THE service at Crediton Methodist Church on Nativity Sunday, December 18, was arranged by our Worship Group.

The challenge was to show something that had surprised us.

One person said that when her sons were young they had had two guinea pigs. They got up one morning to find one of them had had a baby – which was a total surprise.

Another person said she had never liked circuses but was surprised that she really enjoyed watching Cirque du Soleil on the TV.

Glenn Turner said that God did not choose someone of privilege to be Jesus’s mother but chose an insignificant single girl who would have been overlooked in the then male dominated society.

That was a surprise to Mary. Why had God called her?

God gave her the critical task of nurturing, loving and protecting Jesus as He grew.

Mary responded positively to God’s call. She nurtured Jesus to adulthood. Nurturing is still important today and we watched a short clip showing how a troubled young man was able to turn his life around thanks to nurturing by the charity Action for Children.

Pam Murphy said the definition of a surprise was “to feel amazement and wonder at something unexpected”.

She said that she was amazed at her reaction to the acrobats’ skill, precision and teamwork when watching Cirque du Soleil.

God’s surprise for us was when He chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus. God’s choices for people to undertake His work are very different from ours. Mary’s response saying yes to Him might surprise us today. Would we be able to say yes to God as Mary did?

The reading from Matthew told us about Joseph’s perspective. Joseph was the head of the family unit in which Jesus was raised and who accepted Him as His son. Joseph was a key part in God’s plan for Jesus to be born among us a vulnerable baby and to live with an ordinary family being brought up to learn the scriptures that He grew to understand and that under-pinned for Him the nature of the work that God had sent Him to undertake. 

Even now in our modern society, hearing that our intended life partner is expecting a child that is not yours would be devastating and would, in many circumstances, be irrevocably damaging to the relationship.

In Joseph’s time it would have been tied up with sinfulness on the woman’s part.

We can imagine how Joseph felt at hearing Mary was pregnant. That was a surprise to Joseph. He did not want to disgrace Mary publicly and decided to end the relationship quietly.

Then Joseph had another surprise – a dream featuring an angel of the Lord telling him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife and that the child Mary was carrying was conceived by the Holy Spirit. This must have been awesome.

How easy would it have been for Joseph to dismiss the dream as a quirk of his mind in turmoil?  Here is another surprise – Joseph did as the angel told him and took Mary as his wife. 

Pam wondered why the world finds that God still surprises us. The whole Bible has recorded for us the works of God to change lives in awesome and amazing ways. Yet the world still continues doing its own thing.

Pam said her prayer is that we have the courage of Mary and Joseph to believe in what God can and does do and to trust in Him as they did. God’s ways are more powerfully wonderful than the world’s ways.

Nativity Sunday continued with a Carol Service in the evening led by Rev David Greenwood.

There were the usual seven Bible readings and eight carols, but there were also modern readings from Mary and Joseph’s perspectives and from shepherds and wise men. It was a very inspiring service.

Bronwyn Nott

The Methodist Church will offering tea and coffee and a warm space on Fridays between 10am and 12 noon.

Entrance will be down the steps to the left of the church – NOT via the entrance from the car park. You are welcome to come for a coffee and chat in the warmth.