Bishop Peter: "Jesus is, quite literally, God’s Christmas Present to us''

Bishop Peter reflects on the Christmas story and invites us all to be "taken by surprise, by the eternal, mysterious surprise and wonder of God’s love."
 

Christmas presents us with the beating heart of Christian Faith, that God – the Creator of the universe – became a human being.  He didn’t just make an appearance.  He embraced the inner reality, and physicality, of being a human being.

If this is mysterious – and it always will be – the mystery deepened much more at the Cross.  Charles Wesley captured it finely in his hymn:

            Tis mystery all, the Immortal dies

            Who can explore his strange design.

            In vain the firstborn Seraph tries,

            To sound the depths of love divine.

It is the mystery of love, of God’s self-giving love, even unto death on a Cross.

Christmas presents this to us in its distinctive way.  Jesus is, quite literally, God’s Christmas Present to us.  Like the best Christmas presents, Jesus took everyone by surprise.  Nobody in Bethlehem was expecting the Messiah of Israel to appear, and especially not as a homeless baby.

Much of modern life circles around hopes and plans to control our lives:  our health, our wealth, and everything else too.  Politicians, of all parties, are driven by the dynamics of power, working for the day when they will be ‘in power’.  I say this as an observation, and not in criticism.  The digital age confers upon all of us a power of communication, and power in general, beyond the wildest imagining of earlier generations.

Christmas invites us to acknowledge that God’s ways are not our ways and that his thoughts will cut across our thoughts, sometimes in the most surprising of ways.

Christmas invites us to gaze once more upon the Christmas Crib and to be taken by surprise, by the eternal, mysterious surprise and wonder of God’s love.  A love which brought Jesus to Bethlehem, and onwards to Golgotha.

Where will this love take us and our world?

+Peter

 


 

Bishop Peter is also supporting Christian Aid's Christmas campaign this year. Find out more. 

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