adelaide place baptist church

For most people, Christmas is now a distant memory except for the hefty credit card bills that are falling through their letter boxes. The month of January is not always an easy time to pick one’s self up after the winter celebrations of Christmas and New Year. The very name January comes from the ancient Roman pantheon of Gods. The God Janus was a two headed God, one who looked backwards into the year gone by and forwards into the future year.

I was reminded of this as I was walking up a major road in the district where I live. I noticed the Christmas trees in the photograph, neatly stacked at the foot of long drives, the detritus of the end of Christmas awaiting collection by the Land Services of the City of Glasgow.

It did make me think, that in a way, as you look back over Christmas and the reminder of it by these dead and decaying young fir trees, that it is a terrible waste of this natural life just to brighten up our dark winter days as we celebrate the festival of Christmas. As I look back on that I have this regret that these little pieces of creation were prematurely cut down just to decorate with silver, gold and red balls to brighten up our winter nights.

However as I look at them again, I think of the future, they themselves have no longer any future life but in the process of recycling that we are embracing with a passion these days, and gladly so, it is hopeful to see that these trees, although their lives are complete will actually help go towards the providing nurture for those other plants that will adorn our gardens in the future summer times.

In balance, these trees have brought much pleasure to families , to visitors alike, of the various homes that they dressed during this last month or two, and they will continue to add delight to the summer gardens throughout the country.

Therefore the moral of the story is, that even though their lives have been short, and shortened unnecessarily by man’s intervention, they have brought great pleasure and delight to many people and have enabled us to put back into the planet, the very things that we have taken out.

Wouldn’t it be good to be able to do that with many more things even that which seems short lived, that it would bring not only a brief pleasure or respite in the darkness of whatever days we have to face but also have potential for the future that no one has seen, bearing fruit in its due season.

The recent pictures accompanying the news coming out of Nairobi are far too horrific to display here and sadly far too common a sight. After an uplifting Hogmanay Watchnight Service in Glasgow Cathedral launching Hope 08 in Scotland the reality is that in many places in the world there seems to be anything but hope as human beings tear one another apart. Is there a solution? I firmly believe there is but it doesn’t come cheap.

I’m not referring to the money stashed in government coffers or private banks or personal savings schemes. Though much of the unhappiness prevalent around the globe would be remedied by a fairer distribution of the world’s abundance, the issues go deeper than having enough food to put on the table. I am conscious that is easy for me to say when I don’t have to worry about whether I will eat tonight or not.

As much as feeding the poor, healing the sick and protecting the vulnerable is a core responsibility of the follower of Christ the issue of much of the unrest that is demonstrated across the globe is due to something that even Christian believers struggle with: the need to forgive. Only forgiveness can break the cycle of revenge and Kenya will need to experience this as Rwanda and South Africa have had to do before this.

As I watch with horror and profound sadness at what is happening in Kenya my prayer is that those who have been brutalised will find another way to respond other than seeking revenge. The only way I know that can happen in truth and honesty is by experiencing the forgiveness that Christ offered in his dying words to those who brutalised Him. It is not a cheap fix, it’s the costliest of them all.

Jack Quinn

Today is one of my favourite days of the year, because we use the proceeds from our massive church Christmas card (a brilliant design by the church children) to buy stuff from Present Aid, to benefit people in developing countries.

So today (using Jack’s credit card) we bought £150 worth of:

• 2 pigs
• 2 ducks
• 2 turkeys
• 2 cans of worms

Brilliant gifts!