Christmas

Isaiah 9:6 – “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”.

I guess that’s a pretty normal sort of start for a sermon or devotion on Christmas, and many of us are probably going to hear it repeated more than once over the next week or so. And it is good for us to remember that this is what / who Christmas is really about. In case you are not aware of it, this passage in Isaiah refers to Jesus coming in to the world, the event that Christians are actually celebrating at Christmas.

Obvious, you say. Why did I even bother to mention that? Well, in today’s world, this is not necessarily a connection that people will make. Sadly Christmas has come to mean so many different things to different people. We even have the ridiculous situation of schools being banned from having Christmas carols at their Christmas celebrations, because “we don’t want to offend people by bringing religion into Christmas”. We really should ask what Christmas is, if we don’t bring “religion” (faith) into it.

To many Christmas is now referred to as “the holidays”, and is a season for giving gifts (why?), for eating and drinking way too much, and for having a break from work. It has become a time of excess - excessive consumption, excessive spending, excessive behaviour, etc. Some have described it as a time when “we spend money we don’t have buying gifts for people we don’t like”.

It is a season when you can’t get near the shopping centre car park because everyone is there frantically doing their Christmas shopping. It is a season when credit cards are maxed out. It is a season when people go to ridiculous lengths to outdo others, to come up with something bigger, better, or more expensive than everyone else to give as a gift, and hope we get the same back, as we pursue the hyper-reality dream (see below).

Are you starting to get the idea that I am more than a little cynical? Good, because I am. I often use the word jaded to describe how I feel at this time of year.

But lately God has been reminding me that my attitude is not necessarily good. If you have seen my latest Facebook update it refers to throwing out the Baby with the bath water, a bad pun I made quite by accident. He showed me that as I rejected Christmas, I was in fact rejecting the celebration of His great gift to us all.

So I thought I would share this simple message with all of you as my final devotion for 2009. As we are already deep into the season of madness, let us try to not lose sight of the reason why Christmas even exists, and let us endeavour to pull back from the consumption, from the excesses, and take a good long look at the birth of Jesus into the world, and the reason why He came.

And when we get together to celebrate, let us not leave that aspect out of our times together.

God bless you all. I hope and pray that you have a safe, happy and blessed Christmas.

Geoff

NB Those who are not familiar with the term hyper-reality should ask me to explain. Or better still, get a copy and read the book The Trouble With Paris, by Mark Sayers (does anyone remember books?). Highly recommended for every one.