Thank God Christmas comes once a year…
View(s):This reflection is for true believers. You mustn’t feel obliged to trawl through it to the end and then troll my end-December deliberations. Don’t say you weren’t warned, dears!
Christmas is about a bonny baby being born in Bethlehem some twenty centuries ago. Which is probably why not many children feature in the nativity celebrations today (certainly not the poor and needy kids, among whose ranks the divine Babe surely numbered)! Instead, Buon Natale is for jejune youth who don’t know and juvenile adults who couldn’t care less. Most puerile of all are those who are aware of the bigger picture, but choose to ignore the Little Detail of Lordship claimed by the Holy Infant who makes demands of you and I no other newborn ever can make.
Christmas is about humble local shepherds and wise men from afar being told the good news, while wicked national kings were left out of the picture. Which is possibly why Christmas has become the domain of international jetsetters and the province of country bumpkins who think gospel is a type of music, that Christ was crucified on a Christmas tree, and that Caesar is the King of Kings!
Christmas is about angelic beings announcing to the world God’s pleasure in people of peace everywhere and the hope of salvation to all who would stop to hear, pause to repent, and turn to live the abundant life. Which is why Santa Claus – whose liberal attitude to gifts, talents, and skills is quite un-Christian – plays such a prominent role in the life of the church as well as the state and kingdom of the world!
Christmas is about a God who left heavenly realms and took on the form of a human being and donned the mantle of a slave, suffering obedience unto a cross so that the humanity He came to redeem might grasp the crown of life. Which is why we are so busy of late, getting and spending! Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the creatures cannot hear their Creator. And a set of towels is a superb Christmas token offering rather than the symbol of service the Divine Slave would later don as He bowed at the feet of the men He had made.
Christmas is about the response of many protagonists in the original drama. A pregnant mother pierced by a sword of joy and pain. A righteous man who did the right thing by the person he loved and was committed to, no matter the personal cost to himself. Discerning people who could read the signs of the times bringing meaningful gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to lay before the Heavenly Princeling. Ambitious political rulers who wanted all the glory for themselves and not hesitating to put the surrounding countryside to terror in order to secure their earthly thrones. Which is why “Christmas is for lovers” (in the sorry take of Hollywood’s corny specials and Hallmark’s soppy cards)! “I’ll be home for Christmas” (when the Christ-child was the world’s most significant refugee at the very start of his earthly career)! “Deck the halls with boughs of holly and the ivy and mistletoe to boot and Yule logs and jingle bells and red-nosed reindeer” (not recognising the pagan and heathen influences and invasiveness into the Incarnation)!
Christmas is about the Creator entering in to His own creation and being neither recognised nor received by many if not most, though some believed. Which is why no one really remembers Whose Birthday we are celebrating, even though some trite reminders along the lines of “Jesus is the reason for the Season” make some believers contrite enough!
Christmas is about emptying Oneself of pomp and pageantry; power, might, and glory; perks and privileges; rights and dues; worship and adoration; in order to work out the fearful and trembling Others’ salvation in One’s own person and work. And that is why – in the bleak mid-winter of our darkness and despair, Christmas holds out a Joy, a Hope, a Peace, and a Love that did not spare Itself for the sake of the I’s and You’s it loved with an unsearchable Love.
Christmas is about God becoming Human so that – potentially, at least – all of Humanity can be with God, the ‘God With Us’ (Immanuel!). And the Trinity can be At-One-Ment with Its creation again, one sublime Christmas-tide and -time to come…