About year ago we first heard about Coronavirus disrupting life in a distant Chinese city. We had little idea that in a few months this deadly virus would wreak such havoc everywhere, threatening the health and wealth of every person on the planet.
Over these long months we’ve been waiting, hoping, and praying for a vaccine to deliver us from danger. Then, our hopes fulfilled, our prayers answered, the vaccine arrived in Advent, the Season of Hope. And the first in the world to receive it would be a frail, elderly woman, with an indomitable spirit and a determination to serve humanity – Coventry’s own Margaret Keenan!
Two thousand years ago the world was waiting for a Saviour: help from heaven for the all world’s ills. Not a something manufactured in laboratories for a single threat to life. But a Someone, sent by God, who would be our ultimate vaccine against every threat. A redeemer to empower us with God’s power to fight the world’s evils and to contend with the conflicts of our own hearts.
The world needed a vaccine against Covid, and we thank God for it. And yet still the world needs God to meet our deepest needs for love and goodness, forgiveness and healing, life and life everlasting. God came to us at Christmas in Jesus Christ, born of Mary, vulnerable and poor but with an indomitable determination to give us all a greater gift than we could imagine. The gift of God’s life for us and in us. Happy Christmas!
Sermon from Coventry Cathedral
Listen to Bishop Christopher's sermon at Coventry Cathedral on Christmas Day.
Radio message
Read the text of Bishop Christopher's message on local radio