By Rev Michele Lees
The birth of Jesus is a gift of great love from God.
That God should humble Godself to the extent of dwelling on earth as a human being continues to amaze me.
And to be born in humble circumstances only accentuates the humility of God’s action.
The birth of Jesus moves me to great joy as I can rejoice with the heavenly beings in the ongoing gift of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.
Jesus with me informs my work.
To ensure that Jesus is with me in my ministry, all that I do is couched in prayer.
My work includes church leadership, preparation of worship, writing faith articles, and pastorally caring for those in all stages and stations of life.
People of faith enjoy celebrating the story of the birth of Jesus.
They enjoy the image of Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus being born with the animals.
They enjoy celebrating with the angels the birth of God on earth.
People of faith love the traditional carols and the traditional acts of Christmas worship.
Christian people find that Christmas time is a great opportunity to invite members of the wider community to celebrate with them an event so central and dear to their faith.
Rev Michele Lees is Minister at Echuca Moama Uniting Church
By Rev Linley Liersch
For me the Christmas narrative is action packed and full of both fear and awe.
It is a good news story that challenges me to suspend my inner critic and just dwell in the story.
As a Minister I have often travelled on Christmas day, long distances on country roads, to tell, sing, narrate and preach this hope-filled message.
In Luke’s gospel, we have Mary’s both fearsome and awesome news of pregnancy.
She celebrates by journeying to Elizabeth’s house to share the message of joy.
Joseph and Mary pilgrimage to Bethlehem and take the census in time for Mary to give birth.
Shepherds, in fear and awe, flock to see the saviour’s birth.
Some of our churches are experiencing decline, others are growing so fast that the new church leaders fear the many responsibilities.
Some congregations are filled with fear and barricade themselves in the building.
Some congregations are awestruck and do not know where to go next?
This is the time for the Uniting Church to remember it is a movement of God, and we too are pilgrims on the way.
The spirit is not confined to buildings but fills the outlying fields in the world with the glory of God.
If we stay inside, we will fail to hear the angel’s song.
Are we willing to take the risky journey to find God in a barn?
Rev Linley Liersch is a Presbytery eLM Minister for the Presbytery of Port Phillip West
“In Jesus, we see that the ordinary touches eternity and is profoundly meaningful,” writes Rev Alister Pate.
By Rev Alister Pate
Jesus, God-with-us, was born over two thousand years ago.
That sounds like a long time ago, but it really isn’t.
The essentials of life were much the same. People were born, knew they were going to die, and, like us, asked the only real question: In the face of all this randomness and unfairness and suffering, this world which seems completely uninterested in human flourishing, how do we live?
This is the world into which Jesus comes.
He was born in modest circumstances, neither amongst the poorest of the poor, nor yet amongst the rich.
This idea that God would reveal Godself and live out a human life amongst people who were not at all cool, not at all powerful, not whatever the first century equivalent of influencers was, remains startling and strange.
Just like his birth, Jesus’ ministry is made up of the ordinary stuff of life.
God shows up in our everyday reality. In Jesus, we see that the ordinary touches eternity and is profoundly meaningful.
When humans did what they do when God gets too close, God raised Jesus up on the third day to say emphatically: this is my son, the beloved, listen to him.
Through Jesus, God takes on the weight of the world – the burden of sin and the aching fear that it is all for nothing and says: life is meaningful.
It is all for something. Everything is going to be ultimately OK.
God loves every one of us, individually and by name.
Rev Alister Pate is Minister at Northcote Uniting Church
By Rev Deacon Marian Bisset
This has been a confronting year on a global scale.
Military incursions have become the daily norm on the news and multi-billion dollar deals to build nuclear submarines slip by unnoticed.
Butted up against those concerns is the image of a placid donkey happily munching hay from a manger, and it creates an uncomfortable juxtaposition.
Yet it is into this violence and pain Jesus came then and comes again today.
I doubt we will witness the birth as recorded in the gospels, or in various nativity scenes around the world, but certainly we will in the way we hold ourselves in what we do every day.
In my daily travels around my current placement in the Victorian High Country I see farmers making do, giving care to and honouring the stock they rear for sale, struggling when the wind comes and dries what little green growth there was, or living with the real stress of when, not if, the fires come.
It is into these places, these lands where incarnational change happens.
In the rustling of the trees, in the flowing of the river, in the gathering at the farm fence is where I hear the voice of God.
To be invited to stand at the farm fence with the farmer is to see the face of God and hear the voice of God.
May we all see the face of the incarnated Jesus in all creation and people this Christmas and always.
Rev Deacon Marian Bisset was a Bush Chaplain with Frontier Services, before accepting the call as Presbytery Resource Minister for north Tasmania, and Presbytery eLM Minister for Tasmania
“The story of the birth of innocence in a hostile world is as poignant this year than any other,” writes Rev Ian Turnnidge.
By Rev Ian Turnnidge
If people take the time to come to a church service during Advent or Christmas, we as congregations have an opportunity to create an experience that might bring the frenzy of the season to a place of meaning.
Worship can do that, especially at Christmas.
People come to church at Christmas for a reason: to attend to the story, to attend to the spirit within them, to encounter hope or wonder, and maybe even to make meaning of the gift of Jesus to the world.
Maybe it’s enchantment? Maybe the year has been so difficult, that a church service is the only possible place imaginable that one might find refuge in the season of joy?
Each year the season and the story collide, demanding certain songs, themes of peace, hope, love and joy to be considered in the preparations, and the strange way that the end of the year causes me to reflect.
It is, to say the least, overwhelming.
The invitation to all worship teams is to consider how our services might assist people to attend to the heart, imagine into the familiar story afresh, and to open ourselves to the possibility of new birth.
The story of the birth of innocence in a hostile world is as poignant this year than any other.
Images of children and families in countries in the grip of war are the backdrop to the Bethlehem story.
Perhaps in every Christmas service there needs to be a chance to create an unstructured space to contemplate, pray and feel.
A time to stop and respond to the heart and to that still small voice calling within each of us.
At Christmas, love is born.
The Christmas story and our church services can create a place for that love to be born again, within and between us all.
There’s time to face the threats in this world, with a fragile story of love made real in the birth of Jesus.
Rev Ian Turnnidge is Minister at St Andrew’s Fairfield Uniting Church
By Rev Cynthia Page
For me, Jesus’ birth celebrates the Incarnation, which means that, in and through Jesus, God came amongst humankind and all of creation, came to be alongside us, bringing good news of hope, joy and deliverance for all, and especially the vulnerable.
In the Gospel of Matthew, an angel placates Joseph, with the words: “All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’, which means, “God is with us.” (Matthew 1:22-23, NRSVUE)
The concept of ‘Emmanuel’, ‘God is with us’, is incredible and affirming. It provides hope. We are not alone. God is with us. God walks alongside us.
The Incarnation is a foundational part of my ministry.
I seek to emulate God’s way of being amongst people, walking alongside them, being present and with them.
I think the truth that God chose and chooses to come amongst us is an endless source of hope and comfort.
A lot of life’s problems can’t be easily solved but knowing that God, who came amongst us as Jesus, is present with us, not aloof, but intimately engaging with us, gives us comfort and helps us to cope.
How can this ever get old or tiresome?
Rev Cynthia Page is Resource Minister, Small Church Network, with the Presbytery of North East Victoria