December 2007

Dear Friends

 

Although as I write there is still more than a month to go, and indeed still “quite a few shopping days until Christmas!”, this edition of our church magazine does see the year 2007 draw to a close and the New Year in 2008 open up before us.  At least one of the traditions of our family at New Year has been to share our personal hopes for the coming year – I think some of us at home may be hoping that this tradition might take a break for a year or two, given all the personal plans for recent years that have gone undone, and the hopes that have been unfulfilled!

 

Hope is going to be a big theme in 2008, as indeed we have already considered in Sunday morning services.  Hope08 (Hope08) is a national initiative across the denominations which encourages local churches to work together for their communities – Do More, Do it Together, Do it in Word and Action are the basic challenges that we have already started to consider and to respond to, and to which we shall return as the year unfolds.

 

But a true sense of hope is a scarce commodity in our world that wants everything now and is not prepared to wait, in a world where people are not measured by their intrinsic value (as made in God’s image, for instance, or as loved by our heavenly Father), but are judged by their productivity and usefulness.  Christian hope steadies us in the midst of all the uncertainties of human life in its frailty, and Christian hope – hope in Christ – is a rich source of potential energy to transform the world for good and for God.  So Christian hope is something to be treasured, and yet too something to be shared. 

 

That note of hope as something to be treasured and something to be shared is a wonderful thread running through the tapestry of the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus into a waiting world, the arrival of the light of the world in a world full of shadows and darkness, the revelation of God’s love in all its purposefulness and practicality in Christ.  But it’s good news for telling, for passing on, for sharing with others; it’s angels with messages, and shepherds with thrilling stories to be told.

 

And let it be so with us too, that we might grasp again and afresh the message of great joy for us and for all people as we celebrate once more that the Saviour is born.  Christmas is not “just for the children”, and it’s not just for the church either.  Christmas is for all, and especially for all those who are waiting and searching and confused and hurting as so many people are today.

One of my prayerful hopes for 2008 is that we at WRBC will grow a stronger sense of being a community of hope for our families, our friends, for our neighbours, and for our town.  And I believe that by pulling together we can ensure that this hope at least doesn’t go unfulfilled at year’s end!

 

With my greetings and best wishes to you and yours this Christmas, and with prayerful blessings on you in the new year that lies ahead, in Christ

 

Andrew