It's all getting Better

 

Quite a few years ago now my Vicar asked a group of us "What does Christmas mean to you" once we got through all the usual rather trite answers around things like "it's all about the children" or simply a good party, we started to think about our answers a little more thoroughly. Of course from a religious view point Christmas is when we celebrate the transcendent made manifest - or if you prefer, when Christ was born. 

Nobody knows exactly when Jesus was born, but we may be reasonably sure that the 25th December is not the birthdate of Jesus, of course it may be, but the chances aren't good! Indeed until the Fourth Century there was no such festival as Christmas! (follow the link to an interesting article on the origins of the festival). I think it is fare to say that the celebrations of  Christ's birth became attached to other older festivals. Gradually aspects of those festivals became incorporated into how we celebrate, the feasting and present giving from Roman Saturnalia, the Christmas Tree and holly from Germanic Yule and Mistletoe from the Scandinavian God Baldr. 

All of his is very interesting (well I think it is!) but is not really to the point, for me the point is that what Christmas really means to me is not the meal, the party or the time with my family; it is not the carol singing the Christmas Concerts or the Church Services; indeed it most definitely does not mean the decorations, the presents, and the over indulgence. These are all ways we celebrate not the cause, not the true meaning. In many ways I am celebrating the birth of Christ ~ but, just like the Early Church Easter is the much greater cause to celebrate, Easter was the conclusion, Christmas is not even the beginning! I could argue that Christ's ministry is more of a beginning than Christmas, we should be celebrating His Baptism, the moment when He an others started to understand the import of what He was or what He was to do. Or we could argue that what we call the "Old Testament" all signals towards Christ and His sacrifice, so maybe the beginning is even further back in history. We could even argue that as God is outside time, and is omniscient then His whole plan has been from before the beginning and after the end of time itself.

But the question was a personal one, what does Christmas mean to me?

For me Christmas is the point when everything starts to get better, from the birth of Christ we have hope, we don't know what He is going to achieve for us, and we will not understand it all for a long a time, but we do know it gets better! Historically and theologically the intertestamental period was a bad one for God's people, it was with Christ's birth that things started to get better. My personal journey of faith also started at Christmas! It was my wife's drive to host the "perfect family Christmas" that drove me back to church, and through that to find faith, so for me it was definitely the point when things started to get better!

As I said earlier Christmas became attached to older festivals, the thing all these festivals have in common is that they are at the coldest, darkest most miserable time of the year, mostly on or around the shortest day. Of course after the shortest days come longer days, after mid winter comes spring, these are all about hope. As the days become longer and warmer we are reassured that spring will come, and will be followed by summer and autumn. We will again have plenty, we will have harvest, we will have warmth and comfort. In our less agrarian world we have become detached from all of this, so it's good to remember that even not that long ago a family would have to store most of their winter supplies for months. This would be the time in mid winter when they would break out a few extras and celebrate that they were half way through, the days would start to lengthen, the end was in sight ~ it was all going to get better.

I'm hoping that the same can be said for the World this year, certainly my Country has hit a big low right now, but I'm hoping, and praying, that this is the low point ~ our shortest day and longest night, that from this point things will start to get better. We now know that vaccines for this virus are coming on stream, we are learning more about the virus itself ~ and knowledge is power! For me I know that I have a couple of tough months ahead, but I also know that by March my work will be picking up again, I hope that with our increased knowledge and the spread of the vaccines my bands and orchestras will start meeting again. I know that as things get warmer and safer I will be able to see my family and my friends again.

This Christmas maybe we can't celebrate how we want to, or how we are used to, but maybe this year more than ever we have reason to celebrate, not because things are good, but because we know we have reached the point from when they are going to get better