Christmas: Tinsel, Yule or Jesus?

Someone who holds dearly to a different faith to Christianity recently asked an honest question. They asked about the way Christmas is celebrated in the UK, noting (correctly) that a lot of it seems to come from directions like paganism.

I was encouraged at the openness of their question, and the insight they already had - intuitively sensing that much was little to do with the Christian faith and beliefs. To answer the enquirer properly would require an in depth face to face conversation. Churches up and down the country will rehearse the line 'in amongst all the tinsel let us remember the real meaning of Christmas - Jesus is born to us', but it is worth remembering that there is a clear principle to explain.

Jesus came - was physically born and lived. Jesus demonstrated the Kingdom, and taught Kingdom principles that were centred on believing in Himself. But Jesus did not teach a 'Ritual How To ...' guide, with nothing about calendars, festivals and special celebrations. You can argue that this is surprising, given that the Jewish faith he was fulfilling did indeed have such a calendar and prescribed festivals. Instead he left us with a clear call to believe in Himself, and the communion fellowship meal (with its connotations and links back to the Jewish passover) as one clear ritual.

I wonder if the enquirer, coming from their own religious base of prescribed festivals and observances, expect to find the same in the Christian faith? Just as their own faith has things that relate back to the founding figure(s) that became well prescribed as annual faith-rituals in the early days of their own faith tradition, perhaps they assume the same should exist for us Christians?

The possible conversation opportunity here is to explain that Jesus called people to Himself. He was not signposting to an otherwise distant God, but calling people to life in God through Him. That is available to all, and therefore to any and all cultures. In drawing people to Himself Jesus was not hoping to convert people culturally, but to transform each and every culture from within, starting with me and you.

The messiness of this approach is that, with it's lack of fundamental prescription, believers might re-appropriate existing festivals, or mix in their belief in Jesus with them. The real picture that we inherit is even more complicated than that, since the Romans introduced their calendar which combined with the natural European seasons, mid-winter and so on. The result is all of a bit of a tangle - plentiful grounds for confusion for those of other faiths!

But in amongst the crossed wires and maybe even mixed signals is the truth that God reveals and comes to us. In human form He has a name - His name is Jesus, the one who saves!  We can join with God not by observing ritual but by knowing the One who was sent to us. That is worth changing your life for, and was set in motion through the birth of Jesus as a baby - something worth remembering with a special celebration once a year (just as we celebrate one another's birthday)!

Human Power Structures

Events of the past couple of years have brought short-comings of the UN Security Council into sharp focus. One permanent member nation launched unprovoked aggression against another sovereign state, and yet is allowed to keep its permanent status. And now there is widespread agreement that a ceasefire should be called in another conflict, but this can be vetoed by just one nation. All the while the lives of ordinary people are literally blown to ruins, as if nothing was learnt from the 'war to end all wars', or the war that came after that!

The key reality to grasp is that all human constructed power structures have capacity for being flawed - because of the fallen nature of mankind. We have to pinch ourselves and recognise that this applies at every level: from the school tiddlywinks club, to regional & national politics, right up to the international stage of the UN. It is an enduring spiritual problem that we have to recognise in ourselves, and that it will ever be so until Jesus returns.

We have to be honest and admit that churches and church structures should be understood in the same category - capacity for being flawed - for they are human structures too. Our faith in Christ does not immunise us from this - though hopefully with the 'renewing of our minds' (Romans 12) we can both mitigate and do better.

The UN was founded after World War II, but let's face it: the security council (with its five permanent members) was established by the winners of that conflict. The flawed assumption at the time was that 'being winners equalled having enduring good wisdom for all future issues'! Over decades and generations things change - human societies are in fact quite fickle and often have poor collective memories.

Surely the incarnation of Christ, with his physical birth, cross and resurrection all combine to teach us that human systems and structures - while inevitable and necessary - should all be seen as provisional and open to question. The way of Jesus cut through human power structures like a knife through soft butter (so to speak) and opened our eyes to thinking way different to the 'winners & losers' mentality.

In our contemporary witness to Christ we will have to accept the ongoing presence of human structures, but at best we need to keep them at arms length to explaining how the Good News of Jesus is available for all.

Choose Life

The Pope's emissary to the COP28 Summit delivered the Pope's message on his behalf. A clear and simple part of that message was: "Choose Life".

The Pope was calling on the global community to make decisions, enact promises and adopt everyday ways of living that responded to the global climate disaster that we are all facing. His call was not unique of course - many others have been making similar calls for quite some time.

The phrase 'Choose Life' is an invitation from God. In Deuteronomy 30 God invites the people to stick with Him, follow in His ways, live and flourish ... but His ways did not ultimately mean to live at the expense of others or the planet!

Interestingly the chapter in Deuteronomy couches it as a simple binary choice: Choose life and all will go well, or choose differently and surely end up in destruction. That's the same simple choice the human population is (and has been) facing with the climate crisis! The Pope's choice of this ancient chapter deep from (the people) Israel's formational years resonates clearly with the heart-cry of many activists - including many young people - today. For sure many today may simply be crying 'Choose Life' from a largely secular worldview, blissfully unaware of the scriptures. Scientists may be calling the same from an "It's obvious from the data" viewpoint. Still others perhaps from a humanist basis ... but they all see a fundamental choice: life beyond ourselves or self-destruction. A growing collective voice rising up against the Goliath of never ending selfish consumerism!

Now read back in the same chapter to the beginning of the (sub)section: verse 11 onwards. God tells them: "What I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach". It explains that the solution is not beyond reach in the heights or the depths ... it is near, in fact already within the people who were open and willing. God has already given all that we may need to not only say 'Choose Life', but follow through with it. To choose life is to join the mission purpose of God, and He pre-activated the resources we need to get on and get the job done way way back.

What will we do? What will we choose?