This isn’t the best picture as the window had rain all down it but on this sixth day of Advent there is good news!!
The nativity figures at Allhallowgate are the right way round facing the world! It’s taken six Christmases for this to happen! My cup overflows!! In Covid I put some lovely posters in our windows telling the Christmas story. I was told they were the wrong way round as people inside the building couldn’t see them. The next year nativity figures were placed facing inwards. Mary’s bum had “Gift Aid, 25p” on it for all the world to see! The years following it happened again and again. The Christmas story is for us!
But this year we are facing outwards! Alleluia! I remember my accreditation letter when I was received as a local preacher in 1990 from the President that year, John Vincent, which included trade words “for every word you preach in church, preach two outside.” I also recall those words of Archbishop Temple, who famously said “the Church exists for the benefit of its non members.”
We can as a Church be a cosy inward club. But the Christmas story seduces us to see it is our vocation to share good news of incarnation with the world.
This week in my Allhallowgate church I’ve had WI ladies have their carol service, and last night a large group of scouts filled the church for theirs. It was fun. A rare treat for me to have a church full of young people. It’s a challenge to tell the story of Jesus coming to a largely unchurched congregation, but I did my best. We’ve a chance every year to bring people into his presence. We need to think what people outside are thinking about and try and relate the story to their world.
I told our preachers meeting last night we have to be relevant and know where people are. They are largely biblically illiterate. I hope the WI, people in Boroughbridge for lights switch on who were given pamphlets on peace, and our people who have been about in our churches faithfully for years, keep us journeying on.
It might be we are content. It might be we are compelled to make a journey. It might be we need peace after a dreadful time about suffering and angst. Jesus is offering it not once but always. Trust him. The world needs good news. It needs relief. It was fun to host the scouts tonight. We laughed, we sang, and I hope some might have heard a tiny bit of good news. For this story entered the world and today touches the pain of the world and yearns to transform stuff.
Isn’t that a little bit encouraging?
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