We Need a Hero - Carol Service 2012

Carol Service 2012

·         Yesterday Billie and I enjoyed the privilege of attending the opening ceremony for the Churchill Gardens and Sculpture. We heard tributes to a great European, a man of faith and courage, a motivator, a visionary and a leader.

·         We heard his voice (1940 recording of a radio broadcast from parliament) – and the voice of his Great Granddaughter, Jenny.

·         Winston Churchill used the example of the people of Barcelona – their bravery when bombed by Hitler & Mussolini a few years earlier – to inspire the people of Britain and its allies in their resistance to Nazism.

·         Barcelona and Europe (and the world) are very different today. Again in crisis, but a different kind of crisis. The shadow and fear of evil are here again, but in a different form.

·         The enemy is harder to identify but just as real. Perhaps the spiritual malaise goes even deeper than the physical and monetary problems, so that political leadership alone cannot solve the crisis.

·         Solutions are not easy but once again I believe there is a need for faith, courage and inspirational leadership.

·         We don’t have Churchill but we do have the inspiring words of the prophets and the gospel writers – we have listened to their voices tonight – their witness to God’s extraordinary intervention in world history in the birth of Jesus Christ.

·         Perhaps it is too much to expect Barcelona to be once again an inspiring example to the rest of the world, as it was in the days of Churchill.

·         But my prayer for each of us tonight (at least in this part of Barcelona) is that we will understand more deeply than ever the message that the coming of Jesus Christ into the world is good news of great joy for all the people (Lk 2.10) and that we will leave this place with renewed energy to share God’s love with others and to shine his light into the world.