Christmas Day, 2010.
Ocean Forest
A BIG Christmas
John 1:1-14 (Message)
Christmas has become quite small in our culture.
Nowdays Christmas seems to be very focussed on people re-connecting, families re-connecting, sharing possessions, and of course, giving gifts. These are not bad things. It is a good thing to have a reason for an effort to be made to re-connect with family and friends in some way – sharing a meal, sending a card, giving a gift, receiving a gift, making a call.
And even in our ever-secularising culture in the West, we still seem to have a little bit of a grander vision of Christmas as we belt out songs and words about “peace on earth, goodwill to all people” at carols by candlelight events all around the country and the world, and as we stroll through the aisles of the shops doing that Christmas shopping!
Of course, for most people, this hope of peace for all people is devoid of any connection with the God of the bible. Some still see the strong link between our hopes for peace and God’s plan and power in the world, but most gave that up somewhere along the line.
So, we are left with a strange celebration indeed these days – lots of lights and gifts and effort to reconnect with each other and a hint of a global but pretty human perspective “world peace” and that is about it. God is not really in the Christmas picture for most these days – not the God who has spoken in the Bible and his one and only Son in that manger anyway.
So, Christmas is small in our culture.
Enter the vast cosmic vision of John of Patmos proclaiming a massive grandiose nature of that baby in the cattle shed!
John 1:1-14 (The Message)
The Life-Light
The Word was first, the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.
Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
This human baby is God presence in a new way for human beings. He is the ultimate present to us! This human baby in small town Israel is the Word of the God of all things and was somehow also present when God brought into being all that we know and see from nothing.
Before Christmas became Christmas, and we became ourselves, this God-man is. This baby pre-dates us and post dates us all at once and he covers our existence from our cot to our grave and beyond. Now that is BIG!
What’s even better is that his very nature is creative – he creates; he creates good from bad, something from nothing, light from darkness…..
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn't put it out.
Yes, light to live by: Light that does not need electricity but shines brighter in the human heart; the light that only God’s voice can bring to our life.
Light not temporary and even dazzling to the human eye like our Christmas lights, but light in our darkest fears and worries and sin; light even for our dying and death: Christmas light that will still be on when the new dawn comes….
We need some convincing on this truth these days. For a million reasons we love the darkness and don’t mind the sin – if we will even acknowledge it exists in us. We seem to want to be masters of own destiny and creators of our own light to live our life and we seem to refuse this baby’s gift of a light that does not come from within us but from within God.
God obviously knows us very well. He sent us a messenger to get us ready for this baby….
There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
Friends, you have been given the heads up on the magnitude of this baby – this Word made human flesh being. John called out in our darkness and wilderness, “Repent. Turn beck to God. God is coming to you in a new and very BIG way”.
The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life he brings into Light.
He was in the world, the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn't even notice.
He came to his own people, but they didn't want him.
Friend, do you want to keep settling for a small Christmas devoid of this BIG Light that is hope and real peace?
Will you let yourself notice this divine and yet human light this time around? What will it take for you to actually want all of him and not just a surface level, childhood vision of him?
I don’t want to settle for a small Christmas ever. I know I need God’s Christmas – God’s word, God’s truth, God’s grace, God’s light in my darkness. I need the baby. I need his life, his teaching, his death and his resurrection for humanity and for me and all my relationships, work, health and peace.
Only these gifts from Jesus will raise me above my sin and my dying and death. I will only settle for this kind of Christmas these days.
But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not sex-begotten, not flesh-begotten.
Be born from above today. Let the baby carry you to his grace and truth and re-set you down with a new vision of who you are in your baptism and who you are in your life now.
By faith in this baby – the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, the God of the universe with us, you are born from above – born of the Holy Spirit, born of this baby and you are filled with grace and truth for your life now.
That’s Christmas. That’s what a billion people on planet earth get fired up about today.
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
Go there to God’s presence today and let him come home with you into your family and your decisions, your dreams, your directions. He will transform you and them into something you don’t know about yet. But everything he does will have that gift of grace and truth about is and it will be good.
