourselves.

I know your hopes, and your fears, for the year ahead.

And in this season, I want to find a way of saying to you:

You are deeply, deeply loved, just as you are –

 forgiven, loved and challenged to be the very best you can be.

So I’m speaking to you in the only way I know how –

from a stable, in a child born into poverty,

born to show you, in a human life, the love of God.’

Christmas Eve message – given the busyness of the season and ever-changing circumstances, Phil’s going to write this nearer the day in the hope it will be fresh! In the meantime, he’s set some fiendish Christmas film anagrams for us!                    

1: SHE PATS EXPLORERS

2: YE LOCAL VAULT

3: CHARCOAL ITS ARMS

4: HIS WARMEST ITCH

5: HIRED AD

6: SORE COG

7: SULTANA TEACHES

8: FILE IS AT UNDERFLOW

9: EARACHE PEG TEST

10: CHAIR SMART HURTS

Answers in the New Year.

Christmas Eve prayerful reflection – John Henson

Loving God in this time of a great plague, we seek to present ourselves before you in sincerity and with minds open to reality. There have been many plagues in the history of humankind, some recorded in the Bible as being sent by you as punishment. We thank you that few religious people take that line these days. You never seek to hurt us however badly we behave. You put your arms around us as did the father in the case of the prodigal son, and call us to your feast. However, the young man did his best to relate to the father his poor performance as a son. And our current plague may be the result of humanity’s neglect of the world you have provided for us, in particular, some think, of the way we have treated your creatures, one another, and other animals.

Bad as this plague may be, it may yet not be as bad as the plagues of mind and heart which bedevil our souls almost perpetually, and which are recorded vividly in the stories of the first Christmas.

So, we ask you God, in these last hours of Advent, to help us examine our souls with the same seriousness as we take our Covid tests.

Are we suffering from the plague of judgementalism? The young couple in the story were almost certainly judged by their neighbours in Nazareth to have behaved immorally, although actually they just loved one another. The people of Bethlehem behaved no better. What was a pregnant woman doing out and about, accompanied only by a man? The custom of the time was that a woman must be confined to her home during pregnancy and looked after by female chaperones. It seems very much that Joseph had to deliver the baby, and out in the street. Disgusting! So let us pray for all today who today carry the virus of judgementalism, often religious people like us. Let us take the test. Are we carrying the plague of judgementalism? Perhaps we need to lay our flesh bare to receive an injection of love.

Are we suffering from the twin sisters of hatred and hard-heartedness? Herod’s hatred is obvious. The soldiers who had to do the killing probably did not hate the babies or the mothers. They were under orders. Being hard hearted was part of what a soldier had to be. There is public horror of the drowning of 27 refugees including children trying in a dingy to get to the shores of Kent. But at the same time there was a failure of support to provide safe and legitimate ways for them to come. What are our thoughts and feelings? Do we need another jab of love from God?

And then over-arching all is the plague of façade. Christmas is a time of being merry. ‘God rest you merry, gentlemen’; ‘God rest you merry, people all’. So, we need parties to help us forget all the horrible things that are happening in the world. So, we have pretty lights and Santa Claus. And we do the same with the Christmas story. Our Christmas cards in the main present an entirely false view of things. The most popular still are a bright stable with a smartly dressed mother and tidy father, or three kings with crowns and splendid attire, on their camels, processing through the deserts. None of that in the Bible. No stable, no Ox and Ass; no Kings, no camels. Today we have a Christmas Tree with baubles. That’s not in the Bible either. Perhaps together with the pretty things we put on the tree we should put the pictures of refugees, and the homeless and hungry here in our own country and overseas. So do we need a booster jab from God to give us the love to see things through the facade.

Perhaps the Covid plague has come to show us how things really are. Not your doing, God. But an opportunity for us, with your help, to learn some lessons, and to struggle through to a world with more love, more hope, and more peace. Amen.

Christmas Eve Prayers of Intercession – Mary Robins

Dear Lord,

Like generations before us, we are gathered together to celebrate, and to give thanks for, the supreme gift that you bestowed on us over 2000 years ago. Just like the shepherds, who were keeping watch over their flocks by night, so we have come to welcome again the Christ Child into our midst.

We come before you with all our frailties, failings and fears asking that you will bless us on this Holy Night.

Today we are assailed by many difficulties, that did not seem to be part of those years, long ago, and life, for us, is not “normal” as we once knew it.

In these troubled times we give thanks for those who have researched and developed the life-saving vaccines, and to the huge number of dedicated staff who have administered this treatment to so many, in such a short time.

We pray, that as a result of their efforts, we will, one day, return to the way of life we once knew.

We pray for those who are sick, wherever they may be, and give thanks for the work of the caring and medical staff who help them and tend to their needs.

We are conscious that for many, Christmas will be a time of difficulty and sadness, rather than one of jollity. We pray for the homeless and the hungry, and those separated from their loved ones.

We pray for those who are alone, anxious or downhearted, and for those who grieve. Draw them near to you, Lord; comfort and support them in their time of need.

We pray for parents, families and children that they may be wrapped and protected in the bonds of love, and cared for by your presence in their lives.

We pray for your church throughout the world, and for those responsible for ministry as they celebrate Christ’s birth this night. In particular, we pray for our own church and minister as we consider what the future might hold for us.

We pray for those who govern us; May they be granted the wisdom to come to the right decisions for the good of our country and the well-being of all its people.

Finally, Lord, grant us the will to make this precious, irreplaceable world of ours a better place for all mankind, and to husband it’s resources carefully. Steer us away from conflict and let us travel the paths of peace. May we be ever mindful of the needs of others and strive to share the world’s bounty more equitably. May we be constantly aware of the blessings of Christmas. In the words of a well-known hymn:-

Love came down at Christmas
Love shall be our token,
Love be yours, and love be mine,
Love to God and all men
Love for plea and gift and sign

Please Lord, hear our prayers, in the name of your precious son, Jesus Christ, the Babe of Bethlehem. Amen.

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