Ministers Desk 4 December 2011

During the week I had my haircut.  The hairdresser opened up the conversation with “have you got plans for Christmas?”  My immediate reaction was to talk about the family activities we have (or don’t yet have planned), to speak about the pressure of multiple parties and end of year activities and to talk about the present I have to buy.   I know that if I had gone down this conversational track, we would have talked about the stress, pressure and expense of Christmas.  It’s a familiar conversation that many people have in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Instead of this conversation, I chose to have another one.  I told her about the plans I had for the Christmas services and the way that my Christmas morning would be structured around going to church.  I told her how much I was looking forward to it, and the things that I appreciated about worshipping together with my family on Christmas Eve.  She told me about her memories of church services from when she was growing up.  The conversation didn’t go much further than that, but it provided an opportunity to present a different message about the Christmas season.

The message of Christmas, indeed of Christianity, is counter-cultural.  It therefore calls for us to stand against the culture of our society and present a different message.  We believe that in the birth of Jesus God acted decisively in this world to change it for the better.  In the weeks of Advent we reflect on the themes of hope, love, joy and peace.  These are not just words to be repeated in church, but themes that define how we live and interact with other people.  Therefore we don’t need to let the world tell us that Christmas is a stressful time or that it’s all about presents, parties, end of year events and get togethers. 

Instead of allowing the world to tell us how to respond to Christmas, we should allow the Holy Spirit to transform our thinking.  In this way we can see that Christmas is about love that overlooks and heals any troubles we’ve had this year; it is about joy in knowing that in Jesus we have a gift of eternal life; it is about peace that supports us through the complexities of life and hope that looks beyond the present circumstances and to the new thing that God is doing in our world. 

As you engage with friends, family acquaintances and other people this Christmas season, I encourage you to think of the ways that you can speak about the Christmas message and bring the light of Christ into this world.  This could mean that we speak about our most favourite aspect of Christmas.  We could speak about the 200 people our church is supporting with our Christmas Hampers.  We could speak of the gift of hearing that Stephen from the Solomon Islands (not Christmas, but still a good news story).  We could talk about the difference that the birth of Jesus makes to this world, or you could get personal and speak of your faith. 

Through Jesus Christ the world is changed.  As we continue to grow as his disciples, we find new ways of showing that.