Christmas Day 2025
Today we celebrated Christmas Day, the birth of Christ, the Saviour of the world.
Accompanied by Hugh, in a great turnout with many visitors we sang in full voice familiar hymns and celebrated the Eucharist, all followed by coffee, mulled wine and other treats.
Our next service is on Sunday 10am Sung Eucharist for 1st Sunday of Christmas.
In the meantime, I wish you all every blessings for Christmas!
Luke 2:1-18
“Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 13:14
Words of Saint Paul which he wrote in his letter to the Romans.
Christmas jumpers have become a great trend in recent years, how many of us have clothed ourselves with the spirit of Christmas as we sport our favourite ones. Bright jolly and fun, they lift our spirits and now play a significant part in the Christmas rituals even the pet shops are full of them, ours love theirs!
“Clothe yourself with Christ” is a biblical metaphor for adopting Jesus’s character and living according to his teachings, emphasizing spiritual transformation and active service.
I don’t suppose Paul had in mind bright Christmas jerseys when he wrote those words over 2000 years ago, but they are a bit of seasonal fun and the nativity story is fun.
And we all enjoy a good story for our lives are made up of stories – our own personal experiences.
At this time of year, we often look back on the year that has just been and we reflect on its main stories in the news
On a personal level we may recall our own stories of triumph and tribulation, of love and loss – of happiness and sorrow.
But all our stories are special, and they make us who we are, forming us and changing us.
Today we celebrate the greatest story of all. Over 2,000 years ago when an angel appeared to a young Mary and proclaimed that she would give birth to the Son of God, her future changed for ever. The same was true of those shepherds on a hillside and astrologers from the East following a star. Because incredibly they were the first to see the longed for and anticipated Messiah who was to be the saviour of the world.
But this longing and anticipating had begun hundreds of years before that first Christmas. As we heard in our OT readings during Advent the prophets painted pictures of a time yet to come – of peace, justice and of reconciliation. They looked for and dreamed for a time of transformation and all things being made new.
And then came the birth of a child, Jesus Christ, the ‘Emmanuel’ which means ‘God with us.’
And their dream was realised in that child in the manger, the promise of transformation grounded in forgiveness and generous love all manifested in a small baby boy.
This is the true magic of Christmas which then gives way to deep divine mystery as we begin to live that dream that has now become a reality. And because of Jesus Christ the Son of God born in a stable, life will never be the same again; and the future is full of hope.
Mary the mother of Jesus knew that. Just like those shepherds on the hillside, Mary had seen the angel and heard the words of promise, and even when pain and tears and suffering came, Mary held fast. As we heard in our gospel reading, Mary treasured the words of the shepherds and pondered them in her heart.
When the baby grew up into a man and was brutally crucified, it looked as if a dark nightmare had killed that dream of hope proclaimed by angels to ordinary shepherds on the hillside. Yet three days after Jesus died, he came back to life and revealed God’s love as stronger than death itself. Truly life will never be the same again. Nothing can undo the resurrection. Life has changed forever.
This Christmas as we look at Jesus not only as a vulnerable baby in a manger, but also as the grown Son of God risen from the dead, we see love which knows of pain, hatred and suffering. Generous love which sees us as we are in all our brokenness and beauty and never gives up. The dream of light stronger than the darkness has come true, and we are invited to join in.
That first Christmas, when King Herod heard the unwelcome news of the birth of Jesus, he ordered the magi bearing gifts to let him know when they had located the child. However, they were then warned in a dream not to return to King Herod, and we are told that the visitors from the East returned to their country by a different road.
Let us not only be like the shepherds returning full of joy and hope, giving glory to God; but let us also be like those wise men from the East, returning to the future by a different road, living the dream of generous love and certain hope for ourselves, our situations and our world.
Amen.