Good News in a Messy World

by Sharon Marr

(Based on Luke 2:1-20)

A Christmas day reflection for the young and not so young.

This has been a very different, very messy and very hard year, Covid 19 sweeping through and changing our world, for adults and children alike.   So scary … we didn’t see it coming.   So many people throughout the world have died, so many families now without work.  All this frightens a lot of us doesn’t it?   Part of us takes comfort that we live in New Zealand, far away from trouble spots, but deep down we realize just how fragile this bubble we find ourselves in is. There is nowhere to hide from this deadly disease. The news seems all bad. But is it really?

Here we are today, in spite of all this turmoil; we pause, and come together, to celebrate Christmas? What draws us? Is it the Christmas tree with its blinking lights, or maybe it’s the beautiful music, or perhaps it’s Christmas dinner with all the yummy treats. Maybe it’s the parties or visiting with family and friends. For many people the best thing about Christmas is the presents — both the ones we give and the ones we receive.

You know, sometimes we get so drawn into all of the decorations, lights, parties, and presents that we might miss the real Christmas.

We can get so caught up thinking about ourselves we almost miss out on the most wonderful, precious, extravagant gift of love from God to us, his son Jesus.

In our Gospel reading today, remember, the angel said to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people!  To you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour who is the Messiah, the Lord”.

And what a surprise to find that the Saviour of the world was a tiny baby, lying in a bed of straw!  A lot of folk then were expecting a warrior king, a superman, a super hero to save them from the Romans who had invaded their country and were making their lives hard and sad.  Just as the world today awaits for a vaccination to rid us of coronavirus.  But, no.  No superhero.  Instead, the good news was that God sent his son, the baby Jesus, for us all; that is, for all those people two thousand years ago, even the Romans, and everyone who has ever lived since, everyone alive now and even those yet to be born.  Jesus came to show us a way to live, the best way to live, loving God, loving everyone, loving ourselves.  Jesus came bringing love. Love that can conquer both tyranny and disease, when we demand justice and mercy for all.

It is that love that draws us here today, to offer our thanks and praise  and worship to God who loves us so much.  The shepherds’ lives were changed forever on that night.  And unless the Christmas story changes our lives too, we have missed its real meaning and purpose. 

So let us take the hope, the peace, the joy and the love, the gifts of God that fill our hearts this day, to our families, into our community, into this troubled, hurting, messy world, and be the good news to all. Just as the shepherds did 2000 years ago.   Amen.

Fiji Relief

We are accepting donations to assist the relief efforts in Fiji after the recent cyclone. With crops and trees destroyed there’s a long term food need as well as reconstruction of their housing. 

Please give generously, all donations will be sent on to the Anglican Missions Board who are already part of the relief work partnering with the Australian Anglican missions and Tearfund in Vanua Levu and Taveuni .

The best way to make your donation is by Internet banking into the St Francis account 

Tairua Anglican Church       03 1577 0435222 00 

Please put your name and/or your giving number, plus ‘Fiji’ in the Reference box. 

If cash is your best way, please include the same details on an envelope and bring to church or give to Albie Marr.

We give thanks for all who are working to restore the living conditions and bring hope to our sisters and brothers in the Pacific after this destructive weather event.

Christmas Diminished

Christmas spirit!

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman … (Gal 4:4).

What can be the Christian stance on Christmas?

The mystery of Christmas and the dead centre focus of the Christmas celebration is that God became human.  Not just human, but a baby human.  God – creator of the universe (and by extension, bigger than the universe) – consented to becoming so small that he fit in a hay trough – a manger.  Let that sink in for a moment …

Not just fancy or fairy tale, this is spelled out in John 1 and explicated conceptually in multiple other Scriptural passages.  Eg, “For surely it is not angels [Jesus] helps, but [humans]. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that …” (Heb 2:16, 17)

“In order that …”  There isn’t space here to complete the purpose of why He came, a new-born, but it behoves us all to find out why.

But, grasp the weight of this, and compare it to our western Christmas counterfeit.  Rudolph, Frosty, tinsel and baubles, frenzied spending and eating, and an over-fed, Coca Cola-invented man (only in the 1930s) whose name is an anagram of Satan.  The contrast could not be starker.

Christmas spirit!

