We will return to our homes tonight after this service where we welcome the Immanuel into our lives. The majority of us will return satisfied in the knowledge that our homes are warm and for some there will be the last minute items that require our attention, but all in all, everything is done and we will be able to smile that enigmatic smile of satisfaction. We may even allow ourselves a sigh of relief and be proud of what we have achieved, despite the earlier chaos and frantic running around.
Our focus tomorrow morning will be with our kids or grandkids and watching with glee as they open the gifts they received from Santa or his many millions of helpers throughout the world. Yes, we will be content in the knowledge that we have done everything that we can to make this possibly the ‘Christmas of all Christmases to remember.’ Those with new born babies within the family will be particularly overjoyed as this is the first Christmas with baby and the joy of having a new born child in the house outweighs the chaos that these tiny infants will bring in the future!
We view Christmas as a time for family, a time to be together, and a time to share in the life and the love of our families. We will be immersed in the pleasure, watching the children opening their gifts, ripping off the paper, which we so lovingly and painstakingly took time with. Never mind – that’s what it’s all about, being with the family, Christmas is time for the children after all. That’s what so many people tell me at this time of year, ‘Christmas is for the weans’ (Scots slang for children).
We hear it from the Christian, we hear it from the Jew, we hear it from the Atheist, “Christmas is time for the weans, it’s about being with family.” Indeed this Christmas Day, along with millions of others across the world, we will share in our family traditions, we will share in the giving and exchanging of gifts and then we will sit down to enjoy what has become the main event of Christmas, the meal. It will typically be Turkey and all the trimmings and thankfully the fridge will be stocked up with goodies to entice us between meals, our coolers will be laden with cans and the sound of ring pulls will outweigh the sound of bells, there may even be a bottle or two or white chilling, with our names on it!
It’s no wonder we can afford to allow ourselves a sigh or slight smile, after all, we’ve geared up for this big day for so long. Our shops have been stocking Christmas goodies since mid August and now we are ready to enjoy the festive season proper. How proud we must all feel, how satisfied that we have more or less everything in order. The only concern for those of us, who haven’t yet cooked the bird, is that we don’t burn it to a cinder, undercook it or that disaster strikes with oven failure. Our priorities are presents, food, television and saying goodnight that is if we are still able after the cans and bottles of white!
As for the religious side of the season, we’ll we’ve done our bit, we’ve came along year round to Church or for those of us who only a do an annual visit to church on this night, the deed is done and we can get on with it tomorrow, we can enjoy ourselves and forget the rest.
Earlier the Atheist was mentioned, for they too will celebrate Christmas with the tree, turkey, trimmings and gifts. They will go from home to home, share in family times and they will also find much joy in our season of welcoming God with us, Immanuel! The sad truth is there is very little difference sometimes between the Atheist and the Christian. After all both view it with slightly different take, but still each make the claim “It’s time to be with the family.” Which family?
If we are totally honest, during the hustle and bustle, the biz of Christmas day, we will not think about the Holy family, this is the nearest we will get to it, tonight at our Watchnight service. We will not think of the nativity story, we’ve done it tonight, the religious part out of the way and put back into a box like the decorations until next year. If only it were so easy!
It’s a sad statement to make that the atheist and Christian have something in common but they do! The many atheists that I know, will take part in our traditions and rituals and for them, Christmas is about getting something and staging an event, but otherwise it has no real meaning or significance to them. The truth is it is very much the same for us!
We will think about our families, we will think about everything else except the Holy family, Mary and Joseph and their infant son born in the manger. We will not think about the freezing cold stable where the baby was born for that has been done already in our lead up to Christmas. We have romanticised the story; Mary and Joseph are both white, our religious Christmas cards depict a glowing Mary, surrounded by an aura, as if the Estee Lauder team have been to visit, prior to the arranged exclusive media interview. We don’t see a bedraggled, forlorn and exhausted Mary, or a frightened and confused Joseph. Even the animals in the barn are clean, no straw hanging from them, no animal mess on the floor – we depict the romantic image in our nativity plays and they are so far removed from the original event.
For us that birth 2000 years ago has no real significance in our lives today or tomorrow. We will not think of Mary and Joseph freezing cold, looking for charity from others as they are homeless and worse is to follow, for they have to become refugees, asylum seekers as they flee from Herod into nearby Egypt. These thoughts and the film are dismissed from our minds so easily, we can read about the events, we have heard them many times; we can see the film but we can’t truly have an empathy with the Holy family as we didn’t feel, see, hear or touch what they had to endure.
However, what happened 2000 years ago is still as relevant today, if this credit crunch gets worse, there will be more people made homeless. Don’t be under any false illusion that in this enlightened day and age we don’t have homeless people in our major cities and don’t dare think that they all chose that way of life, that they are all addicts!
The charities Shelter and Crisis both predict that many more will be homeless in 2009 due to the credit crisis, as families are evicted from their rented accommodation because the owner faces financial ruin! Where do they go? Who will help them? The truth is Mary and Joseph became homeless, dispossessed, disenfranchised because of events surrounding them. Many of our homeless are there because they too, succumbed to events surrounding them.
It may not be in the nativity story, it may not be in any bible that you read but bear in mind that Joseph became jobless and he would have to provide for his family by temping or doing some odd jobs until they could return to their homeland.
Mary and Joseph knew poverty; they experienced the most difficult circumstances to bring their child into the world. They endured and gave a great sacrifice of themselves as they would with their son in the years to come. God was present in the manger that night and he presented himself on the cross at Easter.
Even those pesky angels who we have so much difficulty in believing in, in accepting that they could be present here in our building at times, get in on the act. They are in the story, but we will dismiss them so easily, the multitudes, the heavenly hosts will vanish from our thoughts as we settle down to watch the children play with their presents. Some of us will play family games, whilst eating good food and drinking heartedly, others will become couch potatoes and watch with anticipation the end credits of Eastenders or some other soap, without a thought of that night.
Our thoughts will be with our families, our loved ones past and present for that’s what it’s all about, being together with our families and enjoying the time together, enjoying our gifts and sharing in festive cheer.
We won’t think of that Holy family, we won’t think of those who have fallen on hard times, with no shelter, living under railway arches and bridges in our town centres.
We won’t think of those who queue up at the soup kitchens and those who fail to find shelter for the night, we won’t think of them as we often assume that the welfare state will provide for them or some other agency. We won’t think of these people struggling for some hope, we won’t give a thought to those in poverty; our only worry will be paying for this Christmas in January when our credit card bills arrive. But hey! That’s what Christmas is all about after all, good food, good wine, toys and sweets for the children, being with family.
This special night, let us leave here with this question to ponder over as you join in the family festivities, which is after all about the birth of our Saviour, Immanuel, God with us.
Which family will you be spending Christmas with tomorrow?
