Merry Christmas!

I do indeed wish all of you a happy time and may it be richly blessed. What does Christmas mean to us? It has many connotations. I would like the children to tell us what it means to them:

Discussion with Children.

(Not just the birth of Christ but all the other aspects, gifts, family time etc.)

Christmas shows some contrasts.

A lot of the festival is about family gatherings and time with friends, with good food and warmth. This happens when the weather is often bad; rain and snow makes life unpleasant, especially outside cities. It is also a time of darkness, with short days and low sun. The cold and dark makes us appreciate light and warmth. To appreciate the comfort we need to be aware of the cold outside.

We have just had the winter solstice, when the days stop being shorter and the sun, albeit slowly, begins to be seen for longer every day. It is good to celebrate the light returning at the darkest time of the year and have a time to feast amidst the scarcity of winter. There is a long tradition of revelry and fun at this season; some of the customs go back to pagan times. That is nothing to be defensive about. Christians have continued some of the pagan practices, which in themselves are good, but put them in a Christian context: feasting and decorations are wholesome; gifts are expressions of love, regardless of the beliefs of the giver and recipient; evergreens remind us that life continues even in the depths of winter. There is much that is good in folk traditions, although many in heterodox get needlessly defensive, let us rejoice.

Just as there is a contrast between the warmth of celebration and the winter cold outside so there is the contrast between the enormity of what happens and the small scale of a domestic event. Yes a new born baby is a matter for delight, but the story of the Nativity of Christ is much more. This is the coming of God to earth.

Let us consider how mighty God is.  For instance consider the size of the cosmos. Distances are so great that they are measured by the time light takes to travel them. Our sun is part of a galaxy about one hundred thousand light years across. There are estimated to be between one and two hundred thousand million galaxies in the universe and even that may be an underestimate. The observable universe might be ninety-two billion light years across; it is staggeringly huge. We know that God is greater than the universe.  Christ our God became man.  Indeed He shared the whole of human life. As Orthodox we recognise that Christ taking on humanity, His birth, life, death and resurrection are all part of the great act of reconciliation. Christ did not just appear and talk to men, as happened on Sinai. In an act of love He, God incarnate, came as a vulnerable baby, in a time when many babies did not survive infancy. Christ was a child, just like the children here today. Yet Mary and Joseph had to flee with the still very young Christ to Egypt to escape Herod, who wanted Him dead.  We understand the Nativity in the context of the whole of the history of our salvation and in the light of Pascha. The coming of Christ was an act of mercy and salvation in a world soiled by darkness, sin and evil. In the words of St John Chrysostom: “He who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infant’s bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honour, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness.”

Faced with such a gift from God what can be said about our Christmas gifts to each other?  There is a lot of money spent at Christmas, with people often feeling massive pressure to conform to some artificial, idealised notion of perfection, be it in food, entertainment or presents. Yet expense is not the same as value and, if we get our priorities right, the celebration is one of joy, regardless of how much, or little we spend.  It is a matter of love and of celebrating the right things. One of the best Christmas presents I ever got was a photograph from a friend showing the two of us at something we had done and enjoyed together, with a note of appreciation for our friendship. Whilst I have had many more elaborate and expensive gifts,  that one was wonderful because, in effect, it showed a sharing of life.  Our friends share their lives with us and we are part of what they do. Friends support each other and help when needed. We value that companionship and it makes more things possible. For instance I love travel. If I visit a friend abroad then, because I am with a local person, I can share in the local society, as I have in Syria and across Europe.  Such is what Christ does, He shares His life with us, thanks to the tremendous act of God in becoming man. As he shares our humanity we may share His life. Thus we may participate in the Kingdom of Heaven. Christ is a friend and, to those who respond to the invitation, there is salvation. The greatest gift of all is the love of God, and His life. The gift is for all of us who accept it. 

John Betjeman in his poem “Christmas” talks about the presents and the decorations and concludes with thinking about the more holy aspects:

“No love that in a family dwells,

No carolling in frosty air,

Nor all the steeple-shaking bells

Can with this single Truth compare -

That God was man in Palestine

And lives today in Bread and Wine.”

Such is the joy of this festival. As St John Chrysostom put it: “Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the Nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused, and spreads on every side, a heavenly way of life has been planted on the earth”.

So, in the light of what Christ does for us, have a truly happy Christmas.

To God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, be glory, now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.