Story retains power after 2000 years
MUTHILL, TRINITY GASK AND KINKELL PARISH CHURCHES
Ministers struggle every year to think of something original or new to say about Christmas. Perhaps we don’t need to. The story has been retold annually for nearly 2000 years.
People are still writing new songs about it, but many of our carols go back centuries and are still popular today.
The question we need to ask is: Why has this story such power?
I believe it is because it isn’t just about a baby who was born in strange circumstances a long time ago. That baby went on to become a man who challenged and changed the world of his day. He was rumoured to have risen from the dead after being executed by Romans.
The interesting thing is the consistency in what the stories and songs say about Jesus throughout the centuries and across the cultures that have adopted the Christian faith.
The songs celebrate sins forgiven, the love that came down at Christmas, the need of the world to hear again and respond to a living Saviour. The power in that good news lies in the fact that the one who lay in the manger was the one who built the starry skies.
The name Emmanuel, God with us, is still his name, and wherever people come to worship at the crib the same love and grace and glory shines on their lives today as always.
Nothing new there. But, for those who have never really come to him, there is the most amazing discovery still waiting to be made.
Many carols go back centuries and are still popular