WHOSE BIRTHDAY IS IT ANYWAY

Everyone knows about the new Millennium - the third millennium after the birth of Christ. You'll also know that we no longer speak of AD and BC - it is now not politically correct to speak of AD but instead CE meaning "The Common Era", and BCE meaning "Before The Common Era" instead of BC. So "Before Christ" and "Anno Domini" - the year of our Lord are now defunct. But that doesn't change the fact that in the year 2,000 we celebrate the 2,000 birthday of Jesus Christ. The calendar is inextricably linked with Christ.

Now if our reader is not a Christian, nor espouses any religion at all, I can sympathise with their unwillingness to be saddled with religious concepts, but the fact remains that the start of a new millennium marks the birthday of Christ and millions of people in the world want to celebrate that fact above all else.

However it is also true that a new millennium is a significant moment for everybody on earth who has any concern not only for their own personal well-being but also for that of every other human being. It is a splendid opportunity for everybody to make and hopefully keep some millennium resolutions. Generally New Year resolutions raise guilty memories of resolutions solemnly made and then shamefully abandoned.

But let's suppose, even if only for argument's sake, that the millennium marks something more than just a change in the calendar, let's suppose that it is a milestone in some great plan God has for all creation - His creation. There have been many millenniums in the history of our planet earth, but as far as we can tell scientifically, never one like this in which the human race on the one hand exercises such power over nature and yet still remains so vulnerable both to the forces of nature and the powers of evil.

In short, there's plenty of scope both for the optimist and the pessimist. But Christians, at least the more balanced ones, take an optimistic view of the new millennium. We take it as the opportunity to make a NEW START WITH GOD. We all want to make a new start, for the world to turn over a new leaf as it were. But hold it there - what will turn out to be the first piece of bad news in the new millennium ?

It sounds cynical but there will bad news. Yes, indeed, but the God whom Jesus Christ represented whilst on earth, is the God of NEW BEGINNINGS. Whether we are Christian or not, it is a fact of history that Jesus of Nazareth by his life and teaching made a terrific impact upon the people of His own country, then known as Palestine. When Jesus made a last journey to the capital city of Jerusalem, huge, wildly ecstatic crowds followed Him. When He arrived at the city gates He was given a king's welcome. His enemies longed to seize Him straight away, but dare not because of His then popularity. Truth to tell most people hoped that once in the capital He would, by the power of God, sweep all their enemies into oblivion and set the people free from the yoke of Rome. When this didn't happen, when Jesus turned out to be a different kind of liberator the crowds turned against Him - His Mori poll was down - and He finished up on a Roman gibbet or cross, condemned as a common criminal with only a handful of His most loyal followers - mainly women, crouched in anguish at the foot of His cross. All this is fact, it is history and actually happened on the face of this earth 2,000 years ago.

Now you may not believe what happened next. Like any other human being brutally nailed to a cross of wood Jesus died. His body was placed in a tomb - a cave carved out in a garden and it was sealed with a huge stone. The authorities had heard wild rumours that this Jesus, styled the "King of the Jews" might rise from the dead. They also for a time put an armed guard at the entrance of the tomb.

Three days after being placed in the tomb, the body of Jesus was gone, His grave clothes remained, the guards had fled, the stone was rolled away and His few remaining followers were themselves dumb-founded. Clearly they hadn't engineered the event.

Then starting the very day the tomb was found empty, Jesus began to appear first to some women, then to many of His followers, alive and able to talk to them, and have a meal with them, yet His body still bore the marks of His torture and death. Eventually He left their company but not before He promised them the power of God to tell His story across the world and until the end of time.

So was born the Christian religion, based upon an older religion of the Jews in which the same God had revealed His mind and His might. You may say that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was some great hoax and that all His followers down the years, for the last two millennia have been duped, but what cannot be denied is that Christianity at its best has had the greatest influence for good upon the life of humankind than any other movement or religion. This is not to denigrate the contribution of other religions and movements, nor is it to overlook the fact that Christianity has had its scandals, but overall the effect of Jesus Christ upon the world has been to release amazing powers of forgiveness, compassion and love and above all the capacity for even the most defeated and degraded of human beings to make a NEW START in life.

As the Bible puts it, Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten and everything is new.
(2 Corinthians 5 verse 17)

With God we can make a NEW START, just how we are and just where we are. That cross of Jesus represents the defeat on our behalf of everything that would ruin our lives and the lives of others. The risen Jesus is the HOPE of the world. When that Millennium Dome has become a storage warehouse, Jesus Christ by the power of God will still be: