1st Sunday of Christmas 2023
Today we celebrated the first Sunday of Christmas as we continued to sing well known carols accompanied by Abigail.
I hope you all have had a good Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
This Week
Tuesday 10am – No prayer group this week
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion this week followed by coffee in Friendship House
Readings for next Sunday – Epiphany – Isaiah 60:1-6 Ephesians 3:1-12 Matthew 2:1-12
Today’s Readings – Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Galatians 4:4-7, Luke 2:5-21
There has been a lot of discussion recently concerning the advent and implication of artificial intelligent. Scary and exciting in equal measure we are fed many reports all informing us of the merits and horrors of this new technology. But, of course, to a degree AI is already part of our lives. Many of us use sat nav, laptops and smart phones and there is much talk about owning one’s first driverless car.
But underlining all this is the fear of the dehumanisation of our species not only on a personal interactive way but also regarding employment as many of us will be replaced by robots in the workforce.
Apparently one of the most at risk jobs is that of a priest. Soon it seems you will be able to dispense with me! Incredibly an avatar will take my place preaching and conducting worship to an agreed high standard and style….no arguments, no discussions you can programme your priest to do whatever you require at any time. Obviously, it all sounds rather farfetched and I’m not sure what happens over coffee etc…..
But that’s the trouble with AI we don’t know where exactly it will lead us and that is why its so scary – we can’t see the whole picture because we don’t know exactly what it is made up of.
When we think of the Christmas story, we know the ending, we know it very well and we know with all its twists and turns it is a happy one. The anticipation of Christmas is followed by the joy and drama of Easter.
But for people who were in the first Christmas story all those years ago, there was no such knowledge. Certainly, there were lots of hints of things to come: messengers from God; prophetic pronouncements and Shepherds rushing off the hills to tell of an angelic choir singing that the saviour is born. People were full of awe and wonder! But also, there must have been some confusion. People must have been uncertain what all the signs meant: The star, the shepherds and the general sense of excitement in the air.
Perhaps many of them didn’t notice!
But all that uncertainty and excitement must have had its effect on Mary. Everyone else in the nativity scene is amazed, but Mary is more thoughtful. And we think of the words of the gospel today that describe Mary’s response to the whole scene.
“But Mary treasure all these words and pondered them in her heart”
We may wonder what was she really thinking, what did it mean to bear God’s child? What did she understand by the phrase,
“Son of the Most High” Or that he would “inherit the throne of his ancestor David”. What does it mean to be “Good News to all people”
These are big questions, no wonder Mary was pondering them in her heart and there was a lot to think about.
Over the last few weeks, we have celebrated a familiar well-worn and much-loved story. But perhaps we should put ourselves in the shoes of those who didn’t know how it would all work out and had only their faith to help them put together the pieces of the heavenly jigsaw that was being laid out before them.
Often our own lives are a jumble of such pieces. We might have some moments of clarity, with answers to prayer, signs from God and words of instruction. But if we are honest these moments of certainty can be rather rare and there are a lot of questions unanswered and uncertainties to face. And there always seems to be a lot of “just getting on with it”.
But in a sense, this is good, rather than tie everything up with spiritual certainties. God gives us the space we need to allow the Christian story to unfold for each one of us.
Over the last few weeks, we have been enriched by the story of Christmas as it has been retold. But now there is scope too to follow Mary’s example and ponder not just the wonderful gifts God has given us but the questions and uncertainties that those things raise.
So, now that the immediate celebration of Christmas is over may we too treasure all these words and ponder them in our hearts as we contemplate our complicated, sophisticated and scary world and our lives in it, all in the context of the saving grace of God who came and lived among us and whose birth we have just celebrated.