Joy to the World!, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56347 [retrieved December 13, 2025]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/babasteve/31844535845/.
It is a privilege to write today and to wish you all a joyful Christmas.
A fortnight ago tomorrow I enjoyed a performance of Handel’s Messiah at The Royal Festival Hall. Just being there brought back memories of performances I have attended in London over the years, initially with my grandparents. Now I am one of those and it is as though time has stood still in one dimension while racing on in another dimension.
I listened afresh to the words of the libretto that I know so well that I can mouth them all as the singers tell the story. What follows grew in my mind as I wondered what to write today. By the time I had walked back across Hungerford Bridge to the Embankment station the outline was there.
‘Why do the nations rage so furiously together’ is apposite as the conflict in Ukraine runs on. But as for over dominant, ‘He will break them in pieces, like a potter’s vessel’ before finally it is acknowledged that, ‘Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.’
Today we celebrate the moment when prophesy became reality, ‘For unto us a child is born.’ Not an ordinary child but the one whose life would build towards the triumph that enables us to have faith that the cruel, overreaching dominance of a disproportionate few will eventually be resolved. He is not only the baby whose birth stops the hustle of the world today, but the one called ‘wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of peace.’ The one of whom later we will repeat, ‘worthy is the lamb that was slain,’ and from which grows our faith that responds, ‘I know that my redeemer liveth.’
A Prayer
On this Christmas Day, we thank you Lord for coming among us, and we pray for your peace in the hearts of all who may be troubled. The world needed a messiah and you became The Messiah, long foretold and yet ever new. May we know again your saving love and the sure purpose you have for the peace of the world you came to save.
‘Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto him for ever and ever. Amen.’