News

So here I am sat at the computer trying to think Christmassy thoughts for the December edition of the various Beacon Team Magazines! With all that has gone on this year it is hard to get into that frame of mind. So much that has been in the news is stark and depressing, hardly the sort of thing that conjures up the Festive Spirit. The credit crunch; the ongoing war in Afghanistan; binge drinking; child abuse; just the tip of the ice-berg as regards the news that has filled the media during 2009. How, I find myself wondering, is a little bit of tinsel; a scots pine; the roast carcass of an over weight immigrant fowl; going to erase the memory of what has befallen this country this past year.  The thought of the shops stuffed with goods that no one really wants, but which we are told will make for a memorable Festive Season fills me with a sense of foreboding!

Perhaps I am showing my age. Perhaps I have become a grumpy old man. Certainly my age would put me in that category. All is humbug and even the Christmas story with angels, shepherds and donkeys; an overcrowded inn, and a baby born in a stable, seems, in the cold light of day, or the damp darkness of early winter, bizarre and anachronistic!

However as I reflected in this bucolic manner, it came to me that stripped of its wrapping, the Christmas Story is still as powerful and profound today as it ever was. The Christmas Story is about God’s intervention in the world, a universe that was called into being by the Big Bang of his creative energy. It is the manner of the intervention that is remarkable. God chose to intervene not by an invasive show of power, but through the medium of the humanity that was fashion from the cosmic dust, into which live was breathed.

God began this work, as all human life begins on this planet as a baby, surrounded by parents with all the hopes and fears that go with that responsibility. God chose to work with and through the created order and in so doing redeemed the world. God showed that change is possible, and this change has its origin in each new born child. Each child has before it the potential for good or evil. Each child is faced with choices as it grows, and each child can reach adulthood without giving in or compromising, without being overwhelmed.

Stripped bare the Christmas Story is about hope and redemption. About hope, that begins with each new born baby. It is about new beginnings and above all about the triumph of good over evil. Now even a grumpy old man - or woman for that matter - could get excited about that and begin to feel festive after all!

Happy Christmas!
Yours

Nigel Davies

From 11-13 December, people will be meeting in their churches, community