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Christmas Message 2005

from

Bishop George Browning

Bishop of Canberra & Goulburn
December 2005

Christmas 2005 comes at the end of a very hard year for the peoples of the world, depressingly so. It is relatively easy either to be overwhelmed by suffering and despair, or to be distracted by a world of trivia. In 2005 you may have been so shocked by the tsunami, or one of the other tragedies, that your spirit has risen to new heights of generosity, understanding and perhaps forgiveness. If so, then in the name of the one born in the stable, triumph will have been snatched from tragedy. Human life is not to be valued or measured by what happens to us, but by how we respond; in the same way that the God of Jesus is not a God of arbitrary fate, but of tenderness, compassion and redeeming love.

Peace will reign when life is valued. Value is given to all human life by God in Jesus sharing our nature. How do we respond?

This Christmas I want to highlight the unchallengeable warning of the world’s respected scientists that tragedy of even greater proportions awaits us if our current environmental behaviour remains unchanged; destroying the planet, the home that God has given us. It is bizarre that our country has recently enacted legislation enabling the arrest of people on the probability that they might harm us; and yet there is absolutely no incentive to correct the behaviour of every last one of us on the probability, let alone almost certain knowledge, that our behaviour will make life as we understand it severely diminished, perhaps even impossible, for future generations and will radically affect the young who already walk amongst us.

Peace will reign where and when life is valued. It appears that the richest countries of the world place greater value on a fleeting lifestyle and elusive wealth than on life itself.

Why say this at Christmas time? Because scripture tells us that the one born in the stable at Bethlehem is the Word of God through whom all things were made. Scripture also tells us that we human beings can only live full, harmonious lives in the company of all life. Each species that disappears diminishes us. Strange, and terrifying (but not surprising), how science backs scripture!

So with the child in the stable will/can we urgently learn to walk more lightly, make less of a footprint and consider every moment, every person and every part of God’s world sublimely sacred? Anything we destructively use, we lose forever; anything we maintain or enable stays that others might be blessed. The fate of the world’s poor and the fate of the environment are inextricably woven together. Making poverty history is only remotely possible if we face the global environmental challenge.

May God grant us all his blessing of life this Christmas, with eyes to see, ears to hear, minds to comprehend and hearts to love as he loves us.

Bishop George Browning
Bishop of Canberra & Goulburn
Christmas 2005

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