Bishop Trevor's Christmas Message
"You talk a lot about Jesus, but have you ever seen Him?” A seemingly random question asked of me when on a recent, ordinary visit around the Diocese.
But it made me think.
Made me think at a time when I feel our country is deeply anxious and uncertain about its future.
Made me think when I recently met a number of people who are most certainly not looking forward to Christmas.
Made me think as I read that an increasing number of people in our country will spend this Christmas Day alone, when the only face they might see is that of themselves reflected in a mirror.
Made me think as I listened to the stark warnings coming from the International Conference on the environment about the fragility of the world today.
In the midst of this, dare I say, that I have seen the face of Jesus?
Seen the face of a love which I can barely talk about, let alone understand. A face of a child born in the squalor of a stable in what was then one of the remotest and poorest parts of the world. The face of a dying man, who in his own agony can still say ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’.
Dare I? Yes, I dare and yes, I must if I am to be faithful to the one who calls me. For to keep silent is to allow the darkness to prevail.
The message of Christmas is that God comes among us in a very ordinary way. In our very ordinary world I find and recognise His face.
I see His face in the face of a friend or neighbour.
In the face of a volunteer in one of our night shelters.
In the face of a prison visitor who, week by week, patiently sits and listens to the story of a broken life.
In the face of someone whose own life may be filled with pain and suffering, yet still dares to speak of that love which transforms and makes whole even the most broken.
This is the world, our world, with all of its anxieties and darkness, which God comes to save. The world in which He invites us to see His face, the face of love in Jesus Christ, in all those around us.
But even more than that, invites us to dare to show that face of love ourselves.
Have you ever seen Jesus?
May the love of the Lord Jesus fill all of our hearts afresh this coming Christmastide.