Chaos

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So I leave work on Friday evening relaxed, thinking “All the Christmas shopping is done (in November), all Christmas cards are written and sent, everything is ready for Christmas. What can possibly go wrong?”

At 7.33pm train 9157 from Brussels to London broke down in interval 2 of the Channel Tunnel. It was rescued reasonably quickly by the UK emergency diesels and hauled to London. While that was still being rescued, four more trains failed in intervals 3 and 4, completely blocking the tunnel and leaving 2000 people stranded. The French emergency diesels were able to couple two of them together and haul them out to Calais. Two car shuttles were sent in to rescue the passengers from the remaining two trains, on one of which the batteries had gone flat leaving everyone in darkness.

What followed was complete chaos. All the passengers had been removed from the tunnel safely, but it remained blocked, the ports were closed because of the weather, the planes were all full. Thousands of people suddenly found themselves stuck in the wrong country, unable to travel away for Christmas. Anyone who watched the news over that weekend will know the rest.

As I write this on Christmas Eve I’ve just finished doing my analysis of the downloads of three of the trains, working out exactly what faults occurred at what times, trying to piece together why it happened and what can be done in the future to prevent it. The journalists’ simple explanation of ‘snow in the electrics’ (see above) is not far from the truth (it shouldn’t be – I spent Monday afternoon in the press office helping them come up with a technical explanation that journalists would understand) and the first efforts to solve the problem have focussed on filling in gaps to keep the snow out. Later on in the year there’ll be a lot of work to do to try and make things more waterproof.

So much for everything being totally ready for a perfect Christmas. But then…that’s how it was in the beginning too. If you were planning the first Christmas, you probably wouldn’t schedule the Son of God being born to an unmarried peasant virgin in a stable in a politically-unstable occupied territory, surrounded by the outcasts in society. I wonder if Mary had dreamed of giving birth to her first baby, at home safe and warm, with her husband and all her family around her. In a far away village where she knew nobody and didn’t even have a proper place to sleep, she must have been thinking “Why is all this happening?”.

Jesus lived his whole life in a similar manner, not abiding by social norms, reaching out to prostitutes, tax collectors and lepers, keeping a small band of uneducated labourers as his professional advisors. If we’d been planning “The Life of the Son of God”, we probably wouldn’t have scheduled any of that, nor would we have scheduled him being brutally killed at the hands of corrupt rulers, and coming back to life on the third day. But that is how God planned to redeem all believers from their sin, and as always, he made it work.

If Christmas is not quite going to plan for you, you’re in good company. And whatever happens, it’s all in God’s hands – his plan (unlike a Eurostar train) always works. Ready or not, Christmas is here!

I wish you every blessing this Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Andrew

Family

Christmas is going to be different this year for our family. Someone who should be celebrating with us will not be there, and she is and will be greatly missed. Family is so important. Whether you class ‘family’ as blood relatives, friends, others you worship God with or even God himself. Please do not take them for granted. Tell them and show them how much they mean to you and how much you love them. Even through the crazyness of Christmas!

Have a very Happy Christmas.

Jo. x

What did Advent mean to Jesus

This is a question that I have pondered over many Christmas seasons.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was ‘in the beginning with God’ and through Him all things were created. He knows all things and is in control of all things. He is also described as the Word – the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, so that we could see His glory. But wait a minute – he came to earth, not in glory, but as a baby. We have the stories of Jesus’ conception and then of Mary and Joseph’s journey and His birth in a stable. Between these two events we have nine months of virtual oblivion. What is amazing to me is that at that moment of conception, not only did he willingly relinquish that glorious life with the Father in Heaven, but he also relinquished all memory of it, for a new-born baby has nothing to remember, except perhaps a few faint noises heard within the womb.

To lose one’s memory is a frightening thought – our past and all those dear to us are an integral part of who we are, giving us stability – but at that first Advent the Lord of Glory was just an infant coming to birth, bringing nothing with him, who would trust himself to ordinary human parents in a sinful world. It would be a long, gradual process for him to actually learn who he was, where he came from and what his destiny would be. It would take many, many long hours labouring in prayer with the Father for him to learn the things he once knew so well. In fact he admitted to the disciples that there were still things that only the Father knew. Even before he came to the cross, the price he had already paid for our sakes was an utterly amazing one.

This is a poem I wrote some time ago that tries to express this mystery.

ADVENT

At Christmas time we celebrate
The coming of the King
But who can truly comprehend
What ‘Advent’ meant to him.

For nine long months in a womb he lay,
Concealed in a strange, dark home;
Till he came to birth in a cattle shed
As Mary’s new-born son.
He did not hear the angels’ song,
Or see the blazing star.
He only heard the ox and ass
Rustling in the straw.

