Talking Point – December 2024

HAPPY CHRISTMAS! The greeting most of us will hear and say numerous times this month, and mostly we will mean it and mostly we will want to hear it! We all want and hope for a happy Christmas for ourselves and others, time spent with family and friends, time off work (unless you are a vicar!), times of giving and receiving gifts, times of eating, drinking and being merry, and perhaps a time of indescribable excitement if you are a child expecting a visit from Father Christmas! I can still remember that almost uncontainable feeling of excitement on Christmas Eve and waking in the early hours of Christmas Day to find a pillowcase stuffed with presents. I have many joyful memories of Christmases Past.
But in recent years some Christmases have been more poignant – like 2018, when we knew that, barring a miracle, it would be my husband Simon’s last Christmas with us, and 2019 when his chair was empty. Many of us will know people – and some of us will be those people – for whom this Christmas might not hold the usual expectations of joy and laughter. For those who are lonely, grieving, or separated from loved ones for whatever reason, Christmas can be an incredibly painful season. More than once parishioners have told of their plans to spend the day under the duvet.
So where is the “good news of great joy” for them? The angels told the shepherds that the good news they were declaring was for “all” people. Really? Even for those who have had a rubbish year, or who fear they are facing a rubbish year to come? What is there to be joyful about when the chips are down, and our world is falling apart?
For me, the good news is that in Jesus God came – and still comes – to be in it with us. Emmanuel means ‘God with us’. Whatever is going on in our lives, whether we are full of joy or in deepest darkness, God’s strong desire is that we know his presence in our lives, his comfort, his grace, his peace. Jesus left all the glory and majesty of heaven to be born in a stable on a dark night, and he is still in the business of coming to meet us where we are, no matter how great the chaos in our lives or the darkness in our hearts. His presence can ease the pain and strengthen us for the future, whatever it may hold. We are not alone.
May you know the warmth of his love, and the brightness of the light he offers you this Christmas. Happy Christmas.
Revd Penny Cuthbert, Associate Vicar St John’s Caversham.
“The Longest Night” service at St Peter’s Caversham at 19:00 on 21 December, is a service specifically for those who, for whatever reason, find it hard to celebrate Christmas. You are not alone. All welcome