jan 07c

Thoughts on Christmas 2006

I don't know if you feel the same but don't you think that the connections to the Christmas story that we know and love have been less evident this year than in previous years?

For example, where some shopping centre locations once had nativity scenes, they now have been replaced by snowmen, Santas and elves. Hardly any of the cards I've received this year have any images relative to that first Christmas and I've listened to debates on radio and television about the possibility of offending people of other faiths at this time of year by the use of Christian imagery.

The first passage of scripture I've selected is Matthew 11 verse 6 where Jesus says: “And blessed is he who takes no offence at me”.

It prompts the question - why are many people offended at Christmas (or for that matter, any time of the year) by references to Jesus?

What are some of the things scripture tells us of the man that has caused this offence?

Matthew 8, verse 27: “And the disciples marvelled, saying, "What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?"

Mark 1, verse 8: John the Baptist says: “I have baptised you with water; but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit”.

Luke 3, verse 32: “and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority”.

John 7, verse 15: “The Jews marvelled at it, saying, ‘how is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?’”

Maybe it is wrong for a believer to try and establish reasons for the offence caused (I doubt if they will find any) but it shows major differences between believers and non-believers that are difficult to logically explain or understand. One explanation may be that the presence of Jesus in Christian hearts causes this marked difference in thinking.

Whatever the reasons for (the majority of?) people in this country consciously trying to remove Jesus from our lives, it has to be the responsibility of us who claim to know the Lord to keep his name and teaching alive. Let us all accept this challenge for 2007 to spread the good news to others, to build up the numbers who attend worship each Sunday and to do all we can to ensure the gospel is kept alive in this place.

Between the years

Between the years is the time between Christmas and the New Year. But is it possible that we can have a time between the years? Time flows and one year imperceptibly after the other. Imperceptible -the link is marked by the Christmas Festival.

Christmas is a signal to us of how time is measured in history and in our lifetime. Clearly time flows on without a break -like a mountain stream, or like a larger, broader river making its way to the sea -driven by the currents of the times.

The year resembles a wheel, which with each revolution turns faster and faster. As time passes our time becomes ever shorter. Between the years lies Christmas, a break in the year which so quickly goes past. It is good that we have it and good too that we celebrate it in the middle of winter when there is more time than in the summer. Everything grinds to a halt; in the past more so than today. Nevertheless it is a time when everything stands still for a few days. The customary course of the weeks is interrupted. We have a chance to pause; the opportunity is there. We have a few days when we break with the usual routine and celebrate Christmas. We look back at what has happened and we look forward. Stand still but also do good as you spend the time between the years. What kind of year am I leaving and what can I expect in the next one. Christmas is when God's promise was fulfilled (Galatians 4:4). God's Son came and with him great hope and blessing.

At Christmas we celebrate the coming of a child to Bethlehem but we too can become children, the children of our Father in Heaven. We have the chance to think about God's fulfilling love and to accept his invitation to go into the New Year with him.

(Adapted from a Christmas 2005 magazine produced for the Lutheran Churches in the Salzkammergut, Austria.)