Friends
This week we hear more about John the Baptist, that man who was “The voice of one calling in the wilderness ‘prepare ye the way of the Lord’.” I wonder if sometimes he felt that he was not so much calling in the wilderness as whistling down the wind. There are times, are there not, when we feel like that about sharing our own faith? It is not so much that we can’t, or that we don’t dare, but more that other people just don’t seem to care. Even our own families who we worked so hard to bring up in the faith, may have fallen away or become indifferent to something that is for us so very important.
And yet… perhaps at this time of year when the darkness is lit by little points of light, little points of hope, others might still recognise something of the glory and the promise of the Christmas story. If the stars are not as bright in our light-polluted landscapes as they were on that first Christmas Eve, still there is something magical about the twinkle of lights in the High Street, our neighbour’s houses, on our Christmas trees. If the lights where you are don’t shine that brightly, or are too garish for your tastes, drive out to Cookham one evening and enjoy the magic of the little High Street lit by thousands of white Christmas lights.
What do they represent, these little lights? Well, they remind us of the star which wise men followed of course, but it seems to me that in this time of fear and worry, these little twinkling points of light in the gloom remind us that there is always hope. That in the context of no room at the inn, there was still a stable. In the context of a King desperate to maintain his own power, there were still people prepared to disobey him, and gifts that allowed the little family to flee to Egypt. In the context of poverty and a little-respected job as shepherds, angels appeared to tell the Good News. In the context of fear and occupation, a child was born, a Son was given and from that tiny, surprising, scarce-witnessed beginning, a hope was sent to the entire world that even today is offered, needed and longed for.
Let us pray this Advent, that some at least will follow the lights of town centres and homes across the Circuit all the way to the door of the Church and on arriving will find that there is room for them.
God bless,
Vicci