Christmas
Christmas at St Nicholas
Christmas Events
We’d love to celebrate Christmas with you!
Click the events below for more info and for flyers you can send to your friends!
Hope Explored
The world is hungry for hope
But these days, hope often feels hard to come by. Where can we find a hope that won’t disappoint us?
The Christian faith claims to offer: a joyful expectation for the future, based on true events in the past, which changes everything about my present. Sound too good to be true?
Whatever you do or don’t believe, Hope Explored is your opportunity to explore, to discuss, to question, to discover.
A message from our Rector, Angus
‘God rest ye merry, gentleman’ conjures up a quaint old-fashioned picture. We imagine overweight red-faced men with mutton chop whiskers wearing Dickensian costumes … and it’s all a million miles away from the realities of life today in Sevenoaks. It fits with a sentimental view of Christmas which is remote and detached from our everyday lives.
Yet, this same carol focuses in each verse on the coming of the Lord Jesus. The harsh reality of his birth is told: ‘they found Him in a manger, where oxen feed on hay’. And each verse concludes with the refrain, ‘O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy! O tidings of comfort and joy!’
The Lord Jesus offers comfort. He brings the gift of forgiveness for failures in the past. He offers to walk alongside us in the present. He promises not to desert us in the future. In an uncomfortable world where we experience the bumps and bruises of life the Lord Jesus offers genuine comfort, understanding and love.
The Lord Jesus also brings joy. Returning to Him reconnects us with God. It enables us to be assured of His love, provides us with peace and confidence and fills us with joy even amid the hard struggles of life.
Don’t be sidetracked by a sentimental view of Christmas. Explore what actually happened. Discover genuine comfort and joy that is available even now from the Lord Jesus Christ.
