Christmas carries this profound truth

by The Revd Canon Gordon Fyfe, Rector of St Columba’s Scottish Episcopal Church

On Saturday I participated in a service held in a local church. Christmas readings were read, songs were sung by the choir, and carols by the gathered congregation. Candles were lit and prayers were offered. None of this may seem to be unusual, even if the service was not on a Sunday; for, as many say to clergy in December, “This will be your busy time.”

But the service I have described was different because of those who took part; for this was a service of ‘Light and Remembrance’ and those involved had been invited because someone special to them had died in this past year. For all for them, this approaching Christmas season would be the first without the one they grieved for.

Together with the others, I was among that number; having lost my dad in the summer. This fact and the moving context of this special service made me hear afresh, and see in a new way, the Christmas message that was proclaimed in word, in action, and in song.

When all of the celebratory the cards and decorations are stripped away; the core of the Christmas message is revealed. The babe we celebrate as coming into the world, wrapped in tight strips of cloth and laid in in the manger, is the same one who, for us all, faced death for us. He is the one whose restrictive grave clothes were left in the empty tomb.

Christmas carries this profound truth: love conquers hate and life conquers death itself.

It is a truth for us and for those whom we love but see no longer. The same one who cried with compassion at the grave of his friend Lazarus, is the same one who, in his grace, offers newness of life now and life eternal.