Christmas 2011

The ancient Celtic Christians, who inhabited the British Isles prior to the arrival of St. Augustine [first Archbishop] of Canterbury and his missionaries, described a “thin place” as a location where the veil between eternity and this world overlaps and intermingles. A “thin place” could be a physical location or a place in time.

Christmas Eve at Christ Church is such a “thin place”. As a congregation, our physical location at Elizabeth and Queen Streets has been a place of prayer for generations and our place in time, as old as Brampton itself, connects us to a myriad of relationships. But our true “thin place” is in Christ alone who took on flesh to come and live among us.  Jesus Christ, the eternally begotten Son of God, stepped into time, in our flesh, so that we could understand. Jesus came to us so that we could and can continue to come to Him. The Incarnation is the ultimate intersection of God and humanity, showing that the barrier between God and humanity has been breached by God – as only God could.

This Christmas Eve, you and I are invited to go, in heart and mind, to see the Babe lying in a manger. And, if you want to see Jesus you need to go to where He is. As Anglicans, we affirm that Jesus is present in four unique places: Jesus, the Word made flesh, is present in the words of Holy Scripture. Jesus is truly present in the Sacraments, particularly in “the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of Christ” in Holy Communion. Jesus is present in the praises of his people and is in the hearts of all who believe.   And finally, Jesus is present in his distressing disguise, in the face of the poor.

I am often struck by how open people are to the presence of Christ at Christmas. Perhaps this is because they let down their defenses and in doing so, are able to approach that “thin place” becoming open to the words of Scripture, willing to receive Communion with a Holy Hunger, letting down their hearts’ defenses to come just as they are, with all of their grief and woes, to where only Jesus can transform the poverty of their nature by the riches of His grace.

I love Christmas. I love hosting our Lord’s special guests. I love being able to speak words of peace into troubled lives, I love being able to feed God’s people with His Holy Word and Sacraments. The words say so much… “This is the Word of the Lord”; “This is my body, this is my blood”;  “Lift up your hearts”;   “The peace of the Lord be always with you”.  And it is in the utterances of these words, In these “thin places”, that Christ is revealed in Worship.  Will you enter in?

Jesus reveals himself in the thinness of Christmas where people like you and me can come in the poverty of their condition and find that their broken hearts of grief and loss, of helplessness and restlessness, are met in the Holy Child of Bethlehem.

Come this Christmas, in heart and mind, and see the Holy Babe lying in a manger.  Come and experience God’s “thin place” for you this Christmas!

May God richly bless you and yours this Holy Christmas season and always

Byron+

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