The reverent shepherds as they knelt
Meant nothing to him there,
Of gold, sweet frankincense and myrrh
He was simply unaware.
He could not even speak the name
Of the God who called him ‘Son’.
All thought of his creative past
From his infant mind was gone.

His new small world was sheltered round
By a pair of loving hands,
A warm sweet breast and gentle voice,
Soft hay, and swaddling bands.
He knew but how to cry, or smile,
To feel safe or afraid,
To sleep or wake, be hot or cold,
Hungry or satisfied.

In wide-eyed innocence his gaze
Was fixed on his mother’s face;
While hushed in awe the hosts of heaven
Looked wondering on this place.
For in this smelly stable lay
The beloved, holy One,
Emptied of majesty and power,
His saving role begun.

At Christmas time we worship him
Who from such costly love,
Gives all who dare to call him Lord
A place in Heaven above.

Coral

The Perfect Gift

It’s nearly Christmas and everyone is getting excited about the Christmas Dinner,Family etc and everyone is looking for gifts for friends and family.
When you think about it, everyone wants ‘The Perfect Gift’ but peoples perfect gifts are generally a new phone or a new iPod, but is it really?
Isn’t the ‘perfect gift’ Jesus? he is the one who is always watching over us and watching out for us. he is the one who will always look after us no matter what happens to us and he is the one who will forgive us no matter what.
A new iPod or a new Phone wont last forever but we all know Jesus will, and thats why when you are thinking about getting gifts for someone, make sure you reassure someone that the perfect gift isn’t just something to unwrap, but it’s Jesus.
Jesus knows us like noone else does, he will always be there for us!
Have a nice Christmas and remember Jesus is the perfect gift for everyone.

Sophie,x

different ways of celebrating.

As many of you know I attend church regularly but I also go to a catholic school.

It is interesting to see how different types of Christians celebrate Christmas. Just like in church they have the five advent candles, one of which being pink which is lit the Sunday before Christmas. On Christmas Eve they have something called midnight mass which is run from late hours of Christmas Eve into early hours of Christmas Day they also have Christmas mass all through the day . Thankfully I am not at school on Christmas Eve but on the day that I broke up from school we had mass which included some known and unknown carols and readings.

Although different Christians have different ways of celebrating Christmas we all celebrate it for the same reason as our saviour was born.

Charlotte. (Typer Leah)

The Shepherds

When I was trying to figure out what I could write for this post I find the carol, ‘While Shepherds Watched’, and got me thinking about the shepherds in the Christmas story, and how they must have felt when the angels appeared to them. Before I enlighten you on my thoughts though, here are the lyrics to this carol:

While shepherds watched
Their flocks by night
All seated on the ground
The angel of the Lord came down
And glory shone around
And glory shone around

“Fear not,” he said,
For mighty dread
Had seized their troubled minds
“Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you and all mankind,
To you and all mankind.”

“To you in David’s
Town this day
Is born of David’s line
The Savior who is Christ the Lord
And this shall be the sign
And this shall be the sign.”

“The heavenly Babe
You there shall find
To human view displayed
And meanly wrapped
In swathing bands
And in a manger laid
And in a manger laid.”

Thus spake the seraph,
And forthwith
Appeared a shining throng
Of angels praising God, who thus
Addressed their joyful song
Addressed their joyful song

“All glory be to
God on high
And to the earth be peace;
Goodwill henceforth
From heaven to men
Begin and never cease
Begin and never cease!”

The part that stood out for me was this line,
‘”Fear not,” he said, For mighty dread Had seized their troubled minds’.
Put yourself in the shepherds shoes for a moment. You and your fellow shepherds are standing in a dark, deserted field, with only each other and your sheep for company. It’s late and you are feeling very tired. This is a usual night for you, and today is no different. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a strange figure appears in the sky surrounded by a bright light. They tell you ”Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Now if that was me, I would either be completely freaked, or else thinking I really need to get some sleep. Then many more strange figures appear and singing. By this time I would be thinking that I was far too tired and had started halucinating. When darkness had filled the sky again and you had rubbed your eyes several times you realise your friends have seen and heard them too. I’m sure you agree but I would be beyond terrified at the fact that they weren’t just a dream or an halucination, and possibly real. And what were these strange figures, a question which could be answered many ways. Would you instant thought be that they were angels? And would you really believe what they said was true, that God’s son had come?

