Bishop’s Christmas Message 2020
Distancing and being kept apart from people we know and love has been hard during 2020.
We have learnt to value each other’s presence anew through being kept apart, unable to be close and present with and for each other for a time.
Sometimes God too seems distant and even absent from us. We feel a sense of separation from him as our creator. At times of natural disaster or a pandemic, and in our personal loneliness and grief, we wonder why, and whether God cares or even exists.
Christmas celebrates the God who comes to join us in the life we live here on his earth with the same breath he gives us each day.
God comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ, to be present with and for us in all of life, the good and the bad.
God doesn’t distance himself from us or wash his hands of us because of our personal and communal sins. He comes in Jesus Christ to forgive and save us from them.
Christmas celebrates the presence of God on his own earth in the flesh, in 3-D, in real life, in real time. Jesus who walked, talked, touched and blessed the lives of people in hands-on ways, introducing and bringing God’s forgiving and life-giving presence personally to them, whatever their circumstances.
The Bible says “neither death nor life…the present nor the future…will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 38-39).
The gift of his loving personal presence is available to everyone, always.
So, however you experienced 2020, I pray that the presence of Christ with and within you will bring you comfort, peace, joy and hope, not just about the new year, but forever.
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