Jesus - the beginning of Christmas!

December 2011

I know that some people want to move away from calling the December festivities Christmas, and others would rather use the ‘word’ Xmas, but for most of it is and will always be Christmas!

Tony our vicar

I hope that every time you use the word it will remind you of what the beginning of Christmas was all about - Christ is the beginning of Christmas. That’s how the word begins, but also that’s how we ought to think of the whole of December.

I was reading the book of Romans the other day and read this, ‘..what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin…’ (Rom. 8:3).

This is what Christmas is all about, though I admit it does need a bit of ‘unwrapping’. Let’s think about the greatest gift of all time and it begins with a predicament. ‘The law could not do..’ God wants you and me to be His friends, just like Adam and Eve who walked with God in the Garden of Eden, so He gave us a set of clear rules (the law) and if we actually kept every single one of them every single moment of our lives, would actually lead us to God. The problem is, we can’t, we are ‘weak’ and so we fail. It’s no use saying we keep most of God’s law. Like a broken window, all it needs is one crack and the whole thing is ruined. Notice how this verse suddenly jumps from us and our weakness to God, ‘God did’. God acted, He saw us in a mess that we couldn’t get out of and He acted; He sent His one and only Son to earth for us. He lived the life that we should have lived and didn’t sin, He taught us what it means to love God and those around us, but most importantly He came as ‘an offering or sin’. He came to break down the barrier between us and God. We cannot do it, but trusting in His life, death and resurrection for us, we can be restored. This is what grace is all about ‘God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense’; what an enormous gift, to give your own life for someone who has rejected you! That is why Christ is the beginning of Christmas. If there is an X in Christmas it should be a ‘kiss sign’, us showing that we love what Jesus has done for us and we can ‘kiss’ God because of what Jesus has done for us.

Let us all use the word Christmas with pride, remembering that Christ is the beginning, the middle and the end of Christmas!

You will find elsewhere the details of our Christmas activities and my Sabbatical, please read them and join with us over Christmas and pray for Josie and myself as we spend time with each other and with God during my Sabbatical.

Yours in Christ

Tony Butterworth