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“Who am I? … I don’t know. I guess I have a lot of things to ponder.”

- Derek Zoolander, speaking to his reflection in a puddle, 2001.

In an interesting twist on the Narcissus fable, the really ridiculously good-looking Zoolander neatly sums up one of the main pressures of the adolescent years: the search for identity. Teenagers have a lot of things to ponder!

In the early years of life, parents define their children. We provide their identity. I see it in my own kids: despite a few funny debates with my fashion-conscious 3 year old daughter, we decide what she wears, what she eats, what she watches on TV, the music she listens to, the friends she associates with. The fact that she loves anything to do with ballet and pink is more to do with my wife’s preferences than ‘just being a girl’.

As children move towards adolescence, they start to explore their identity outside the realm of their parents influence. Going to high school is a huge step forward in life; all of a sudden they’re confronted by a myriad of different sub-cultures; emos, indie kids, skaters, lads and so on. And those teenage years are often absorbed in experimenting with different identities, in an attempt to discover which identity they feel most comfortable with. Have you ever wondered why teenagers take so many photos of themselves in front of the mirror?

One of the big things teenagers are searching for as they try on these different identities is acceptance: “Who loves me? Who will accept me? Will I still fit in if I choose a different sub-culture?” Or even, “If I choose to stand out, will people notice me?”

At All Saints, one of the things we aim to do in our youth ministry and wider church is to create a community where sub-cultures and outward appearances don’t equate to dividing walls: we want to show young people that Jesus has offered us a new identity; so whether you’re an emo, skater, lad or indie kid, you can find forgiveness and acceptance in Jesus and the community of his followers. We’re not offering simply another sub-culture, but aiming to create a counter-culture, where outward appearance is not the basis of inclusion or exclusion. This is a reflection of the love and forgiveness that Jesus has offered us, demonstrated at the cross.

Jesus’ love is a life-changing love. It is our hope and prayer that as young people ponder the love of Jesus, they will both love him back, and love the people around them … especially their parents!

Have you ever had that niggling feeling that maybe there is more to life? It can happen when watching a magnificent sunset or as you stare into the night sky ablaze with stars. Sometimes it comes in the pit of despair or in the daily grind of routines. Whether life is good for you at the moment or whether life is hard I suspect for each of us there are those quiet moments when we have that sneaking suspicion that perhaps there just might be more to life than we realise.

Some of us become so absorbed and preoccupied in the immediate and the material that we never stick our head up to look beyond. Others are on a quest to find meaning and purpose in life, searching for something, looking for an answer. Sensing a gap in their life they try to fill it in all sorts of ways but still the void remains. We all need a framework for life, to make sense of our existence.

Jesus speaks about life. He taught how life is to be lived. He challenged established ways of thinking and shook people up to look at life differently. He cut straight to the heart of the matter revealing the emptiness of trying to find ultimate satisfaction in the things of this world – possessions, friends, money and career. He did not compromise his message for the sake of making people feel comfortable. He revealed the futility and danger of trying to live independently from the author of life and tells us where true life is to be found.

At All Saints we are having a special week from Sunday 27th March to Sunday 3rd April called ‘More to Life’. During the week there will be a number of activities and events (some are shown on the back but check out our website for a complete list). You may be curious, you may be sceptical, it may have been a while since you have been to church – it really doesn’t matter. We would love you to come along and meet some new people, have some fun and take the opportunity to explore the question ‘Is there more to life?’

Our annual Can and Wool Collection for Anglicare happened a couple of weeks ago. We pushed the wheelbarrows and you filled them! A big thank you to all those who contributed. You can see some of the ‘haul’ in the photo. With the onset of such cold weather can I remind you of the Anglicare clothing bin at the front of the church. The bin gets cleared twice a week and our North Epping bin ranks in the top three in Sydney. That either means residents in North Epping have too many clothes or they are particularly generous, or maybe both!

Last issue of our quarterly newsletter we advertised ‘The Marriage Course’ and eighteen couples signed up and completed the course. The feedback was so positive that we think we will run the course again before the end of the year. As one couple said “The marriage course gave us some new tools to help our communication and covered a broad range of relevant topics in an engaging and down- to-earth way.”

If you drive past the church on a Friday night you will see up to seventy teenagers hanging out at our two youth groups ‘Juice’ and ‘Fresh’. These groups both have a great team of leaders and a program of what is happening this term is now available. You will notice an ad on the back of this newsletter for a special night we are running for parents of girls called ‘Wake Up Sleeping Beauty’.

We will also be holding our first daytime HSC Study Conference in Stuvac, October 5–7. Recent HSC graduates will be available for tutoring and answering questions and HSC teachers and markers will run seminars on specific subjects and topic areas. The cost is yet to be finalised but will be minimal. If you know of someone who is doing their HSC this year make sure you let them know.

Finally, I know it seems premature to be talking about Christmas, but I often have people asking about our Christmas Carols event. Just to give you plenty of advance notice so that you can put the date in your diary, the North Epping Carols will be held on Friday 19th December at Epping Oval (North Epping oval is unavailable).

If you would like more information or a flyer on any of the events I have mentioned above please feel free to contact the church office.

Colin Buchanan has a fun Aussie version of Jingle Bells. Some of the lyrics go like this …

Dashing through the bush in a rusty Holden ute,

Kicking up the dust, esky in the boot.

Kelpie by my side, singing Christmas songs,

It’s summer time and I am in my singlet, shorts and thongs.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.

Christmas in Australia on a scorching summer’s day,

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut,

Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden ute.

(© Rondor Music (Aust.) Pty Ltd)

I wonder what Christmas will be like for you. My guess is that you probably won’t be riding in the back of a rusty Holden ute! Christmas for most of us involves food, festivity and family and often by the end of Christmas we feel like we have overindulged in at least one of these, if not all three. Boxing Day arrives and often we are still bloated, wishing we had not consumed that second piece of Christmas pudding. The relatives have now all dispersed and, exhausted, we are now content to blob in front of the TV and watch the boat race or the cricket or saunter outside and laze by the pool. Another Christmas has come and gone!

Even if a trip to the carols or a visit to church is not part of your Christmas ritual most of us, at one time or another, have asked ‘the God question’. ‘Is God there?’ And if he is, ‘What is he like?’

There are those who look at the expanse of the universe and cannot see God within it. There are some who look at the planets and the stars and see them put in place by chance. If, like me, you find it too hard to believe that it all ‘just happened’, that there is a mind behind it all, a someone bigger than the sum of the parts, the question still remains ‘Who are you God?’

Christmas answers that question. Christmas is when God says, ‘This is who I am!’ God is not distant. He has come to us choosing to visit our tiny planet. As the apostle John writes,

“The Word (God) became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:14)

God does not leave us guessing about himself. He has shown his face for us to see, to believe and to hope. It is the face of one who loves us. What the manger suggests at the beginning of Jesus’ story, the cross tells us at the end: God comes in humble circumstances to serve and to suffer so that we can experience his love, forgiveness and, ultimately the renewal of all things. I find it amazing to think that the maker of the world would choose to enter our human experience and become one of us. This is the message of Christmas and it is well worth exploring.

Immanuel … ‘God with us’! Have a great Aussie Christmas!