Dear Friends
For all of us, privately and publicly, 2024 will have been a mixed year. Years are always like that. Hopes and fears, dreams and nightmares. That kind of mixture is found in the Christmas story, and you don’t have to look too hard to find it. The incarnation of Jesus is never going to be sanitised or made pretty no matter how much tinsel we put around it, or how often we try to hide behind, “Christmas is really for the children.” Though there is beauty, awe and wonder in the Christmas story, there is also pain, uncertainty and despair. All of these we find in the world, so all of these have their place in the stories of Christmas.
As I write, those mixed feelings dominate our news with the result of the American presidential election. For some there is excitement and possibilities. I find myself with the others, perplexed and astonished. I will not despair, even although I feel the world is turning upside down.
I will not despair, even although the hurts are real. I will not despair, even although walls may be built. I will not despair, even although light is flickering. I will not despair, because hope will come. I will not despair, because truth will triumph. In all that has happened in our world in 2024, much of which has saddened and dismayed, faith will give the courage, the strength, the vision and the resilience that is needed. Divisions must be bridged and we who have faith must be the people to do this. I will not despair because, although my hopes and dreams have not always carried the day I believe the arc of God’s justice bends inexorably towards mercy. We work steadily to see God’s kingdom established in all its challenging discomfort. I will not despair because there is always, always hope.
The story of Christmas has many meanings: it speaks to the elated and the despondent. It also transcends the cares and worries of this present age. That is why the Christmas story shines. It shines in the world, despite everything. It shines in our private lives, despite everything. It shines because it tells of God with us, a light in every darkness, and a hope in every despair.
May the light and hope of Christmas suffuse your lives and your homes now and through the coming New Year.
Drew
