The Christmas story is so sweet, so comfortable and cute. Who doesn’t warm up to a baby cooing and kicking, wrapped in warm flannels, at the front of the church? Repeatedly, for 2025 years, the birth of the cherub-faced Christ child has been reenacted, a baby lying in a rustic cradle surrounded by awestruck shepherds, choirs of angels, and mellow-faced hay-munching animals.
The Christmas story helps us think of better, kinder, more romantic things, offering us a seasonal reprieve from the way things are. Hallmark has capitalized on this idea and produced an endless barrage of touchy-feely, kissy movies. We watch them and soften up a bit, dreaming of a more benevolent Cinderella world where the snow is always white and the days are always bright.
But a baby arriving and tickling our ´feel-good’ bone is not the Gospel. It’s just the beginning of the Gospel. It’s the moment when eternity steps into time, and God launches a rescue mission. If we stay in the Christmas mode, we miss the mission.
Frankly, the world does not want to move past the manger. The rest of the story deals with real life, real pain, and real sin. But the rest of the story is the actual story and its our job to move them from the cradle to the cross.
We must preach the Good News in context and in completion. The Christmas story is impotent unless it is coupled with the narrative of a sinless, suffering Saviour: a man of sorrows who is touched by the feeling of our infirmities and acquainted with our grief. The manger is just a box filled with hay unless it is presented as a backdrop to a cruel cross. The whole celebration is nothing more than the annual remembrance of a sweet event, missing the point until it is shared in the context of Calvary and the resurrection. It is only a temporary escape from reality, a bit of relief in a dog-eat-dog existence unless we understand its eternal worth: God offers His righteousness in exchange for our sins.
The Advent Season presents a perfect opportunity to preach through the Apostle’s Creed.
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there, he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic (universal) church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen
Christmas involves a kaleidoscope of flickering multi-coloured lights, silver bells, bountiful banquets, and the exchange of presents and pleasantries. It encourages family warmth, charitable giving, the milk of human kindness and a crackling fireplace. And that’s all good. But the Gospel is much more. Eclipsing all of those fun and favourite things is the imperative proclamation that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.´
If we present the whole story in 2023 to a post-Christian culture where people are grasping for some kind of hope, we may have to keep the heat on in our baptismal tanks. In a world of chaos and uncertainty, desperate people are trying to find ways to make life work. The Gospel presents the only real solution. The Gospel is still the power of unto salvation for everyone who believes.
Let’s be sure we offer everyone within our sphere of influence the opportunity to find real hope, real peace, and real joy. Let’s build that as a goal into every activity we plan and into every outreach we undertake.
And, by the way, “T’is the Season to be jolly – fa la la la la, la la, la la.” We have everything to be sincerely jolly about.
Al is an experienced pastor and counselor who works out of our ABNWT District Resource Centre in Edmonton as the Pastoral Care Coordinator. A pastor to the pastors, Al is a friend, mentor, and confidante to all.