THE RECTOR'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
You Can't Have Christmas Without Jesus!

You can't have Christmas without Jesus!  This is the heading on the posters advertising our Christmas Services.  It sounds fairly straightforward, but to many it is simply something that would never cross their minds.  The Solemnity exists to celebrate the birth or incarnation of God in human nature, but then again, for many, it is no more than an excuse to have a good time.  Sadly, for them, when they have a 'bad time' in their lives they cannot understand why, and the comforting thought that Jesus became like us, in order to better understand our suffering, is simply not present in their thinking.   

The Christmas story is not remote, some kind of myth - it is reality.  A pregnant girl, married to a poor husband, gives birth to a baby miles away from home, in a borrowed room, supported by strangers, not their own family.  This could be King's Lynn today, this Christmas, with any aspect of the story 'lived out' in the lives of those who live here.  Yet, all the time, 'God un-noticed is in the midst of the experience, drawing people together and sharing his love in their moments of fear and despair.  

Some of my colleagues despair of the commercialization of Christmas - all tinsel and turkeys!  Personally, I do not.  I am glad that the people of the United Kingdom don't miss this celebration, but I would ask one little thing, "Please don't leave Jesus out of Christmas!"  Come and join us in celebrating His birth, understand what he does for you and for me, not just once a year but every day of the year, or you could miss out in good times as well as bad!

Father Paul.