Anglican Diocese of Sabah

Churches

All Saints' Cathedral, Kota Kinabalu

Christ Church, Likas

St Patrick's, Tawau

The Church of Our Holy Saviour Labuan

Faith Christian Centre, Sunway

d'Stream Anglican Church, Kota Kinabalu

Christ The King, Kingfisher, Kota Kinabalu

Christmas Message from The Bishop

I was reading a lament in an editorial, of how the Thai people have taken their king for granted and had shown him little gratitude for all that his majesty had done for their nation : irrigation, development of agriculture and many projects to benefit the rural poor. The same decline in human virtue is seen in how the Americans treat their Thanksgiving holiday. Instead of remembering with gratitude God's goodness dating back to the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony, and thanking God for helping them through their first winter after they landed in the New World, today the American Thanksgiving holiday is associated with stuffed turkeys and pumpkin pies, with very little sense of gratitude for the good land or the prosperity God has given to them. Gratitude is degraded into gluttony. Gratitude is now a "second-tier" emotion, forgetting that gratitude is a moral imperative that gives us hope in doing good to benefit others. Alas, people treat Christmas the same. Many want to celebrate Christmas with Santa Claus, holidays, excessive spending, glittering lights and all, but leaving Jesus out. When we celebrate Christmas without the knowledge of God's plan of salvation, we are merely trying to display a sense of celebration without meaning and reason. We call unrestrained laughter without reason a lunacy. So the celebration of Christmas without Jesus is much worse. Someone is trying to rob us of the real thing. We are told to celebrate because “it is the season” and it “promotes good culture”. But without God, these kinds of activities are empty and do not give hope. There is no real joy in the momentary hype. It is like taking a kind of narcotic to deceive ourselves that things are all right - when things are really not. This kind of "celebration" has no power to bring forgiveness and healing. It does not generate any sense of thanksgiving. Without the Savior, there is indeed no salvation. I absolutely reject any and all attempts to keep Jesus out of Christmas because Christmas without Jesus Christ is not Christmas! It is something else - and it has the power to deceive and to destroy. I celebrate Christmas to mark the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem as a fulfillment of the prophets, that God would send the "Christ", and whose death on the cross as a substitution sacrifice is the only hope of redemption for sinners and for fallen humanity. Therefore, my heart can rejoice greatly and I can worship, again overwhelmed with gratitude.