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The Very Reverend Tim Barker, Dean of Guernsey, invites us to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas and lead lives of love and light in his 2023 festive message.
"There’s something reassuring about familiar landmarks. I was driving in the lanes around Les Arquets in St Pierre du Bois last week. It’s the area between the coast and the high ground where there are many narrow lanes, some of them with the ominous and all-too-familiar ‘road closed’ signs. It was very dark. The sat nav had admitted defeat. And my pride took a hit. I was lost.
"A few minutes later, I was delighted to see Fort Grey, the ‘cup and saucer’, floodlit above the roofs of the houses. I drove to the coast road. There, I was able to re-orientate myself and found my way to my destination.
"There’s something reassuring about familiar landmarks. And that’s one of the reasons why I value the seasons of the year, as we move from autumn into winter, and then to spring and summer. The reassuring, familiar, cycle of the Church’s year takes us to the different points of Jesus’ life and reminds us of how they interlock, so that the whole picture is more than simply the sum of its parts.
"For many of us, no part of the Christian year is more familiar and more comforting than Christmas. We know the story and its characters well, from nativity plays in school; from carol services, where we hear the rich and beautiful stories which St Matthew and St Luke tell; and from countless works of art in churches and galleries.
"At the heart of the story, there is one person: Jesus. All the people we meet in the Christmas story and all those whom tradition has added to what Matthew and Luke have written invite us to focus on Jesus. For some, the news of Jesus’ birth is so compelling that they set out on a journey. The shepherds come from the hills into the centre of the bustling community of Bethlehem, intrigued by their privileged glimpse of the overflowing excitement of heaven at what has happened in Bethlehem. The angels cannot contain themselves, and the shepherds are, uniquely, witnesses of their infectious joy. Later, wise men will complete their long journey to come into the presence of a tiny child, whose unusual significance they have grasped, as the gifts they bring demonstrate.
"If we were to have any doubt that Jesus is the focus of all the interest and excitement, we need only to turn to the words of St John at the beginning of his gospel, words that send a thrill down my spine every time I read them. St John does not offer us the sparkle and glamour which we find in Matthew’s and Luke’s nativity stories. But, like Matthew and Luke, John points unambiguously to Jesus. John leaves us in no doubt about the significance of Jesus, whom he describes as ‘the Word’ – that is, the articulation and the proclamation that God has come amongst us. God’s glory is here for all to see and embrace.
"The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only son, full of grace and truth.’
"Our first glimpse of the Word is in the stable in Bethlehem. And from then on, he is not silent, because he is inviting us to life and light and love.
"In the mirror that Jesus holds up to humanity, we see how much we fail to live lives of love and light. But the invitation remains – and no more so than to shine light in the dark places, in Ukraine, in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, and to model tough and dangerous love – dangerous because it challenges all our presuppositions and prejudices."
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