President's Christmas Message Transcript

00:00:03:07 - 00:00:03:18

As we

00:00:03:18 - 00:00:07:13

move towards Christmas, many of us find ourselves wearied by the last couple

00:00:07:13 - 00:00:12:03

of years, life under lockdown has affected most of us one way or another.

00:00:12:19 - 00:00:14:22

We have missed seeing family and friends.

00:00:15:12 - 00:00:18:00

Many of us had have had commemorations

00:00:18:00 - 00:00:20:22

and celebrations canceled or curtailed.

00:00:21:14 - 00:00:24:09

Many businesses have suffered and people are worried

00:00:24:09 - 00:00:27:22

about their financial future and the security of their job.

00:00:28:12 - 00:00:31:09

We are concerned about the well-being of our young people.

00:00:31:18 - 00:00:34:12

We are worried about our older friends and family.

00:00:35:04 - 00:00:38:13

Many of the routines that helped us navigate our daily lives

00:00:38:20 - 00:00:42:18

have been disrupted or lost alongside COVID.

00:00:42:18 - 00:00:46:21

Many of us are anxious about the world, about the lack of vaccine

00:00:46:21 - 00:00:50:01

justice, about growing tension in our region

00:00:50:08 - 00:00:53:13

and about climate change and the very real threat.

00:00:53:20 - 00:00:56:23

The Earth can no longer sustain life in a meaningful way.

00:00:57:20 - 00:01:00:00

As I reflected on what troubles us,

00:01:00:00 - 00:01:04:03

a line from a Christmas Carol came to me singing of Jesus.

00:01:04:04 - 00:01:09:03

It says the hopes and fears of all the years I met in the tonight

00:01:09:23 - 00:01:13:14

Christmas is the celebration of God entering into human life

00:01:13:19 - 00:01:17:02

in flesh and bone and coming among us as a baby.

00:01:17:07 - 00:01:20:00

God enters into the riskiness of human life,

00:01:20:11 - 00:01:24:04

the risk of disease and death of illness and injury.

00:01:24:11 - 00:01:28:19

The risk of loneliness, alienation and rejection of living

00:01:28:19 - 00:01:32:09

as a member of a colonized people in a world of injustice.

00:01:33:10 - 00:01:35:11

Jesus meets our fears

00:01:35:11 - 00:01:39:15

showing God is not distant from the world, but fully in the world.

00:01:39:23 - 00:01:43:02

In meeting our fears, Jesus brings hope.

00:01:43:21 - 00:01:47:08

Jesus brings hope that God not only witnesses the suffering

00:01:47:08 - 00:01:50:16

of the world, but enters into it in solidarity.

00:01:51:05 - 00:01:55:12

Hope that Jesus crosses boundaries, eats and drinks with sinners,

00:01:55:12 - 00:02:01:08

and the outcast loves abundantly hope that God is with us among us

00:02:01:08 - 00:02:05:18

alongside us in Jesus, who is the face of God's love .

00:02:05:18 - 00:02:09:13

The voice of God's justice and the embodiment of God's mercy.

00:02:10:06 - 00:02:14:21

And so our fears are met and held in God's hope and love.

00:02:15:09 - 00:02:18:15

This Christmas, may you know this hope and love.