“Don’t be afraid!” was the first thing the angels said in their messages announcing the good news about Christ’s birth. Mary was told, “Don’t be afraid; you have found favour with God.” (Luke 1:30) Joseph was told “do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife.” (Matt 1:20) The shepherds were told “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” (Luke 2:10)

Fear is something we all have to deal with at some point in our lives. Many languages talk about ‘having fear’; in English now we talk about ‘being afraid’. Whether we think of fear as something we (hopefully temporarily) possess or are conscious of it being a more insidious state that pervades our thinking on an almost constant basis, God has much to say about fear.

Moses encouraged the Israelites as they were about to go into the Promised Land not to fear: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deut 31:6) He encouraged Joshua with the words “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deut 31:8) Time and time again, as God’s people face difficult situations, whether personally or nationally, God reminds them that He is with them and that one fact is enough to turn the situation around. God is our helper. We need not be afraid.

In Ps 55, we read what we need to do with our fears and worries: “Pile your troubles on God’s shoulders— he’ll carry your load, he’ll help you out.” (Ps 55:22, The Message). May the knowledge that God is with us – Emmanuel – transform our thinking and help us to face the New Year without fear, but with hope and trust.

Christians are sometimes accused of being out of touch with reality. “You’re so heavenly-minded you’re no earthly good” is one criticism that is sometimes heard. “Christianity is just a crutch. You don’t know what it’s like to live in the real world. It’s all pie in the sky.”

Quite how people get this view of Christianity astounds me. At Christmas, we celebrate the coming of Christ into the world. He came as a real baby to a real world. He didn’t come with pomp and majesty, but to a cold, dirty, smelly stable. He lived on earth amongst real people as a real man. He died a painful, cruel death. Jesus is not some sugar-coated sentimental hero. He is real.

Our faith is rooted in historical fact. We proclaim, as others have done before us, that “we believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”

This week on Radio 4 there was a programme about Pentecostalism presented by Philip Dodd. I was interested in this for a number of reasons, not least because part of the programme was recorded at Grimethorpe Pentecostal Church, not a million miles from us, and Pastor Joy Gascoigne, a friend of mine, featured in it. But as I listened, one thing struck me. Despite all the talk about ‘experience’ and ‘speaking in tongues’, the presenter couldn’t deny the fact that these people were living in the real world, were engaged in the real world and were working hard to relieve suffering and poverty in the real world.

I believe that is how it should be, for we serve a God who engaged with the real world and as we celebrate that fact at Christmas, may we be like Him: spiritually in tune with the Father and serving those around us with humility, love and faithfulness.

You can hear the programme here:
bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wqcnd

Just to let you know what will be happening over the next few days…

There will be just the morning service on Boxing Day, Sunday 26th December, at the usual time of 10:30 a.m. There will be no evening service that day.

There will be no midweek meetings next week, but the usual New Year’s Day party will be held on 1st January 2011 at 4:30 p.m. Please bring food and drink to that party!

Mark started his sermon at the carol service with a series of ‘Knock, knock’ jokes before going on to talk about the knock on the doors of the inns in Bethlehem which ultimately led to one innkeeper offering Mary and Joseph the shelter of a smelly stable. If the innkeepers had known who was going to be born that night, they might have responded differently to the knocks on their door, but Jesus was born into obscurity, born in a stable, placed in a feeding trough – an unexpected place for the Light of the World to make His entry into our world.

Jesus continues to knock on doors today, but these are the doors of our hearts. Revelation 3:20 says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” As the Holman Hunt painting ‘Light of the World’ clearly illustrates, there is no door handle on the outside. It’s up to us to respond to Jesus knocking; only we can open the door to allow Him access into our lives.

Jesus wants us to let Him in on a regular basis. He’s not just for Christmas. He is our best friend who will never leave us or forsake us, but our response is needed to His knocking.

In case you think we don’t do anything serious in our carol services, we had traditional readings:



We also had a mixture of traditional carols and more modern songs. This one is called ‘C for the Christ Child’:


This one is definitely not serious, however! It’s a satirical look at the frenzy of Christmas shopping, set to the tune of ‘Jingle Bells’ and we had a competition as to which side could sing and act it out the best!

The second carol service was held on Sunday 19th December and was a fun-packed service.

To cater for those with savoury tastes, we had a Pringles competition. Round 1 was for those who like salt and vinegar flavoured Pringles:

won by Gary…

Round 2 was for those who like cheese and onion flavoured Pringles:

won by Debbie, who was so quick off the mark, I failed to get a photo of the empty bowl!

The final was also won by Debbie:

We also had the traditional birthday songs, although someone clearly doesn’t like the birthday hat!

We played ‘Pass the Parcel’ with a difference… each layer revealed a charade to be acted out!