St John's Christmas message 2022

Revd Tim's Christmas Message for Christmas 2022. Happy Christmas everyone!
If you'd like to join us at St John's this Christmas you can find out about our services at www.stjohnsharpenden.org.uk/christmas
For more information on donations for asylum seekers: www.stjohnsharpenden.org.uk/clothing-for-asylum-seekers.php
For our Christmas Appeal you can donate in church over Christmas or here pay.sumup.io/b...
Here is the text in full:
Greetings everyone, I’m Revd Tim Vickers, and I’m the Vicar of St John’s Church in Harpenden.
This Christmas is going to feel like the first normal Christmas in at least 3 years. We can do whatever we want, with whom we want and whenever we want to do it. If you are looking forward to festive fun with family and friends, I hope you enjoy it and that your time together is precious. Christmas is after all a time of great joy and rejoicing.
Of course, we all know that normal means something different for each of us. For some, normal will be a Christmas without a loved one, for others normal will be spent in the cold, alone and hungry - because there is no one who loves them enough to care. Normal might mean being struck in a foreign land seeking asylum, but the very people you hoped would care turn their back on you. Normal might mean celebrating Christmas whilst the sound of rockets and artillery fills the air.
In fact if we look long enough we are all too aware of the darkness in our world - the cost of living crisis which has resulted in the creation of warm spaces even here in wealthy Harpenden, strikes beginning to affect every aspect of our lives from health care, travel and even our post, refugees from an European War that has no end in sight, and a looming economic crisis.
The prophet Isaiah tells us though that ‘the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them the light has shined’.
The baby Jesus was born into a world full of threats and violence, of wars and injustice. He was the light that shone in the darkness of that world, as sign of God’s loving presence with them, and us. A light made brighter by the darkness which surrounded it. This Jesus grew and shone in the darkness of his death on a cross and transformed that darkness into light and love.
At St John’s we believe that the birth of Jesus changed the world. The Light of Jesus shines even amongst the darkness of our hearts and our world. The good news is that this means there is no need to pretend that darkness doesn’t exist, or feel we have to leave all that darkens and troubles our hearts at the door - we bring those too so that the light of Christ might shine even there.
But we also know that as the Church we are called to be people of the light in that darkness, and for this reason we are collecting for Christian Aid at all our Christmas services, raising money for their emergency support of people in East Africa in the midst of a famine, and also, closer to home, collecting new clothes for asylum seekers in Markyate, and I hope if you are able to contribute, you will.
However you are celebrating this Christmas, may you know the joy of that one true light shining in our sometimes dark world, and may you be the gift of giving that light to others.
Happy Christmas