The Anglican Church in South East Cyprus
"Go tell.... Go make!"
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The Bethlehem Star’
Amazing things happening in town this week! All the stories of an expected saviour seem to have come true.
As we read through the reports we could not help thinking that this was indeed a big story; ‘Good News.’ Angels visit a virgin, a long journey on a donkey, a birth in a lowly stable, a choir of angels frightening a band of shepherds, important visitors from the East (not to mention King Herod wanting to worship him!)
For centuries now, God’s people have been longing for a ‘saviour’, someone to rescue them from captivity and persecution. And out of the blue, a child is born causing angels to announce his birth. Many were expecting a military leader, perhaps like old King David, or a great prophet to remind them of Moses. But a child, as the shepherds say ‘… didn’t look much like a saviour, so tiny and fragile’
How can it be that this child is the Son of God, in fact God himself, in flesh (‘Emmanuel’ means ‘God with us’)?
Here we are 2000 years ahead in time and many ask the very same question. ‘How can this Jesus person be God himself? And if indeed he is God, what does that mean for me?’
It took the people of God, in that time, a number of years to work out the truth; they did not recognize him for whom he was until they met him after he was raised from the dead. (see Easter edition) They had seen him crucified (Good Friday) and raised again from the dead (Easter Day). Until that time they thought of him as a good teacher (some called him that), a prophet, a doer of wonderful deeds. He was all that, and more.
What about us today? Whom do we say he is? On what do we base our opinion?
Christmas is a wonderful time (for many but not all). It is a family time, a celebration time, a gift giving time, a time to show love. And that is good! But if we are careless in our thinking we shall see Jesus only through the prism of Christmas.
Jesus was born a Christmas time, and it is right to celebrate. But many leave him in the crib, as a tiny baby. If we look carefully at his story we notice, as we have said above, that he grew to a man, he suffered death on a cross and was raised from the dead.
Why all that?… should be our Christmas question. And the answer… is the really ‘Good news’ of Christmas.
Let me urge all our readers not to let another year pass without investigating this story in depth. You can do so, easily. Enquire about ‘Christianity Explored’, a basic course where we attempt to explain the real meaning of Christmas.
Don’t make the mistake of leaving this baby in his crib for another year.
Happy Christmas
Michael Crawford
Office Address:
39 Dionisou Street
Protoras
Paralimni 5296
CYPRUS