Christmas for the benefit of others by Stewart Perry
What does Christmas for the benefit of others mean for you this year?
One of the things I love most about the Gold Coast is that we come from a number of different traditions & backgrounds. The stories of the Kombumerri people and the Bundjalung, Ngarahngwal and Yugambir language groups is intertwined with the richness of the history of those who have moved from overseas, interstate or other parts of Queensland. Those few who have been born in this city find themselves with friends, family and community that expresses a diversity of background and experience. This diversity is unique to any place that I have lived in the past, we are way more dynamic and way less monochrome than any other community I’ve experienced.
Different cultures have different traditions as do individual families and sometimes traditions change. Often the catalyst for change can be the way we interact or connect with others or where we happen to be. I have to admit I love a hot traditional roast meal for Christmas Day, I remember the turkey, ham, roast potatoes and gravy. Did I mention they were hot? But living on the Gold Coast in the humidity of a Christmas Day, a roast meal doesn’t make a lot of sense…
When we bought our first home and hosted our first Christmas in suburban Newcastle we decided that our new tradition would be a seafood feast (which wasn’t either of our experiences growing up). Fast forward to 2023 and Leanne is allergic to seafood these days so that tradition has had to change.
We’ve just finished the great series “Lessons in Chemistry” which I’d highly recommend. In the final episode the main character tells a class of students that the one fundamental of Chemistry is change is the only given, yet I wonder how much of our lives do we spend running from and protecting ourselves from change. Like the television series, the Christmas story tells us that the one given in life is change.
Change is a fundamental of our Christian faith yet if you asked the average non-Christian on the street if Christians love change and they’ll probably start laughing at you…
How can we change that perception… maybe our new tradition should be that we seek out change… but not just change for change sake, not just change that suits us or benefits us. I heard a speaker a number of years ago suggest that people love change, when it suits them. The example he used was if you were offered a brand new car for no cost you’d love that change.
What if our tradition was to seek out change that was for the benefit of somebody other than ourself or those closest to us? It sounds easy to write and maybe easy to read but it’s really hard to live out, but unless we start with small steps we’ll never move from our change resistant ways, and the more change we resist the further away from the work of God in the world we can become.
I am so looking forward to the change we might discover together in the new year. Thank you for all you do to contribute to the life of our church. Thank you for supporting me in my leadership, I don’t take for granted the humble privilege it is to serve this community.
Happy Christmas. May all our new traditions be for the benefit of others.