Why is it that Christmas seems to bring with it not just joy, but sorrow as well?

On one hand all the joys of the past year are combined and relived on this one great day. And yet, at the same time, your troubled remembrances and sorrows are collected together and brought to mind.

Sorrows are felt in a few ways, always in comparison to the joy we feel.

We feel the absence of a family all the more on this day as we think how much greater the joy would it have been if they were here. In the midst of a joyful gathering, suddenly a broken relationship intrudes on our thoughts.

Of all the days, Christmas is when we want families to be right, and yet they seldom are. The tensions that arise seem out of place on this day and so are even more painful – we are sad that we could even be sad on this day.

The gap between our sorrow and joy is at its greatest, and so we feel them all the more.

What would the day look like if we’d just if we had room only for joy? What place does sorrow have on Christmas?

Without sorrow we would not be reminded of the need to forgive – for it is the hurts of others that are its most common cause. Learning to forgive brings with it a unique joy all of its own, a joy that is right at home at Christmas.

For it is impossible to forgive without first discovering the forgiveness of Christ. And this is the reason Jesus came, this is what Christmas is about – that God would enter our work and bear our sorrows upon himself. 

Even on that very first Christmas, the joy of the Angels was intermingled with sorrow. There was sorrow in the words Simeon prophesied to Mary “and a sword will pierce through your own soul also” Luke 2:35.

I am hoping for the most joyous Christmas – one that reminds me of the birth of our Saviour. But I also know that in the quiet moments when a pang is felt, I am taken closer to the truth of Christmas too.

SIMON CHAPLIN

On Monday 22 October in the House of Representatives, our Prime Minister, the Hon. Scott Morrison MP, delivered an emotional, heart-felt apology on behalf of the Parliament and the Australian people, to the survivors of child sexual abuse, including those in Anglican churches.

That our Church was complicit in any way in these events, by ignoring them, disbelieving the testimony of survivors, or allowing sex offenders to continue their horrendous conduct in what should have been the safety of a church environment, is itself a matter of deep shame.

Let me reiterate my apology to the survivors of child sexual abuse, for our failure to protect them as children, and also to the families of those who have died prematurely due to their abuse.

While we have adopted rigorous processes to ensure the safety of children in the present, I recognise that this will not overcome the trauma that accompanies the sins of the past.

Today is an opportunity for congregations across the diocese to acknowledge the failures of the past and listen with acceptance to those who have been harmed.

My fervent prayer is that this will in some measure provide healing for these wounds, raise our consciousness of the seriousness of child sexual abuse, and enable us as a Church community to play our part in protecting and giving voice to the most vulnerable among us.

I offer this apology confident of the comfort, transforming power and tender love of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

ARCHBISHOP GLENN DAVIES

One friend in ministry commented to me the other day that this fourteen year old girl she is working with doesn’t think that Jesus is real because “so many bad things have happened in her life”.

Often this is a topic that pops up in conversations I too have with Christians and non-Christians alike. The problem of evil seems so hard, and so big, that it makes people ask why God would let such horrendous things happen.

We see this continuously in our news, in troubles within our own families, and even in the places we turn for leisure like Netflix’s documentary series Making a Murder. Everyone’s right, the world does suck!

In those conversations we tend to think about sin and explain why the world is this way. While it is important to do that, and explain that the fall brought sin, death, and suffering into the world (Gen 3); it is also incredibly profound that nearly everyone notices that this is not the way it is supposed to be.

God created a world that was perfect and good (Gen 1). Though humans stuffed it up, it is important to encourage believers and non-believers to think about God’s promise of restoration(1 Peter 5:10; Acts 3:19-21). As Christians, we already have a taste of this restoration as we truly are new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). But a day will come where evil and suffering will pass, for God is just and he will put sin and Satan in their place for good and his people will dwell with him forever (Rev 21:1-5).

So take heart! Though some days the world is grim, there is great hope and comfort found in the person of Jesus who conquers all and promises to come again.

RAYNE ORANGE

CREDIT: Photo donnierayjones, via Flickr.

There’s a Christian song that we love to sing to kids which goes like this:

I’m H-A-P-P-Y, I’m H-A-P-P-Y, I know I am, I’m sure I am, I’m H-A-P-P-Y.

I’m H-A-P-P-Y, I’m H-A-P-P-Y, because I know God loves me so, I’m H-A-P-P-Y.

It’s a great little song, especially for young kids who really understand only two emotions: sad and happy.

And so with this simple message is a simple truth: joy, satisfaction, happiness is found in the love of God.

Yet, we get much older, we realise that even as people who know Jesus and are loved by him, there will be times when we will experience great sadness.

I was reminded of this as I recently read Psalm 6 as part of my daily Bible reading. It says:

I am worn out from sobbing. All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears. My vision is blurred by grief; my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies. (Psalm 6:6-7).

It’s a lot different to the “H-A-P-P-Y” experience of the kids’ song, but it shows that sorrow is an authentic experience of the Christian.

Yet, Christian sadness is not without hope. The Psalm continues in this way:

Go away, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping. The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD will answer my prayer. (Psalm 6:8-9)

As we experience sadness, we can know that God hears us in our grief, and he answers our prayers.

And our hope is future-focused: we look forward to him answering our prayer for deliverance from our enemies and the rescue that we are promised because of Jesus.

Whether you’re H-A-P-P-Y or S-A-D, you can look forward to being restored and rescued by our saviour Jesus Christ, as we await his return or our going to be with him.

JODIE McNEILL

CREDIT: Photo Brian Kelly, via Flickr.

One of the great treasures of the Christian faith is the collection of prayers found in ‘The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions’.

It contains two hundred or so prayers written nearly five hundred years ago, and their timeless words capture some deep reflections on the Bible’s teaching.

I first became aware of these prayers when an album was released by Sovereign Grace called ‘The Valley of Vision’, where several of these prayers were put to song, including ‘Let Your Kingdom Come’ and ‘O Great God’.

Yet it is the first song of the album, which is based on the first prayer of the book, that has been a great blessing to me in my Christian walk.

Here are the first two stanzas:

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Let us pray that we will find God’s glory in our valley.

JODIE McNEILL