Hallo again to all.

This is the last issue of Anglicans Online before Christmas 2018. Our custom here has been to go with a splash page or a brief nod to the occasion, not saying much besides wishing all of you a joyful Christmas. Today's world feels so tumultuous that we are eschewing brevity today.

The world into which the Christ child was born was surely just as tumultuous and fraught with danger and difficulty as is the world around us now. Several countries with large Anglican populations are in major political turmoil, as are numerous non-Anglican countries Natural disasters have recently struck several more, and the man-made disaster of war is ravaging several more.

It is hard to imagine a world that needs a Saviour more than our world does right now. But even a cursory reading of world history will remind us that for more than 20 centuries the world has always been in turmoil, always been a dangerous place. There has been suffering from wars, famine, disasters, oppression, violence. We have seen so many photographs of mass graves with uncountably many skulls, starving children, dying food crops, desperate mothers, and destroyed buildings that we are close to losing track of them all.

Political leaders often fail to lead. Religious leaders are being accused of crimes, some recent and some decades old. Government officials and business are caught in corruption, often together.

The secular world around us is screaming out reminders of Christmas, but their goal is that we spend more money on gifts and decoration. It's impossible to miss. But it is easy to forget the words that inspired everything else, in Isaiah 9. We recommend that you read the whole chapter, but if you are too busy with Christmas spending or decorating to do that, we offer here verses 9:6-9:7 from the Authorized Version*:

6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

You can colour this image to match your beliefs about Jesus' appearance. He was born for all of us.

We welcome the imminent reminder of the birth our Saviour, at once historical and eternal, the Prince of Peace.

Here is a link to Isaiah 9 in the Authorized Translation and here is a link to it in the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version). Recall that this book of the Bible is generally attributed to the Prophet Isaiah, who lived and died many centuries before Christ.

See you next week, when by our reckoning it will be the sixth day of Christmas.

23 December 2018
http://anglicansonline.org

*Probably the version used by George Frideric Handel when he was composing oratorios in 1741.