Sussex Heritage: Love and service expressed at Christmas
When I was growing up my Dad very wisely wouldn’t let me, my brothers or my sisters talk about Christmas until after Bonfire night. Millions of Christians across the country have been waiting expectantly throughout the Advent season, as we did as children, for Christmas to arrive.
I don’t know about you but December has flown by and as I write this there still seems much to do. Wrapping to be done, a sermon to write, Christmas services and the many beautiful people I am looking forward to visiting before the excitement of gathering around a table with family and friends. St Mary’s in Storrington will once again be gathering those who are elderly or alone for a Christmas lunch, a practical expression of Christian love and service. This story will be repeated across the country. The homeless and those in need will be gathered and tended to by people of faith and none giving their time to the service of others in a spirit of love.
In recent times, and not least this year, there has again been much in our daily lives and the news to remind us of the difficulties of our current time.
Sometimes it can seem difficult to remain hopeful about the world. And yet the solution is not to be fearful but to be confident of what is at the heart of our nation’s common narrative, the values expressed in the Christian story of Christmas.
As a Christian I draw hope from my belief that on that first Christmas day God came among us as a baby born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. His parents were displaced and without their home. The world over the millennia has often talked of value in terms of the material. By these standards Mary and Joseph had little and yet they knew that they had been richly blessed. What they had been given, this remarkable child, they shared with the world. This intimate Christian story invites us to be active in the world and not spectators. By their example Jesus and his parents leave us in no doubt that acts of kindness to one another and a genuine concern for others can transform our lives and the lives of those around us restoring hope. These values are universally held by people of good heart from all faiths and none. The gift of the message of Christmas is that true value and hope are defined by love and service to others, especially those in need. I wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas.
Rupert Toovey is a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington - www.tooveys.com - and a priest in the Church of England Diocese of Chichester.