Blue Christmas

What does Christmas mean for you ? For the gift and toy manufacturers it means planning for the next Christmas but one; for the shopkeepers and retailers it conjures up bumper sales and big profits; for the ordinary punter it brings weary feet, empty purses and mounting credit card debts. Perhaps for a few choice souls Christmas means a religious festival of wonder, worship and selfless love.

Christmas is essentially a sacred, religious feast though that fact seems to be lost on ever-increasing number of otherwise, intelligent and informed people. As the woman in Woolworths asked: What’s religion got to do with Christmas cards ?

So Bing Crosby’s archaic hit, White Christmas pours out of the store tannoy; we are treated to that Peter Pan of Pop, Cliff Richard and his latest hit for Christmas (or is he giving it a miss this year ?). In the face of international terrorism and the usual plethora of strike action by public utilities which all seem to peak coming up to Christmas, together with that down-right bad luck which means tragedy for some in the season of good-will, it’s perhaps not surprising that many people find an escape in gastronomic indulgence, plenty of booze and a lot of tired telly, much of which is long past its sell-by date.

Apart from a stiff walk in the park on the morning after the night before many people will find little in Christmas to lift their spirits (not the alcoholic kind) and give them some real hope for the future. For many it will amount to not much more than a depressing dose of the Christmas Blues. Some folk might even be tempted to think that that pietistic depressive, Oliver Cromwell had got it right when he tried to ban Christmas.

But then, what’s the real Christmas about ? Well, in the first place it’s about God, Himself getting to grips with our human situation in all its complexity of good and evil, love and hatred, joy and sorrow. He did it by the simple, yet astonishing fact of being born a baby of an ordinary lass at Bethlehem and they gave Him the name of Jesus. Of course it was a miracle – but then isn’t life itself for all of us something of a miracle ?

The Bible tells the story of Jesus’ nativity and it really is a strange story, it’s a unique mixture of what seems to be a fairy tale with angelic choirs regaling bemused shepherds, and a new star leading a clutch of Eastern potentates to present precious gifts to the new-born baby, on the one hand and on the other, a kind of Third World tale of a baby born in a shack at the back of a pub and later the parents fleeing the place to protect their infant from the depredations of a homicidal tyrant. Glory and grimness are inextricably mixed together in this story.

In fact the whole story of this man, Jesus’ is much the same – one minute they are singing His praises, the next they are nailing Him to a cross. But this was God dealing with our human weakness and sin – everything that makes life miserable and rotten for everybody. Often the very thing that makes a mockery of Christmas. God has done it for you and for me – Jesus didn’t visit earth, just to see what it’s like, He came to make life meaningful and better for us all. He came to give us something both to live and to die for. The story doesn’t end with his death upon a cross – in fact it only really begins as He defeats death (unlike James Bond who must never be allowed to die) and makes it also possible for us to get a life with God in which death is defeated and real love prevails.

So the real Christmas is a lot more than a brief binge of presents, parties and good-will, it’s a glorious promise of an abiding hope, an unfailing love and a life that beats with the heart-beat of our God and Heavenly Father, himself. In this sense I wish you a truly happy Christmas.