Christmas is all about the love of God

NOTE TO READERS: This was written before Archbishop David left for the UK.

As I write this it is unclear where I will be celebrating Christmas this year. 

Yesterday I received the news that my dad has been taken into hospital in England. It seems that he is having an issue with his heart or blood pressure or both. It is essential at some point in the next few days that I travel to the UK to see him and to fully understand what is happening. 

This has happened to me once before. In 2009 my mother had a scheduled operation to replace a heart valve. She was supposed to be in hospital for a few days and then return home to convalesce. 

It did not quite turn out that way and I was gone for several weeks. At the time I was rector of Stone Church in Saint John and thankfully several colleagues stepped up to fill the gap. 

Celebrating Christmas in a different part of the world is best described as “different.” 

In the UK, commercialization, even 16 years ago, felt much more rampant than here. As a member of the clergy said to me, “I can pretty much put out the same amount of bread for Communion on Christmas Eve as I can on any Sunday of the year. In fact, it might be even less because so many people are away.” 

Here, my experience is that many people still come for a Christmas service, even if we do not see them throughout the rest of the year. 

In this part of Canada, at least, there is a residual sense of the meaning of the season and a felt need to be part of acknowledging that. 

As with many things, though, it is not the lens through which we look, it is the thing itself which of the greatest importance. 

Whether we are looking at Christmas from the UK or here in New Brunswick, it is the event itself that is important and unaffected by the way we view it. 

In essence Christmas is about the love of God. God loved the world so much that he came in human form, both as a sign of love, and hope for the future. 

The love of God leads us to the cross and resurrection, where Jesus dies for our sins and brings us new life.  

The hope is in Jesus and through him shed into the Church. We are gathered in by him as the disciples were. We feed on him as the bread of life, which strengthens us to be communities and individuals who carry the message of the angels into the world: “Glory to God in the Highest, and peace to God’s people on earth.” 

Merry Christmas to you all! 

Archbishop David Edwards