Actually, I could embrace most of that if Christ was accommodated at the centre of the Mass.  The celebrations would be worth it, and far more.  But our culture has gutted the feast.  It’s become an illusion, designed, I say, designed, to deceive people who need to per-ceive.  Is it possible to over-state this?  Driven by shameless marketing and media, we strive to capture “the season” with cards and sleigh bells and Santa hats and boxes of liquor.  What can we do?

I say, find small and simple ways both to avoid the offal, and spread the spirit.  Try to find creative ways to share the true love and the peace-and-goodwill, whilst side-stepping the media version of Christmas spirit. 

Bruce is visiting the pub to share on Christmas Eve.  I’m baking today, something to share around the neighbourhood.

Ken F

Mary Hears from God

by Liz Young

(Based on Luke 1:26-56)

Today’s gospel reading is the message from God to Mary, given by the angel Gabriel. Gabriel tells Mary that she will get pregnant and give birth to the Son of God! She wonders, how?, as she is a virgin: and she is troubled: but her next emotional reaction is humility. She is humbled by the honour bestowed on her by God, and then full of joy. Not all unmarried mothers feel joy when they discover they are pregnant, so let us remember Mary, if this situation arises within our own families.

In the Magnificat, Mary’s song of joy, she praises God and describes how great He is, and how bountiful His Grace. She sings of God asking the lowly to fulfil His plans, which reminds us that we too can help him fulfil his ideas for the world.


Mary echoes the words used by Hannah (1 Samuel 1), as she rejoiced when she found she was pregnant with Samuel. In many cultures a woman must prove her fertility before she is acceptable for marriage, a different concept from our own. Today women can control their fertility pharmaceutically when they don’t want to get pregnant; while young men have to worry about their dropping sperm counts, and many couples take more than the expected four months before they get pregnant: use your reflection time to think of, and pray for those childless couples that you know. Some of them have adopted Russian babies and may be unhappy if that child has foetal alcohol syndrome. On the other hand, there are many single mothers who are struggling to look after a child they hadn’t planned to have: conceived when they were disinhibited by alcohol.

So let us enjoy the Advent story of two holy women (Mary and her cousin, Elizabeth) rejoicing in their pregnancies. Times were hard, Mary and Joseph had to make their way to Bethlehem. I tried to imagine riding 100km on a donkey at term, but came across Robert Louis Stevenson’s description of travelling with a donkey in France. You travel behind a donkey with a stick at the donkey’s pace, usually slower than walking. Mary had travelled first 180 km to see her elderly cousin, Elizabeth, who lived in the hill country near Jerusalem and who had had a son, John the Baptist: John’s birth had been foreseen in a vision by his father, Zechariah.
Mary then travelled with Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem, this time knowing that her baby was to be called, Jesus, ‘the Son of the Most High God’. Beth-lehem, the House of Bread, is a little town built on a spur of rock with deep valleys to the north-east and south:  this year, Covid year, the people there are suffering from the loss of income from the tourist trade. Nowadays we can get there by train but we can picture Mary coping with the dusty hilly roads as she walked there, then.

We will be reflecting on this story with millions of other Christians all over the world. Some, like us, living in peaceful countries, where we can trust our leaders; others in danger because their beliefs threaten the leaders, or extremists, in their countries. In other places like Fiji, 16,000 people are homeless from a cyclone. Let us pray for them, and respond to their need and, while being grateful that we live in peace and prosperity, there are those who still need some of the basic requirements for living. Perhaps we should search harder for ways we can encourage the growth of social justice in our country. Here in Tairua we could think of encouraging the local building of affordable social housing for the elderly.

To return to Mary’s combination of humility and joy, I have two books that I cherish, one given to my grandfather, The Practice of the Presence of God: the letters and conversations of Brother Lawrence, a 16th century Carmelite kitchen lay-brother, a humble man always prepared to speak of his beliefs with others. The other book describes the visions of Dame Julian of Norwich, an English visionary who was educated by Benedictine nuns. She meditated for 20 years on her visions, while living in a small cell attached to a church in Norwich. Her words still resonate today: “Wouldst thou know the Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well. Love was His meaning.”
Both were visited by the powerful and mighty of their time, because of the joy that they radiated and shared. Let us pray that our lives radiate such joy that we offer peace and happiness to those around us at this time: the joy that comes from knowing that Christ was born to redeem us.  Amen