Christmas!

Christmas! Love it or hate it it comes round relentlessly and it is difficult not to get caught up in all the hype, overspending and overindulging!
When I was a working priest I came to hate the Christmas season which generally began in about the first week of December. I remember, for many years, having to conduct a carol service for the Brownies on about the first monday in December. Invariably I had a filthy cold (man-flu of course!), felt pretty lousy, the church was feeezing cold, and the Brownies doing the readings and prayers inaudible, despite microphones! This was followed in quick succession by a series of Christmas lunches, dinners or parties for the various groups within the parish who always expected the parish priest to turn up and felt slighted if you were double booked. So by the time Christmas actually arrived this particular parish priest was dead on his feet, far too full of Christmas dinners and had sung "O Little town of Bethlehem" about 20 times, and as for having something fresh to say (off the cuff!) for each and every group required rather more preparation that time allowed. Because believe it not, the other every day work of the parish priest went on - and that generally included a increased number of funerals as some of the elderly very inconveniently would die in the run up to Christmas, and their beloved relatives always wanted the funeral done before Christmas (so that they could still go off ski-ing), so alongside the crib service, the Midnight mass, and trying to visit the ladies decorating the church for Christmas, often on Christmas Eve would had a 40 mile round trip to the crematorium.
So on Christmas Day after church, this particular parish priest would fall asleep very quickly, and by about 8.00 in the evening would give up the struggle and go to bed!

I rather wish I had been a purist and refused absolutely all invitations to Christmas events on the ground that December is the season of Advent - the time of preparation for the great event of Christmas - the coming of Christ in the event of the Incarnation: no carols to be sung until Christmas Eve, and the carol service to be help on the Sunday AFTER Christmas. The one year I did try that- there was great murmuring against the parish priest and a noticeable lack of people attending. You see how we have turned everything on its head and now celebrate before the day. We have lost the great anticipation of Advent. So when we try to keep the 12 days of Christmas - right up to January 5th, most people have had too much and have given up by Boxing Day.

Do I believe in Christmas? Well yes I do. I am not too sure about the details of the Christmas story, but what I do believe is that at a certain time in history, in the person of Jesus, God acted for the salvation of the world. The problem is that most of us have not understood it. As one writer put it recently, think about our little globe spinning through the infinity of space and how tiny it is in comparison. Then think about how, throughout human history, men have fought and spilt much blood, and sacrificed millions of lives to control little bits of our globe which we are in danger of destroying through our activities. It is mind boggling! And we shall sing "Peace of earth!" and then carry on our petty squabbles.

"O Little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie". A town now ringed by a ghastly wall and in which the Christian presence is being squeezed right out. It is no longer a peaceful town and perhaps we ought to ban that particular carol for the time being!

So some not very Christmassy thoughts but I wish my reader a very happy Christmas and hope to you will have a very happy one and think about the real meaning of the season.