View my Christmas message:
Also available on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZgyklvt0M8
or please keep reading below:
The Christmas story is a love story, one which speaks to our hearts.
In that stable we sense the warmth of human love shared between Mary and the infant Jesus, with Joseph, with all present there. But at a deeper level, Christmas is a story of God’s love, God entering our world, reaching out to us, speaking to us.
And we honour one another when we in turn reflect that same love in the way we choose to live our lives, in our speech with another.
As I move around Tasmania I see God’s love and grace in simple yet rich traditions – baptisms and confirmations, weddings and funerals. I see Christian people reaching out to their communities. All year I am reminded of God’s Christmas love.
But in those same communities when we’ve had difficult matters to speak about this year, we so often have struggled to speak with each other in ways which reflect love, care and courtesy. We struggle to speak as God has spoken to us.
This is a shared struggle, one in which the Church shares responsibility. We all need, in working together through the issues of our time, to learn to speak words of life to one another, to eschew words which bludgeon, belittle and condemn.
The infant became the man Jesus, master of the searching question which opens up conversation, which values the hearer. Can we learn to ask one another good but gentle questions, and to respond ourselves with care, with courtesy, with love? Can we nurture community in Tasmania built on mutual respect, on love?
Hope lies in the example of this infant who was born among us, this infant who is God’s ultimate word to us. God speaks life to us; may God enable us to speak life to one another.
Christmas blessings, Tasmania.
Shalom, John
FOR FURTHER THOUGHT:
A. Bishop John mentions how at Christmas we recall that God “speaks to us.” Jesus Christ is God’s presence with us, and is therefore God’s ultimate word of life and love.
1) Reflect on this part of the Christmas message. In what way do you hear God speaking to you through the infant Jesus?
2) Read the following passages the make a similar reflection on the birth of Christ: Hebrews 1:1-4, Colossians 1:15-20, John 1:1-14, Mark 9:2-8
3) God chose Mary and Joseph and the particular circumstances of Bethlehem as the means by which he spoke into history. What does this say about the character of God?
B. Bishop John reflects on how he has seen the love and life of God at work throughout 2012.
1) Where have you seen God’s life and love at work in 2012?
2) Was there a moment where God’s life and love seemed absent? In reflection, can you identify how he may have been speaking to you or through you in those circumstances?
3) How does your 2012 inform your prayer? God speaks to us in our real lives, how would you like to respond?
C. Bishop John looks ahead to 2013 and is concerned that we might reflect God more closely in how we speak in society and to each other. Tasmania and Australia have faced and will continue to face a number of social and political issues.
1) How have you thought about some of these issues in 2012? How have you spoken about them? What has been the character of your conversation and the motivation of your heart? Are there relationships you need to restore?
2) What things are burdening you as you look ahead to 2013? What is God saying to you about these things?
Please be praying for our church and for our State as we head into 2013. Come, Lord Jesus, Come. John
