Tilehouse Street Baptist Church, Hitchin

OUTLOOK

Outlook December 2024/ January 2025

Minister's Letter

Dear Friends

Have you received your first Christmas card yet? By post, I mean. Through your letterbox. With a stamp. Perhaps not. And perhaps you are part of the community who no longer uses the traditional way of sending greetings (dating back to 1843!) and so don't expect to receive any.

Either way, you've probably received some post related to Christmas already. The appeal letter! When I got back from town today (the 26th November) there was another (unsolicited) white envelope sitting on the door mat calling for my attention. This one was from Mary's Meals. A charity I used once last year to send a gift to a friend. This had followed on closely from Christian Aid, BMS World Mission, Watwickshire Air Ambulance, RNLI, Regent's Park College and many more! All urging me to give hope this Christmas or asking me to help families find comfort and joy during upheaval and conflict or similar exhortations.

And, of course, such charities are all worthy of support and response. But we all know, don't we, that our finances are limited and while it might be possible to spread our giving thinly so that it covers every charity who asks for a donation, it's possibly not the most effective way of stewarding our resources. And we can easily feel overwhelmed trying to balance the needs of so many with our own. A phrase that seems to have gone out of circulation now but perhaps still sums up what we might be facing is compassion fatigue. Not a helpful place to be.

I have no easy answers. All of us must decide for ourselves how much we give and to whom. But as long as we have given proper prayerful consideration to our giving (for all that we have is gifted to us by God) then we will be acting in a Christlike way.

Thankfully, compassion fatigue is not something from which God suffers! While the season of Advent might bring more and more requests for gifts of money from others we can rejoice that no such request is being made from God. Quite the opposite in fact. God is truly the gift that keeps on giving. As we travel through what seem to be incredibly worrying and difficult days we mustn't forget that we are also travelling toward Christmas Day. Toward the day when we once more celebrate the ultimate gift of God. His Son. Jesus. Immanuel. God with us. Always. The gift of unconditional love.

But a gift must be received to be a gift. And this gift cannot be left 'unopened' under the tree. The gift of Jesus, born as a baby at Bethlehem, who lived and died and was raised to life again needs to be unwrapped and embraced. As Graham Kendrick wrote in The Giving Song in 1988:

"But the many gifts [God] gives
Are all poured out from one.
Come receive the greatest gift
The gift of God's own Son."

So my prayer for all is that whatever you give (or don't give) this Christmas may you receive gladly the gift of God; the love that came down at Christmas in Jesus.

Every blessing for Christmas and the new year,

Jane

Christmas Card Sorting

There will be the opportunity to send Christmas cards to members of the congregation this year. The collections will be on 8th, 15th and 22nd December. The money raised shall go to Herts Young Homeless.

Please make sure that all the cards you give are able to be delivered to members of the congregation. We always have cards addressed to people with whom we are not in contact in any way. Sadly, we are not able to deliver these or pay for postage.Christmas Card Sorting There will be the opportunity to send Christmas cards to members of the congregation this year. The collections will be on 8th, 15th and 22nd December. The money raised shall go to Herts Young Homeless. Please make sure that all the cards you give are able to be delivered to members of the congregation. We always have cards addressed to people with whom we are not in contact in any way. Sadly, we are not able to deliver these or pay for postage.

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