Northam Methodist Church

FROM THE METHODIST MANSE,

3 SPRINGFIELD CRESCENT, NORTHAM

BIDEFORD, EX39 1DP

Once again I'm trying to think about Christmas in the middle of November and it seems to have come round even more quickly than in previous years. Maybe we have all been fooled by the late change in the weather!

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a teacher who was struggling to come up with a new idea for this year's Nativity Play. I rather jokingly said to her “Do the same as last year – it's the same story anyway.” She wasn't impressed! But that is just it – it is the same story year after year. Maybe we have got so used to it that we don't even notice its radical nature any more. Sometimes we need a new perspective to really see what is going on.

Some of the more recent hymns and songs we use in the church come from the Iona Community. They seem to have such a way with words that we are almost forced to see things in a new way. The first verse of one of their Christmas songs is a case in point:

Who would think that what was needed

To transform and save the earth

Might not be a plan or army,

Proud in purpose, proved in worth?

Who would think, despite derision,

That a child should lead the way?

God surprises earth with heaven,

Coming here on Christmas Day.”

(Iona Community 1987)

Nothing there about a stable or a star, or shepherds or wise men. Nothing particularly exciting at all really – except that these words capture exactly what the story is about, exactly why God sent his Son to be born as a human baby – “To transform and save the earth.” I like the traditional Christmas story as much as anyone and I'll sing heartily the familiar carols. But I'll also remember this song because it tells us what the story is really about. And like many of you I'll be hoping and praying for that same child to continue to lead the way now, in a world sorely in need of transformation.

May I wish all of you a very happy and peaceful Christmas.

Jane

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