The Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek shares her Christmas message for worshipping communities.
“…The call is to continually open ourselves to that mystery of God’s unchanging love, amid the mess of life with all its disruptions and interruptions…”
Watch now:
Transcript
I want to begin by thanking you for the life we share in this diocese – children, young people, adults, all with different stories, and inhabiting different contexts and experiences. As always, it has been a privilege for me to visit parishes and chaplaincies, deaneries, schools, Sportily, the Grace Network and so much more across our communities — and to notice how people of all ages are joining in with those LIFE Together commitments where the spotlight is shining: people being advocates for the flourishing of people and the earth, and worshipping communities committed to developing diverse leadership.
I’m encouraged by the courageous ways people are initiating new ways of worshipping which connect with more people in different places. I’m also encouraged by the greater commitment to young people. And my heart is always lifted when I see people of all ages and backgrounds discovering more of what it means to live out their faith amid the stuff of messy daily life.
Yet amid all the encouraging stories, I’m really aware of all that interrupts and disrupts, and throws us off course, whether personally, politically, in the church, or in our local contexts and communities – those unexpected events; unforeseen decisions; sudden loss and grief; unwanted happenings and news, the tragedy. And so it goes on.
Of course, further afield there are people whose lives are interrupted by war and conflict; as we shine a light on Bethlehem this Christmas, I will be remembering my visits to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and continuing to pray for our Christian brothers and sisters amid their struggles and disrupted lives, even in simply trying to travel and go about their daily lives.
On a very different matter, diocesan staff, education teams, bishops and archdeacons, have been living a very different disruption – that of moving. But it’s good news, and we are now in our new Church House in Denmark Road. I wonder how well you cope with disruption, and I wonder if you are the sort of person who says or thinks ‘if we can just get through this, then we can get on with life…’.
But the truth is that the interruptions and disruptions — they are all life.
The first Christmas was certainly a major interruption with plenty of disruption. First there was that angel interrupting Mary’s life – announcing a holy pregnancy, and then there was the disruption of a national census and all that inconvenient travel to Bethlehem. Then came the disruption of labour and birth at an inconvenient time and in an inconvenient place.
As for those shepherds their night routine and sheep-watching was disrupted big time. They were terrifyingly interrupted by angels.
And I wonder if that first Christmas there was a huge sense of ‘’we just need to get through this, deal with this, and then we can get on with life…’ Yet, strangely there in the disruption of God coming to earth as a tiny baby, is the offer of LIFE in all its fullness. Many years later, Jesus Christ’s life on earth was interrupted by cruel death – but then the grief and bewilderment of friends and followers was interrupted yet again but now by inexplicable and glorious resurrection. In this is revealed the mystery of life in all its fullness: The mysterious love and life of God, ever with us with a love stronger than even death itself.
That first Christmas also points to the truth that one day a disruption will come to end all disruptions – Jesus Christ will come again. God will make all things new, and God will dwell with us in a fullness of life beyond our imagining…
Yet even now we walk in that kingdom of God light.
Now in all the interruptions, in all that disrupts, in our personal lives, our daily contexts, our worshipping communities and beyond, the call is to continually open ourselves to that mystery of God’s unchanging love amid the mess of life with all its disruptions and interruptions.
This IS life here on earth, and Jesus Christ is with us through the work of the Holy Spirit within us and around us.
Thank you to each and every one of you for adding your story to our LIFE Together and joining in with God’s work of transformation where YOU are.
So, amid the expected and all that interrupts, I wish you a hope-filled Christmas.
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