THE real news at Christmas is of people being valued for their intrinsic worth not for their purchasing power, the head of the Church of Ireland has claimed.
Delivering his annual Christmas message, the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Rev Alan Harper, said he hoped people were looking forward to the forthcoming holiday period, despite the economic hardship.
The senior minister maintained “building a personal culture of kindness” and a renewed focus on the “things in life that really bring satisfaction” should be the overriding objective of the festive season.
He also urged people to “go to church”.
Reflecting on a traumatic 12 months, the Archbishop asked: “The Chancellor’s autumn statement in Westminster, the Spending Review and Budget in Dail Eireann, doom and gloom on the high street and in shopping malls, is anybody looking forward to Christmas?”
He said: “While there is real hardship and anxiety in current times which I in no way belittle, I do hope so, because the real news at Christmas is of people being valued for their intrinsic worth not for their purchasing power.
“It is news about human equality, the poor valued as much as the rich, the rich as much as the poor; the young esteemed as much as the old and the old as much as the young; the sick in body or mind no less and no more important than healthy folk; God loves and seeks to visit every one of us regardless of wealth, status or power.”
The Presbyterian moderator, Rev Dr Ivan Patterson, has used his first Christmas message as moderator to remind people of how the Bible writers “allow us to discover who God is” and about “how great and awesome and amazing He is”.
Dr Patterson said: “Just as when He was here many of us prefer a Jesus who fits our prejudices, suits our appetites and makes no demands, and all because the Word does not penetrate our shells.”
Posing the question, “What’s so great about Jesus?” Dr Patterson invites people to think of their own answer.
“The Gospel of John gives this response — ‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’ These words are quoted from the authorised translation of the Bible, better known as the King James Bible which celebrated its 400th anniversary during 2011.”
Dr Patterson added: “The trouble is that we have so domesticated Jesus that we have lost sight of the fact that He is the Almighty among us even though He began his earthly life wrapped up in a tiny baby. It is so easy for us to lose that wonderful moment of which John speaks and not see his glory, surrounded as we are each Christmas with ‘things’ and a contemporary desire to bring God down to a manageable size.
“Yet it is in the Word made flesh that we meet God and discover what grace and truth are.”