Advent to Christmas

Article by the rector, Canon Ian Ellis

How does Christ come to you?

Advent speaks of the coming of Jesus as the infant of Bethlehem and also of his coming again to be our judge.

We do not know how Jesus will appear to us but it is a fundamental teaching of the Church that, in the end, there will be a judgement.

Christ, of course, is a figure of mercy, not retribution, and Christians believe that in facing Christ's judgement they can rely on his mercy and on the fact that Christ died for our salvation, in a sacred and mysterious way putting things right between us and God, reconciling us to God.

Heaven is rightly seen as characterised by harmony, reflecting the harmony that is at the heart of the life of God himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the Incarnation, God began his great work of peacemaking and reconciliation.

Christmas, the birth of Jesus, marks the beginning of that inbreaking of God into the world, to work his great reconciliation. The joy of Christmas is both the natural joy at the birth of an infant but it is yet deeper than that because it is also joy at what this Jesus has come to do for us and for all humanity.

Christ comes to us again and again in the course of our lives. We are to watch out for him speaking to us through the words and actions of other people, or through the reading of Holy Scripture, or through a striking piece of art or music, or in any of a host of different ways.

Perhaps we find that our encounter with Christ comes most often in one particular way. How does Christ come to you?