December 2019

The Vicarage, Whitwell SG4 8HX. 01438-871121. Email: slfielding@hotmail.com

In November, I was delighted to baptise Oscar at St Martin’s and Demelza at All Saints – the more so as very large numbers came to be part of this happy and significant occasion. It really is wonderful when a family and friends and the church congregations entrust a young life to the hands of God.

If we are planning to have our children christened, it obviously takes a bit of planning, and I’ve no doubt most of us are thinking about or planning for Christmas at the moment – thinking about presents or food or who is coming to stay – or just how much we are going to be able to afford in these very difficult times. Some of our planning is great and some of it is quite stressful – and I know that many would simply prefer a quieter run up to Christmas and a simpler celebration of the Christmas season.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus encourages us to ask for certain things. One of them is ‘our daily bread’. Here we are asking that we should have enough – enough to see us through the day and beyond. At the simplest level, enough to eat. As we pray that God will give us our daily bread, we will think of those who have no bread, whose lives are very much harder than our own.

But we will also think that the bread we are really asking for is the bread that doesn’t run out – the life and spirit of God himself.

Jesus is the bread of Life. Christmas is the celebration of God’s confidence in the world he made by the sending of his son Jesus to be like us. The days and weeks leading up to Christmas Day may be busy with planning or anxiety. I hope that you will pray for God’s help as you prepare, and that you will join us in one or more of the Christmas services. You will be very welcome.

With every good wish

Stephen