Happy Christmas everybody! Try to Google “Christmas Day” and click on images, I did this and of the top fifty images in my search, there was just one picture that made any reference to the birth of Christ whatsoever. I scrolled right through to the end of the initial search and could find only a couple of pictures of the nativity. The vast majority of pictures were of families unwrapping Christmas presents, over decorated houses (in my opinion) tables groaning with far too much food than is good for anybody, Father Christmas, snow scenes and even a picture of Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield smiling at us. Somebody once said to me that Christmas starts when the last till closes in the last shop on Christmas Eve, and yet there is a feeling if we are not careful, that we have done all the God stuff during Advent and now we’ve reached the big day, we can forget God and get on with enjoying ourselves, make the most of the festive season.
When I was very young, my mum and dad would put up the Christmas tree and hang a few streamers in the front room marking the fact that the big day had arrived. Father Christmas never came down our chimney, chiefly because my dad had blocked the chimney off for our more modern and less time consuming three bar electric fire, no, Father Christmas politely knocked on our front door and left our stocking with my parents. I wouldn’t want to make anybody envious, but we must have been some of the first in the country to be delivered to! We would always open our presents to the sound of the choir of Kings college Cambridge singing Christmas carols on our gramophone, then after breakfast, we would troop off to Chapel, with my brother and I carrying a small gift we had received to show the folk in the congregation. I never considered my parents as being overtly religious and I can’t ever remember them quoting Bible passages at us, God was simply a part of our lives, and it all felt very natural.
During Advent this year we have reflected week by week on the inclusivity of the Christmas story, and I celebrate the fact that during the course of this special day, charities will open their doors to receive homeless people in for their Christmas Day. People up and down the country have worked hard over the last few weeks, filling shoeboxes, donating to food banks, trying to ensure that some of our most vulnerable people, children in particular are not left out in the cold at Christmas. We have reflected on how the Christmas message is for everybody, regardless of ethnicity, culture, gender, social standing, sexual orientation, age, or beliefs, God is a God for all.
Please don’t think that I am trying to make a cheap religious point or trying to ruin everybody’s fun, I am not. It just seems sad to me, that the God, who generously accepts us, whoever we are, appears to be shoved out, on what feels to be the most important day in the Christian calendar.
My prayer is that on Christmas Day, we make room for God