Neil's blog

I hope you were able to enjoy Christmas with family & friends. At Fullarton, despite our car park & walkways to the church building being like an ice rink, & the roads treacherous, we had excellent attendances for our various celebrations. Sorry to all who had to remain indoors!

I was preaching in Stewarton at their Christmas Eve watch night service, due to my responsibilities as St Columba’s Interim Moderator, & the atmosphere was crackin’, with powdery snow, a brass band, great crowd & excellent technology for power point & film. I spoke of the ‘Sheep Shocked Shepherds’ brought in from the cold to be the first witnesses of our coming King’s birth. Shepherds who, by 1 hour B.C, had a dodgy reputation; considered unholy, unreliable, dishonest, dirty, & not the sort you’d want at your Christmas party! Yet, these are the ones God shows his inside-out, outside-in love to, not only including them in His Son’s Birthday celebrations, but choosing them to be his first witnesses, the ones to spread the news of Jesus’ birth! Remember how the women, also considered unreliable & below it in those days, were chosen to be the first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection!? The coming of Christ, in Luke’s view, is all about including & involving the outsider, calling people on the fringes, the excluded from society, the misunderstood, the victimising & victimised. Luke himself was out in the cold B.C, a non Jew, far from the promises & presence of God, but Christ drew him in!

Little did I know I’d be shivering out in the sub-zero temperatures on Christmas day, trying to find a way back into our lovely warm house! It’s not a pleasant place to be, excluded, out in the freezing cold! Praise God for Jesus, who opens the door of God’s gloriously warm & challenging Kingdom. Now that I appreciate the warmth of God’s inclusive Love all the more, it’s about seeing what ‘outsiders’ we can help to experience God’s Love & be brought into the fold. Eventually we tracked our neighbour down to get us in with their spare key!

Let’s have a great ‘outside-in, inside-out’ loving New Year! Let’s be good neighbours, ready to leave our cosy comfort, to help others into the Kingdom of God!