Christmas Letter

The following letter has been sent out to all the ministers and congregations within the UPCSA:

Good Friends in Christ                                                                                                 

I greet you in the name of the “peace child”, Jesus Christ.

Over these last three months, I have had the privilege of meeting with many members of the UPCSA. I have had one-on-one meetings with the Moderators and Clerks of a third of the Presbyteries, visited two congregations on invitation, attended countless meetings and opened an annual conference of the IYZAs.  The Church is alive and strong, healthy but not without profound challenges.  Every now and then, when the challenges seem almost overwhelming, I find myself longing for a bit of “peace and quiet”. I don’t think that the UPCSA is any less healthy than it was at union. I don’t believe that the challenges we face are any larger or smaller than at any other time in our history but often this does not seem like the case.  Sometimes our burdens seem too heavy!

Recently I came across this extract of what someone had written about what it would be like to live in a perfect world:

“In a perfect world a person should feel as good at 50 as he did at 17 and he would actually be as smart at 50 as he thought he was at 17.  In a perfect world you could give away a baby pram without getting pregnant.  In a perfect world, professional soccer players would complain about teachers being paid contracts worth millions of Rand.  In a perfect world the mail would always be early, the cheque would always be in the mail and it would be written for more than expected.  In a perfect world potato chips might have calories but if you ate them with dip, the calories would be neutralized.  In a perfect world every once in a while at least, a child who always closed the door softly would be told, “Go back and slam the door.” ”

What do you hope for?

Our sister church in Korea is hoping for peace. In a recent press release, the National Council of Churches in Korea called upon North Korea to stop “using powerful weapons against the civilian community on Yeonpyeong island” but also called upon the government of South Korea and the USA to stop their provocative “war games”. Our sister churches in East Asia are collaborating in a programme to that seeks to address the huge prevalence of teen suicide. I suppose that is a kind of peace making too.  In the Pacific, it is really our ‘war’ with nature that is the issue.  The people of the islands of Tuvalu believe that they will become the world’s first ever ‘environmental refugees’. Pretty soon, because of the rise of the sea level, their home will be uninhabitable.

The world seems pretty hopeless, doesn’t it?

But it wasn’t very different for God’s child: born under Roman occupation, an enforced census, terrible poverty, no safety, Herod’s infanticide and danger all around.  The world into which the Saviour was born was not in harmony but a world at war!

The people of Israel hoped for a Messiah and they hoped for release from the Roman occupying power. When Jesus came, he was far more interested in the condition of their hearts that in the Roman occupation.

Israel hoped for peace. We hope for peace. Peace – just a little peace. That’s our perfect world – no more mourning or crying or pain … No more violence! The perfect world we seek has a name.  It is called the “Kingdom of God”.

Christmas is the hope of all ages born among us.

I once read about a missionary called Don Richardson who served for many years among the primitive tribes in Papua New Guinea. He  wrote a book entitled “The Peace Child”. He wrote about how in translating the Scriptures into the native tribal language, he could find no words to express how Jesus Christ came to give his life that we might have peace with God. In his book he relates how he finally found the answer in the culture of the native people themselves. He tells the story of two tribes in Papua New Guinea who maintained a blood feud between themselves for several generations. Each generation fought and nursed their wounds only to fight again killing and maiming more and more people. Finally after years of struggle the two tribes realized that they must stop fighting or nothing would be left of their people. But what could they do to end years of warring between the two tribes? Don Richardson goes on to tell that the chiefs of the two tribes came together and brought with them a child they called “the Peace Child”. This child was the son of one of the chiefs which was then adopted into the family of the opposing chief. They made an agreement that as long as that child lived, the two chiefs promised to cease their fighting so that all could live. Don Richardson had finally found a perfect picture of God’s love for us in sending us His Son, the Prince of Peace to die for us.

Jesus, our peace child has been born to us. At Christmas, we remember.

And our remembering must surely propel us to be peacemakers in this warring world (denomination, congregation, family) of ours. Peace is made. Peace is work. Peace requires forgiveness. Peace is hard but the Prince of Peace propels us to become peace makers.

“The peace of God,

which is beyond all understanding

guard your hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus”. (Phil 4:7)

George Marchinkowski

Moderator of the General Assembly