Carol service - The real war on Christmas

I have clear expectations when it comes to Christmas Day. Most years I return from Midnight Communion and fall into bed by 1am. Come about 8am, I force myself out of bed and grump around while James and Kaye open their Christmas gifts. I then go back to the church in Bideford to take the Christmas Day service after which I return to fill myself with turkey aided by generous portions of stuffing whilst Christmas Pudding is added to my clotted cream. By 3pm I am asleep in the arm chair - I am never conscious for the Queen’s speech not that that worries anyone at the Palace too much!. Tea causes me to rally a little but by about 10pm I am well and truly ready to lay my carcass down to sleep.

It never changes and it is thoroughly predictable. And judging by my reading in the past days there are newspapers and indeed readers who have unchanging expectations for Christmas. Despite the fact that most of our Christmas traditions are from the last 150 years or so, we get a barrage of stories every years telling us that Christmas is under attack. Of course, many of these stories turn out on examination to be myths but they get recycled year after year. And if you read the great British tabloid media you end up thinking that Christmas is all about Santas, little children in Nativity plays and of course the great British way of life. And whilst I quite like most of this personally, I find myself increasingly pushed into Grumpy Old Man mode, tempted to let out a loud cry of “Humbug!”

Now why should I be such a misery guts. Well the reason, is that too often this annual crusade by the Mail, Express and Sun is often a front to attack diversity through the use of ridicule. But my objection actually runs deeper. You see, there’s nothing wrong with the trappings of Christmas. BUT when the trappings block out the reality, then it is the time to utter a loud protest.

Too often, we use Christmas to suggest that our society is at heart wonderful and our way of life is unimpeachable. It is as if it were God’s approval on that which we hold dear. But wait a moment! For if we look to that which happened in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, there is something subversive going on. It is as if God is roughing up our world!

Look first of all to Mary. A girl of what would be called nowadays Middle Eastern appearance, probably no more than in her very early teens for marriage happened early in that culture. And now she finds herself pregnant with an explanation that few would believe. And more than that, she must have felt great fear for she would have known all too well that to be pregnant ahead of marriage other than my the man to whom she was betrothed, would have meant that he would be expected to terminate the marriage arrangement leaving her and her child on the margins of society desperately fending for themselves for the rest of their lives. And the reality was even blacker for this was a society dominated by religion. And the followers of Scripture would know only too well that the ancient Book of Deuteronomy prescribed the punishment of stoning for young women who got pregnant by other than the man to whom they were betrothed. That it didn’t happen was down to the Romans but many would say it was what her type deserved.

And yet, Mary accepts the work of God in this. And in Magnificat sees this as a sign that God is going to turn the power and wealth structures of the world upside down. No wonder a hymn based on Magnificat begins with the immortal line;

“Sing we a song of high revolt!”

Anyhow, Joseph contrary to the norms of his times, sticks with Mary and so they come to Bethlehem for a registration. But five miles from Jerusalem with its Roman garrison and even closer to Herod’s palace, this is the place where Jesus is born. So close to the great men of power of this time, Jesus enters the world virtually unnoticed. Virtually unnoticed but not totally for there will be visitors. Some of these will be shepherds, notorious ruffians whose work meant that they were seen as people cut off from proper religious observance. And then there will be men from beyond the east of the Roman Empire - men of different race and religion whose interest in astrology would have brought many a frown from the religious elite. A bunch of total outsiders if ever there was one. And yet it is the outsiders who see that which religious and political insiders miss. For surely a new age is a dawning.

But there are others who welcome Jesus. We know that Jesus had relatives down in Judaea - after all Mary had visited her relative Elizabeth down there. And hospitality to relatives was an important duty in Palestinian society. Now often we have talked of there being no room at the inn. But pause for a moment. The word that Luke uses here is kataluma which elsewhere he uses of a guest room and is not the word he uses for a commercial inn in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Luke is here suggesting that there was no room at the guest room but surely this would mean that Jesus was born in the family quarters which would have been raised above where the animals rested at night with a manger at that point of the room that the animals could reach when hungry. Now we see Jesus being born into the home of a peasant family who lovingly and indeed sacrificially make space for the Holy family. What a contrast to the machinations of Herod in his palace and the indifference of the religious elite.

So what’s the story of Christmas about? Well God is seen to be working amongst the lowly and in this we see a prediction of a new age in which the norms that we often accept come under challenge. Jesus himself belongs amongst the humble and he welcomes the outsiders. His way will always represent a challenge to the powerful for his way is a way that says an emphatic No to domination. In him, God is well and truly roughing up those structures that bring oppression and injustice.

Is there a war on Christmas? In a way there is. When people are shamed, when people are treated as unimportant or when those of other races and faiths are rejected, when the peace song of the angels is ignored, there most certainly is a war on Christmas. To truly celebrate Christmas is to embrace the all inclusive love of Jesus and to, like the people of Bethlehem, make space for him in our lives whatever the cost.



Alwington Methodist Church Carol Service Sunday December 23rd 2007