Just say you were walking down the road and somebody came up to you and said they were Jesus. What chance is there that you would believe them? If it was me, I would just carry on walking and ignore them. And even if they did something to try and prove it to you, people don’t trust that easily, and you would most probably try and convince yourself of how they could have shown you that ‘proof’ without being Jesus. (Sorry if that sentence doesn’t make sense!) Anyway, onto my message. People are always saying God doesn’t exist because we can’t see him in anyway, or there is no proof of his existence. For example, yesterday I was having a discussion about atheism and somebody said, ‘Show me that God exists then’. But I think you can see God, it just depends how people interpret the ‘proof’ and whether they choose to believe that it is really God. Even things as big and bold as angels filling the sky with light and sound are hard to believe just because they are so abnormal.
So when singing the carol above this Christmas, maybe have a think about ways that God’s existance is proven, but are not seen as ‘proof’.

Hannah P

‘Missing People’ At Christmas!

Over the last couple of weeks leading to Christmas, I have been seeing the appeal of missing people, an organisation set up to help find missing people for christmas.

This seems like a good idea to me as everyone wants people they care about with them at christmas and it got me thinking about people who are now missing from my life, Not literally missing but missing from my heart: the people who I have fallen out with or havent seen in a while

Can you think of anyone you may of fallen out with or just moved far way and u lost contact?

Well guys, my challenge for us all is to find our ‘missing person’. The person who you want back in your life for christmas.

Whatever the reason they are missing from your heart, call them back into your lifes as God doesnt let you go missing he always there even tho at lowest points in your life you may not feel it…

Just Something to think about.

Stacey
P.s Have a Lovely Christmas xxx

No “I” in team

https://www.newamsterdamrecords.com/jelly/data/Entry_Picture/Maximum_Height=383/waves_1.jpg

A wave is bobbing along the ocean, having a grand old time.  He’s enjoying the wind and the fresh air – until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore.

‘This is terrible’ the wave says.  ‘Look what’s going to happen to me!’

Then along comes another wave.  It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, ‘Why do you look so sad?’

The first wave says, ‘You don’t understand!  We’re all going to crash!  All of us waves are going to be nothing!  Isn’t it terrible?’

The second wave says, ‘No, you don’t understand.  You’re not a wave, you’re part of the ocean.’

This is a passage that I keep coming back to recently.  It is from a book that I borrowed from Lewis called ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ by Mitch Albom.

It’s a simple passage, but it seems to speak on a number of levels.  My overriding impression is the message that we are part of something much bigger than we are, individually or as a church.  There is great comfort in that knowledge, but like so many things, perhaps we forget that in the busy-ness of life.

Paul

Candles

I am, like many at this time, pretty busy. Busy enough to be worried, but that says more about me perhaps than it does about the the number of things I have to do. Don’t misunderstand me, I like having things to do but in Advent especially I feel the need for some space. It’s not just the significance of the season but the short days and Winter light make me more than usually contemplative. And it’s right to reflect at this time.  At this time also I particularly feel the need for ritual – something that has been almost completely lost from out society but which used to be at the very heart of peoples lives (and still is no doubt in some cultures). Of course rituals can be empty substitutes for the ‘real  thing’ and, it must be admitted, there are some pretty strong rebukes in the Bible (Amos 5, 21 ff). Add to that the instinctive suspicion that the protestant church has for such fiendish popery and you will understand that it is with some embarrassment that I confess that I simply have to have an Advent candle to mark the season. It is important to me to light it every day and I can offer no explanation as to why. Ask my dear wife and she will tell you that I insist on having at least one ‘back-up’ candle in case of malfunction. Oh the shame of it! But dare I suggest that the dangers of engaging in little rituals are not so acute in a society such as ours despite what you occasionally hear coming from a tract or pulpit. One of the many irritating human traits to be observed is the tendency to preach thundering denunciations of the sins we are least likely to commit (‘running around with a fire extinguisher in a flood’ as C S Lewis once put it). Anyway, what I do know is that we live in a world of almost constant noise, and we need all the help we can get to hear for the cry of a tiny baby, an event that is too important to miss.

 

Richard

Resolutions…

Sometimes in church we say that Jesus has come and he’ll return again. If someone told us that Jesus was coming RIGHT now, I don’t think we’ll be completely overjoyed. I think we’d be dreading it a bit. Some of us may not even believe it, some of us would call him a fake, but if we all thought it was the real thing, I think we’d want to change some of the things we’ve done and try to quickly make ourselves ‘better’. At the moment, we might think that it’s fine to do some things because ‘God will forgive us’, but that doesn’t mean we should do them, just because we might be able to.

It’s getting closer to Christmas and with that the New Year. I think we should all try to make a new years resolution that will change us as a person. It’s good to give up chocolate for a month, or stop biting our nails etc. but those are easy. Why not give ourselves a challenge and try to change ourselves for the better? It might be hard, but that’s the whole point of a challenge, isn’t it?

Dan