See the glory of the God of all things in the baby. Bask in the BIG light of a BIG Christmas – a God-Christmas. Be born from above and take in the grand grace and truth of it all.
Don’t settle for the usual SMALL Christmas. Let Christmas expand today.
Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of humanity,
for the LORD has comforted his people, he has bought you back with a price.
The LORD has shown his power for all to see,
and all the ends of the earth can see the salvation, hope and love of our God.
Amen
Walk on….
Primary School End of Year Address, 2010
1 John 4:18
Friends, I guess it is no secret that we at Ocean Forest highly value the primary community in which all of us enter the world, grow up in the world, and find our vocation and purpose for life – our family. We highly value family.
The English novelist and author Jane Howard says, “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, and call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one”. (Jane Howard)
“To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time”. Clara Ortega
Of course, families are made up of different people and parents are central to how families live and what the next generation becomes.
Parents teach without trying. They shape character without holding a class. They influence in helpful and maybe not so helpful ways whether they want to or not. We pass on wonderful characteristics of love, kindness, compassion, ambition, resourcefulness at the same time as we pass on all our foibles – and that is just the way it is.
In the end we are a product of our family and our parents for better or worse. As Jimmy Buffet once said, ...
"We are the people our parents warned us about." Jimmy Buffett
We as educators, carers, some of us parents ourselves, and all of us children of parents, would like to affirm you as families tonight.
We would like to affirm in the strongest possible terms those of you here who are walking the long road of parenting children, whatever stage of the journey you are on; whether you are doing it solo or in partnership – what you do to care for and shape your children with virtue, character and vision for their future is absolutely critical in your children’s life and for our community and indeed, our country.
As Pope John Paul said, “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live” Pope John Paul II
We take our hat off to you for continuing to walk the journey of family and parenting and including our college in your family journey.
Parenting is a struggle. I think what the American journalist; Ellen Goodman said is true…
“The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears”. Ellen Goodman
We see our role as educators, carers and administrators as one of partnering with you in your foundational place in your children’s lives. We want to let our hopes for our students and for you as parents far outweigh any fears we may have. In everything that happens at Ocean Forest, we want to help children, young people and parents and grandparents find hope that drives out fear, because fear makes a lesser people, and hope gives us a future.
Jesus Christ pointed to a new hope and a new future. He showed a love beyond us and yet for us in his life and death and living now. He inspired a renewed man named Paul to proclaim that there is something we human beings can experience that helps us rise above fear and live with real hope for our and our children’s future. He said “perfect love casts out fear”
That love has been poured out into millions of hearts for two millennia and that love of God exists in this college community. We pray that at this Christmas time you might ponder the deep and overflowing love of God for people and parents just like you and me as that little Christ-child lays in the arms of his mother tended by his father in that cow shed.
As U2 sung, “Walk on”. Walk on as you travel the long road of parenting. Walk on into next year children and young people, as you are supported and cared for by parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, brothers, sisters. We walk together letting the perfect love that casts out all fear bring a hope to our journey ahead
They still need us.
Secondary College Closing Service address, 2010
Friends, as I look at the Yr 12’s, I naturally reflect on how they have finished their schooling and ponder what got them through it in such good shape – with a bright future… I know a lot of it had to do with their parents. Can I speak about that tonight….
Being a parent of kids from the ages of 0 to 12 is different than parenting young people living in the teen years. Everyone knows that younger children need their mum and dad. Little kids need some loving person to wipe their nose and other bits and they need their hand held as they cross the scary street.
Everyone knows that the whole notion of “quality time” is a myth. The truth is that “quality time” actually is “quantity time”, as far as kids are concerned. Just being with kids as much as possible without even doing anything much for a lot of that time is the single ,most important thing parents can contribute to their kids’ lives when they are young.
But then something happens – the most extreme and tricky change a human being ever experiences occurs; ‘teenageship’! Everything is changing. Everything is changing in every way and very quickly.
Kids feel weird. Parents feel lost. Little Suzie who used to be so easy to get on with is now in your face; she is intelligent, she is able to match you in sarcasm, she is becoming a mature woman right in front of your eyes!
