Sunday 8th December 2024 - Christmas - Bah Humbug

Luke 3:1-6
Christmas!
“Bah! Humbug!” The famous words of that curmudgeon, Ebenezer
Scrooge, in Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol, are often repeated at
Christmas and many other times of the year to express our frustration
and displeasure at what we see as a sham.
Christmas can certainly be a sham when we narrow it down to the bare
bones of commercialisation, feel-good decorations, beautiful songs,
food and gifts and not much more. Sometimes, Christmas worship has
been frustratingly described as just a colourful concert.
Please don’t think that I'm wallowing in a dose of Ebenezer Scrooge. Far
from it. Today, I hope that we can hear from Luke 3:1-6, not only of the
joy of fulfilled prophecy, but the rebellion, frustration, and passion to
change the world, even at high personal cost that undergirds the Birth
stories, with challenges that are as significant today as they were 2000
years ago.
Blessings for Advent, and your efforts to change the world.
Malcolm