PSA 25 December 2011 Christmas Day

Ken Howcroft. “Glory to God in the Highest! But are you frightened enough?”. Christmas can be a scary time. It is surprising how many times the Bible stories for this season mention that people were afraid. But if God starts speaking to you or coming into your life, that tends to turn your life upside down. So perhaps there is good reason to be afraid. The angels calm Mary and the Shepherds. They all have to be prepared to go along with god, and see what is happening. They have to experience things, and accept that the meaning will only become plain to them afterwards. So Mary ponders everything in her heart. The miracle that gradually unfolds is that the birth of God’s son is the revealing of God’s love in human experience. We see God’s glory in ways that we can touch, and hold, and understand. That make us give glory to God in return. But it also brings peace to all those to whom god is favourably disposed. And since God is a God of love, God is favourably disposed to all of us no matter who we are, what we are like or what we have done or failed to do. God places his love and forgiveness into our hands like Jesus was placed in the hands of Mary and Joseph. We can choose to abuse it or to accept it. If we accept it, we start to feel the peace flowing within us and reaching out to others from us. The shepherds ended up giving glory to God in an echo of the song of the angels. Pray God that we do the same! The readings were Isaiah 52:7-10 and Luke 2:8-20.