President John, fellow Rotary members and partners and guests, good evening and thank you President John for this opportunity to reflect with you all on this coming celebration.
A celebration it is, but of what?
For many of us it is a religious celebration – a celebration of the commencement in time of the Creator’s redemptive process, in other words, we are celebrating the birth of Jesus, the Son of God. So we have our stables and cribs and shepherds and wise men, Mary and Joseph footsore and tired from their long walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem, followed by a hurried birth. A birth in the stable because the town was full and that was the only shelter they could find…
And you know the story as well as I and without that story, for many, life is meaningless.
A celebration it is, but of what?
For all of us here it is a family celebration. In the words of a poem I remember from my school days, “It is a time when we send a name upon a card to those who are far away’.
When did you send and receive your first card this year?
How many cards did you send?
What did you want to say to each of the people you sent a card to?
How important in our lives are these fragile connections we maintain through sending and receiving our Christmas cards each year?
It is a time when we gather together as we are doing tonight and as I am sure you have been doing over the past days and even weeks. Christmas is special. As the poem says, “Wandering ones return with smiles and greetings too”. How many of us have set off on an adventure and promised those left behind “I’ll be home for Christmas”? Or alternatively, How many of us are anxiously waiting for family members to come home for Christmas. How many of us have been going through the process with family members about who is coming to lunch and who is coming to tea and when will we see this one or that one? Particularly in these days of composite families
The other side of this coin is, of course, the ones of us who have to live with the fact that this year, maybe for the first time, and in all future years, that one wont be coming home for Christmas, wont be taking their usual place at our festive table.
Christmas this year is going to be somewhat special for me and I will tell you why. At 8.30 on Monday morning 2 weeks ago I received a phone call. Adriana was already at Council and I was still in bed. It was the younger of my 2 sons, phoning from St Helens and in a nutshell, this is what he said:-
“I love you Dad but I’m over it, I can’t take any more. I’m going to finish it, I think I’ve probably got about half an hour left so there is no point in coming up and I cant stop it now as it is already done. Look after my little boy for me and tell him I love him too.”
You might say that he had my attention. What do you say in that situation? What can you say? You just want to keep them talking so you know they are still alive. One part of your brain is talking to them and the other is considering all possible solutions. Get him to tell me where he is, what he has done, is he alone? Other questions too like - How can I get someone to him? What do I tell his mother? God, I don’t want to have to organise a funeral this close to Christmas.
Then he hung up
I dialled 000 and spoke to the police. I must have been almost as incoherent as I am now, but I can remember saying to myself- “Slow down, be clear in your description of what, where, when, and try and guess how.”
I then rang Adriana who had just received an SMS from him – “Love you, goodbye, sorry.” She immediately contacted Inspector Fiona Leutier at the Glenorchy Police Station who was magnificent. Fiona took control of the situation and mobilised St Helens Police and they found Stephen still awake about an hour and a half later. He had taken 30 Valium tablets and some anti-depressants on top of a nights drinking and it took him about 4 days to wake up properly. His medical and mental treatment after being air ambulanced to Launceston General Hospital is yet another story.
But now we will be spending Christmas with a son who is having to adjust to still being here after making the decision and carrying out the actions that he thought would ensure that he wouldn’t be here. But he is still here and we will be with him and his little son at Christmas.
So what is it about Christmas that makes it so special? What is Christmas Day? It is a day when we gather and celebrate with our loved ones our lives together, lives that have meaning because a child was born in a stable 2000 years ago and that Child is God indeed.
Last Saturday night, Adriana and I were guests of the local Mormon Church community at their celebration called “Expressions of Christmas”. As they sang the carols and read the scripture story a very pregnant Mary and proud husband came and took their places of honour at the front, surrounded by the rabble of shepherds and kings and angels. One young girl stood up and told the story of her families visit to an elderly uncle in Ulverstone and about how she had been particularly moved by her experience of giving. Another young woman reflected on going home to Grandma’s house for Christmas, an overnight car journey of several hundred Kms and how important that family connection is to each of us.
In preparing for tonight I did a Google search on Christmas messages and I found one by a Dr Mike Bellah in which he says Ebenezer Scrooge was unhappy not because of a failure to get but to give, and this, he submits, is the most important message of Christmas. He went on to talk about how much joy parents receive from giving to their children and really, that’s why we do it. We give to our children (and grandchildren) because of the joy we get from giving to those who we love and who probably aren’t in the position to give back to us. Look at the successes of the ABC's and the Glenorchy Council's Giving Trees to again see how we gain from giving.
And that is what God did 2000 years ago. He gave his son to us as a gift to a lost and suffering world, a sign of love and of hope, a gift the Bible says brought "good tidings of great joy" to giver and receiver alike.
What will you be giving this Christmas?
And finally, to hark back to the poem by John O’Brien, and his question – What is Christmas Day?
It’s the day before the races out at Tangmalangaloo!
Have a great Christmas everyone!!