Monthly message

Dear All

“Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling”. Zechariah

The way we celebrate Christmas is not conducive to silence. It is noisy, busy, chaotic and frenetic. Today, the jaunty strains of ‘Frosty the Snowman’ would drown out the song of the angels and perhaps we prefer it so. The first Christmas, after all, begins with a profound silence: humanity has reached the point where it is hopeless. Morally and spiritually cut off from God, its only hope is if God Himself intervenes. This is not a comfortable truth – it’s not easy to be told that in our natural state, we are hopeless, that our dependence on God is so total that none of our words, or actions or little scraps of goodness are sufficient to enable us to stand in the presence of God. The silence of a humanity that has come to the end of its own resources is met with something so astonishing that we could never have dreamt it up – the cry of a baby in whose frail body is God Himself. God communicating to us in flesh and blood. Those who follow the life of this baby will learn, with wonder, of how His teaching, His life, His death, His rising from death, and His continued presence with them thereafter are God’s way of bringing new life and salvation to the world. Christmas is only the beginning. There is no better way of marking the season than by making at least some time for the silence that allows us to wonder at the love which brought God into our midst, and to be reminded that the only right response is gratitude, love and hearts committed afresh to Him.

The darkest time in the year,

The poorest place in town,

Cold, and a taste of fear,

Man and woman alone.

What can we hope for here?

More light than we can learn,

More wealth than we can treasure,

More love than we can earn,

More peace than we can measure,

Because one Child is born.

Anon.

God bless, Ben