The Real Thing?

Down the artificial ski slope on a snowboard

Well here we are – the day itself.  Chestnuts roasting on an open fire whilst dreaming of a White Christmas which will make a Winter Wonderland, while Rudolph the red nosed reindeer settles down for a well-earned rest and the jingle bells quieten as Santa finishes his mad dash.  You know it’s the most wonderful time of the year!  Happy Christmas!  Yo Ho Ho!

And so the pressure is on us to have the perfect Christmas and to enter into the Christmas spirit and to have an idyllic day or two.  I actually really enjoy Christmas, but it seems to me that there can be artificiality to the whole season.  Sure I love feasting and laughter and giving gifts.  I think that is really important and precious as part of the rhythm of life.  But it is difficult sometimes to know what is artificial and what is lasting about Christmas.

The sad fact is that for many people Christmas is but a phase and several days after Christmas it is put away in a box until the next year.  It passes us by and tantalisingly beckons to us to grasp it and hold it for ever and yet seems to slip through our fingers and go on its way, until next time!  “I wish it could be Christmas every day”.

Very recently I provided transport for our youth group in the Portland Methodist Circuit to go to a local Holiday Centre where there is an artificial ski slope.  It is really good to have that facility not far from where we live and our youth group members and leaders had great fun snowboarding down the slope.  They enjoyed themselves.  The reality though is that the slope is artificial.  Many people benefit from having a good time on it, but it’s not quite the real thing.

Many people benefit from having a good time at Christmas, but that doesn’t mean it is the real thing.

The real thing is the fact that Jesus was born in accommodation that was pretty rough, laid in an animal trough which is pretty unhygienic, that he was visited by shepherds who were usually looked on with suspicion and wise men who were foreigners and who would have looked very out of place in Bethlehem. The truly amazing thing in all this though is the Christian belief that God was present in Jesus entering into this world.  Because of that nothing would be the same again.  Because of that God showed his love and commitment to his world and the people in it.  Because of that God can make everything different in our lives and in this world.  That is a revolutionary message.

Here’s the thing though.  That is a message that is not confined to over 2000 years ago.  “I wish it could be Christmas every day”.  It can be.  The thing about Christmas is that it is actually about allowing Jesus to enter into our lives, and it is possible to allow that every day.  So please enjoy the transitory things about Christmas – the fun, feasting, laughter, generosity…..  Those can be terrific things, but instead of the wonder of Christmas slipping through our fingers again until next year how about inviting Jesus to be born in our hearts afresh each day and committing ourselves every day to worshipping the God who chooses to dwell with us and make a difference to our lives and this world.  Then it truly can be Christmas every day! That is not artificial. It is real.

A most blessed, holy, and peaceful Christmas to all.

Waiting for Christmas

Christmas fast approaches.  For some people Christmas celebrations may already have been going on for weeks.  Indeed the first Carol Service I attended this year was on 30th November.  However, in the Church Calendar we are still in the season of Advent, a time of waiting for the coming of Christ.  This is hard for a modern society which wants everything now.  Whether it be instant tea or Prime membership of Amazon we want what we want with all due urgency. Waiting belongs to another age.

Easton Methodist Church, Portland

There are still some things though that take time and where we have to wait. Nature is one area where this is true.  Even though we try to force some fruits and vegetables to grow faster we cannot make them appear instantly.  Babies grow in the womb and continue to take months of growth before being born.

I think waiting may be a very important lesson to learn.  During a period of waiting we are able to reflect on what we are expecting and we are able to prepare ourselves for whatever it is we are waiting for.  In our rush to finish off Christmas by Boxing Day rather than starting it on Christmas Day we may miss all sorts of things.  In our desire to do away with waiting we may find that we are not prepared or tuned in for the possibilities that "God with us" can bring. Indeed we are more likely to be oblivious to them.

I do pray that we might take advantage of this waiting period of Advent in order that we might prepare ourselves to celebrate the coming of Christ into the world.  If you have not reflected on the great mystery and exciting event of God drawing close to us through a baby in Bethlehem then might I encourage you to do that over this Christmas period.  Perhaps you might consider visiting a church near to you.  There might be a Christingle service you could attend, or a Midnight Communion, or a Christmas Day service.  It may be that as we wait for Christmas we might find a sense of expectancy rising within us.  

