What Christmas Means For Me

This is the address I gave at our recent Carols by Candlelight Service. During the service I wanted people to reflect not only upon the nativity story, but also to explore what it means to be a Christian in today's society.

-----------------

For so many people Christmas has become a commercial festival, and the real meaning and significance of this time of year has been lost. For example, in Britain we will have spent up to £20 billion this December on credit and debit cards. I was talking to one lady on Friday who works for a well known bank, that 95% of the customers who come into the bank complain about the growing cost of Christmas. Is this really what it’s all about?

On average we gain 5 to 6 lbs in weight over the Christmas period. And on Christmas day itself we can consume as much as 6000 calories. Is this really what it’s all about?

Each year, we hear about attempts to play down the religious elements of this festival. In this weeks Walsall Chronicle it rang an article about the Bishop of Lichfield, Jonathan Gledhill who in his Christmas message has attacked a report calling on businesses and councils to use decorations that are ‘secular and not inherently religious’ to avoid offending non Christians. And the Chronicle finishes the article with a question. “Should Christmas be an overtly Christian festival or should it be toned down to avoid offending other faiths.”

I have to confess, going around the shops in Walsall looking for Christmas cards with have a religious theme, is getting increasingly difficult. If I want a picture of Father Christmas, reindeer's, Robins, Christmas trees, then that is fine, but it is a lot harder to find a card with a religious theme. The Daily Mail reported last week that only one out of every 100 Christmas cards sold in Britain contains a religious image.

What is happening is that slowly, bit by bit, Christ is being taken out of Christmas. And when we do that, what are we left with, apart from indigestion and debt!

I personally love the parties, and the food and I also enjoy receiving gifts! But that is NOT what makes Christmas special for me. What makes Christmas so special is celebrating the birth of Christ. It is the knowledge that God didn’t stand by watching the world get further and further into mess, but that he decided to come down into it, and to live on earth as one of us.

Christian art has made the nativity scene gloriously hygienic. But the truth is, the stable or cave where Jesus was born would have been smelly, dirty and untidy. This is what life is often like. Life is messy, rather than neat, orderly and safe. And that speaks to me a great deal, God choose to enter into the mess of this world, to reveal his love for you and me. God has come into the mess and confusion of my life, to reveal to me how much he loves me. And that is why Christmas is so special for me.

I would like to say that I have got everything sorted in life, but I haven’t. I would like to say that I had the most intimate relationship with God, but I don’t. I would like to say that I am always the person God wants me to be, but I’m not. But I cannot imagine my life without God. Christmas reminds me that I don’t have to be perfect for God to love me, I don’t have to have everything sorted in my life in order to be a Christian, because God loves me for who I am, as well as helping me become the person he always intended me to be.

This is why I love Christmas, because it reminds me just how much God loves me, and every single one of us. My message to you today, is don’t ignore the gift of God’s love that he offers you today. When all the Christmas celebrations are over, don’t put Jesus away with the decorations. Because if you do, you will be missing out on the most wonderful thing anyone of us can ever experience. A relationship with God.