Letter: In reflecting on the Christmas message as we feast, we take the first steps towards making the world a better place
A letter from Jeremy Burchill:
As we look forward to Christmas celebrations we can become so busy preparing to ‘celebrate’ that we forget to focus on what it is that we are actually celebrating.
The prophet Zechariah writing after the return of the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem challenged them “when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?” (Zechariah 7:6).
Our celebration does not require conspicuous consumption, but rather reflection on the baby born in a stable, placed in a feeding trough for a crib before having to flee to Egypt as a refugee. Immanuel – God with us! The Jewish reading of the Haggadah at the Seder table recounting the Passover account to their children during the first night of Passover is a practice which has much to commend it.
The prophet Micah asked “what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
The apostle Paul reminded the Ephesian elders that Jesus taught that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
In reflecting on these things as we feast, we take the first steps towards making our community, and indeed the world, a better place in 2026.
Jeremy Burchill, Leyburn, North Yorkshire