Christmas this year may mean that our lives are touched and changed in very special ways as we look for the Christ Child who was not only born in a stable so many years ago, but who can be born in our hearts today.  

Band Aid

Over the last few weeks the latest incarnation of the Band Aid song “Do they know it’s Christmas” powered to Number 1 in the Charts in the United Kingdom and 62 other countries.  It seeks to raise funds for the fight against Ebola in West Africa.  The song, by many well-known artists pulled together as a kind of “super-group”, has not been without controversy.  Some people, including some artists, have been concerned that the song is patronising.  You may have your own view about that.  Even if that were to be correct, the reality is it looks set to raise a lot of money again.  There is another issue though.  However well-intentioned the song and artists are it will only offer temporary help.  It will, as the collective name for the artists implies (although without intention) be something of a Band Aid, a sticking plaster solution.

At Christmas we remember another incarnation.  This is not another incarnation of a song, but we remember THE INCARNATION, which speaks of God entering into this world in Jesus.  This is a God who does not want a sticking plaster solution but who wants to go to the root of the problem and bring about change for ever.  The root problem is a broken relationship with Him and others that affects this world and our eternal well-being.  God in Jesus wants to do something about that.  He wants to be born into our lives and make a difference in this world and assure us of our well-being for eternity.

Why not find out more in a church near you this Christmas?

May God bless you this Christmas and grant you deep peace.

Worth the Struggle!

Weymouth Football Club Bob Lucas Stadium

I am so very pleased to have been a part of “The ‘Silent Night’ of World War One, which I shared in at Weymouth Football Club’s Ground, the Bob Lucas Stadium, earlier this evening.  The event was organised by “Refresh” (http://www.refreshme.uk/), an umbrella Charity for The Church in Weymouth and Portland.  I feel privileged to be a Trustee of Refresh.

In common with other places around the country we organised an event in a football stadium which consisted of both singing carols and commemorating the First World War Christmas truce where it would appear the English and Germans played football together.

It was fantastic to find that somewhere between 900 and 1000 people turned out to be a part of this evening.

We were pleased to have Richard Drax MP reading the account of the birth of Christ, a poem from Daisy White; a poem written by Keira Stewart and enactment of the Christmas truce football match;  a message from Andy Rimmer, Club Chaplain of AFC Bournemouth; a children’s choir from a mixture of local schools; a choir from local churches; the Salvation Army Band; and guest Caroline Milverson (granddaughter of  Regimental Sergeant-Major George Beck from Portland who served on the Western Front for the whole of the 1914 to 1918 conflict).

RSM Beck was awarded the Military Cross in April 1918.  He kept a diary during the conflict.  One entry details the Christmas truce of 25 December 1914, saying: "Germans very eager to exchange almost anything for our 'Bully Beef' and jam."

This was a very special occasion.  When we decided to organise this, and even up to this evening, we had no real idea whether we would have 100 or 1000 attending.  It was closer to the latter!  This was a real example of Community and Church coming together and partnering to make something precious.  You can see a small part of the evening here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2BXJQcp7Gk&feature=youtu.be

It seems to me it is still vitally important that within the Church we make every effort to make known the unity that God has given us in Christ.  Tonight was one example of this.  It is often easier to do things on our own, yet I am convinced God has given us each other within the Church, and that as we trust each other more, and minister and mission more, then we see God’s Spirit at work within is and around us in many and varied ways.

It is no surprise to me that when Church and Community work together there is something which is greater than the sum of its parts.  God created this world and therefore when Church and World come together to try to serve the community it is often the case that something with that X factor happens.  To use a worldly phrase the Church brings added value.  Maybe you might like to think of how the Church might bring added value to your life.

Partnership of church with church and Church with Community can be one of the most terrific things, even though it can have deep challenges and is rarely easy.  But then most things worth having are worth the struggle to get to them.