Little Johnny, who was so cute is now breaking out with pimples, attitude, height, strength and everything else. The room is a war zone. The couch in front of the TV is the second bedroom – the teen thinks! And so it goes….
Then something happens to adults. Somehow they pick up the vibe that their little kids, who are now much more complex and challenging to relate to, don’t want them around anymore.
On one level this is true! Often teens would rather be dead than be seen with their parents in certain public places – like – the movies, the school ball, the friend’s party… then the main street of Bunbury, any street, even on the front porch of the house on their own street! – Just in case some random person actually makes the link that the teenager actually has you as their parent!
But, let me tell you a little story that I see being acted out in our modern western culture – right here in sunny Dalyellup…
Because we all have to make ends meet, and because we are all a little unsure of what to do with our teenage kids, and because we have a negative view of “teenageship” anyway (which comes from a very lop-sided, ‘bad news sells’ media spin…), and because we adults feel awkward and unable to control our kids anymore (as if “control” was what teens are needing most), and for lots of other reasons to do with who we are and what we believe, we start to believe the vibe – our teens don’t want us around – OR, “our teens don’t need us around”.
I am here to tell you that teens might not want you around sometimes, but they need you around.
Here’s the story…
Young teen, George gets leaves the house at 7.30am. Mum and Dad have already left for work or are leaving for work in the mornings. George walks or rides to school alone. He sits outside one of the school buildings alone because he arrives at 7.45am. There is no one around – maybe the groundsman and the padre and the odd teacher might be walking around when he is – but not usually.
George eventually gets to get inside the school buildings with his friends and he goes through the school day and all is well. He does his work. He gets on with people, even his teachers. George is learning and relating (he is not on drugs. He is not out of control. He is a great young kid who has been raided with love and respect and it shows).
The school day finishes and George has to face the prospect of being alone for the next 2 1/2 hours because mum and dad won’t be home until at least 6.00pm.
So he walks home alone, enters the house alone, watches TV alone, plays on his Playstation or Wii or iPhone alone, does a few chores alone, makes sure his little sister is ok…… until mum and dad turn up, usually pretty tired but trying their best to get everything done.
They are tired, but not too cranky. Sometimes they are very tired and very cranky.
George knows they are doing all of this hard work for him. They tell him that a lot.
Sometimes George wishes that his mum and dad did not do all of this hard work for him. It makes him feel bad. It makes him feel like he is putting them through all this. It makes him have this sense of guilt just for being who he is.
The truth is that George would rather have them around a lot more. Yes, George often gives off the vibe that he does not want mum or dad around at the moment. Yes, George has his moods and weaknesses and he can also be cranky. But on a deeper level, George would like to know that all is OK and that mum or dad, or just one of them are around and that they are interested in his day and that they were not so tired all the time.
What’s the point? Don’t leave them when they hit 13, folks. They still need you. Yes, they might give you curry from time to time and give off the vibe that you need to disappear for a decade, but that is only temporary stuff – and not deep stuff.
Teens need time like they did when they were little. The same amount of interest and time and commitment but given differently. Yes, it is tricky because this little girl and boy are growing up and testing it all out. Parents have to become Jason Bourne kind of people who know how to sneak in to their teen’s life, stay there a while, get out again and then pick the time to do it all over again. Timing is everything.
I am A Christian because I have a Heavenly Father who sneaks into my life, stays there and times everything very well. He says in his Word, the bible, he loves me, is committed to me and will accept and help me when I am guilty, nasty, ugly and broken.
He will never fall asleep or take it easy so that I get into bad trouble and get hurt beyond repair. He says he is my shade and my shelter and that he is into teaching me and shaping me for my whole life until I one day see him face-to-face, when I will finally see who I really am and who he created me to be and I will no longer be guessing. I will have finally grown up and become complete.
Adults need a heavenly Father; kids need their parents at any age. Don’t leave them. God will not leave you. Our teens still need us.
Adrian Kitson, December 10, 2010
