May Christ's Fresh Coming Bless Your Christmas and New Year!
A Christmas Message from Bishop Scruton
In our imaginations, we often think of Christ coming on a "silent night...all is calm, all is bright." We think of everything being peaceful and "right".
When we carry a nostalgic picture of Christ's coming, we miss the true gift.
Mary and Joseph were coerced by government regulations to travel from Nazareth, their hometown, to Bethlehem, almost 70 miles South, over rough terrain, at a time when Mary was about to give birth. Mary and Joseph were experiencing a health care crisis: where would young Mary be able to deliver her first born, since they were far away from home and there was no room in the Bethlehem inn? Soon after the birth of their first child, they had to hurry into exile as alien immigrants in Egypt to prevent their baby from being murdered by the brutal Herod who decreed that all male babies under two in the Bethlehem area had to be killed.
All was clearly not calm, peaceful and bright for Mary and Joseph and Jesus. But, in the middle of the stressful chaos, when their lives were filled with disorienting frustrations and fear...God came to them.
Notice, God did not speak to them directly when Jesus was born. God's angels spoke to the shepherds: "Do not be afraid; for behold, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."
God's words of hope and encouragement did not come to disoriented Mary and Joseph until the shepherds, whom they had never met, showed up in the animal shelter where their new baby had just been born. Those rough shepherds told Mary and Joseph about their experience of God speaking to them through angels about "good news of great joy for all the people" coming through a new baby, God's Messiah, born in Bethlehem, lying in a manger, an animal feed trough.
Many people in the world are disoriented and filled with anxieties. You might be experiencing some of those feelings in this season of your life. Listen for what God might want to say to you...through the words of other people, perhaps some you do not know. God comes to all of us in our seasons of disorientation, anxiety and exile. God does not abandon us in our disorientation and anxiety. God keeps coming to us, bringing hope, promising to keep guiding us through difficult times.
In this season of disorientation, keep looking for the tiny signs of God's coming, the little seeds of hope. In Jesus, God is still bringing "good news of great joy" for us and for all people. God's angels are inviting us, like they invited the shepherds, to tell others of our experience of God coming to us, bringing good news of great joy in this season of our lives. Who is God inviting you to tell about your experience of God's fresh coming among us?