Christmas for the benefit of others – Mary-Anne Rulfs
Over the last week I’ve loved seeing more and more Christmas trees popping up in people’s windows. When I’ve been walking on the beach. Driving home from work. Walking down our street. Mainly visible at night of course, with twinkling lights evoking the nostalgia of this time of year and Christmases gone by.
For the first year since our eldest daughter was born more than 30 years ago, Brad and I won’t physically be with any of our children or grandchildren for Christmas Day. We’re grateful that FaceTime will bring us together virtually at some point!
I’ve been reflecting on this, aware that it’s making real a perspective I’ve been aware of but haven’t actually experienced before – that while Christmas is oriented around gatherings of family and friends for most people, Christmas isn’t like that for everyone. Many people experience Christmas in a way that is very different from what they would choose.
What are you anticipating this Christmas to be like?
Will you be spending it as you choose?
Or not? Due to sickness? Or the recent death of a friend or family member? Maybe financial constraints, or relationship breakdown, or being separated from family members or friends by physical distance. Perhaps you feel you do life alone a lot of the time, and Christmas alone is an extension of that. And you may or may not be comfortable with that.
Our theme through Advent and Christmas this year is an extension of our brave … for the benefit of otherstheme from this year.
Christmas … for the benefit of others.
We hope this encourages all of us to look up and out from preoccupation with our own situation to having greater awareness of how others around us are travelling. To listen with compassion. To see with compassion. And to respond with compassion.
Compassion: literally, to suffer together. That is, to be with someone in their situation and feel with them.
This is different from taking on the pain and suffering of others for ourselves. To be available for others we do need to look after ourselves. To have healthy boundaries between where our self, including our emotions, ends and another person’s self begins. To have healthy boundaries and realistic expectations around time and rest and what we promise (ourselves or others) to do.
For the benefit of others …
I came across a phrase this week which I really like. Watch word. The podcast I was listening to was differentiating between an organisation’s (in this case, church’s) mission statement and its watch word.
A watch word is a word or phrase that expresses or embodies a guide to action for an individual or a group. Many slogans are examples of watch words eg Slip! Slop! Slap!
A watch word invites us to pay attention to what and who is around us, and to respond in accordance with the watch word. It’s real-time living. Not aspirational, looking to the future, as in a mission statement. Or nostalgic as we remember the past with sentimentality or regret.
For the benefit of others … is our Advent and Christmas watch word.
Will you join with others in our diverse and wide-reaching church community as we watch and pray and respond with compassion throughout Advent? For the benefit of others?
Our newsletter has a few suggestions as a starting point:
- Make a purchase or a donation at our Christmas craft stall to support our partnering with Kids Hope
- Giving to Anglican Board of Mission opportunities that support mission in the wider world
- Contributing to the Christmas hampers distributed by Burleigh Anglican’s food pantry
- Participating in the special Advent and Christmas worship events scheduled for our community
- Including Carols @ Burleigh on 15 December. If you’d like to assist in some way to foster a greater sense of connection and reaching out in our wider community, please email office@robinaanglican.com or speak to one of our ministry team
- Or volunteering in our op shops. Please email sini@robinaanglican.com if you would like to reach out through this important community ministry.
Matthew 9:35-38
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”
I’m really looking forward to journeying through Advent and Christmas together, with you, for the benefit of others. I’m sure I’m not alone in this! I look forward to your company on the journey as we journey together.
Becoming living Christmas trees that reveal the living Christ.
Grace and peace,
Mary-Anne