Carol service

This year, for reasons known not to me, I have found myself involved in a organising number of carol services. Oh wait…maybe it’s because I said “Yes”! too often. Or maybe because I had an idea that gave me another one to organise! Anyway, there are lots in different places. And two are in hospital. Which is great. For one of those I’ve organised staff from the hospital to read. This week I sent them all the reading I wanted them to read and asked if they were happy to read it. One of them came back saying they were happy to read the part from the Bible (classic Christmas readings from Matthew and Luke), but the didn’t feel they could say “Thanks be to God” at the end. (That was a hangover from previous services which I didn’t organise!) The reason - they didn’t want to say something thy weren’t sure they believed! I love the honesty. I love that someone thought about it enough to wrestle with their own integrity. I love that someone would make themselves vulnerable in order to be honest. Which is what Christmas is all about isn’t it? A God who makes himself vulnerable because he is honest about what he believes. A God who makes himself vulnerable, who comes to the world as a tiny baby, because he believes that you are worth it. There is nothing more vulnerable than a baby. God was so sure of what he believed about people like you and me, that he took the risk, made himself vulnerable and…we have Christmas. And yet I for one, find it so, so hard to make myself vulnerable even for the smallest thing. I spend time with people who, in counselling, make themselves extraordinarily vulnerable to someone they have never met, and know nothing about. They want to be honest. And they are. And in their honesty, they become vulnerable. And, it seems to me, that in their honesty and vulnerability they begin the healing process. It is a safe place. The story of the God who makes himself vulnerable is the story that invites us to be vulnerable. The story that invites us to be honest about ourselves. The story that invites us to be vulnerable, to come and worship the child in a manger. The story that is the beginning of the healing process. The story that invites us to the one who is safe. I replied to the request not to say “Thanks be to God” by saying that was absolutely fine. I wanted to meet this person where they are. God wants to meet us where we are. That’s why he came to a manger, in Bethlehem, to a young virgin. It’s why shepherds and pagans were the first to be invited to see the baby. He wants to meet you, today, wherever you are. And, perhaps, the place he meets us, is in honesty and vulnerability. Thanks be to God!