Big ideas

IF you are in marketing or retail you will be familiar with the mindset that asks the question: “So what is the big idea this Christmas?”

Human nature is somehow always looking to find something that is new and shiny. Often it is to distract us from all that is happening around us. The marketing strategists know this, so they go looking for something: an idea, a longing, an emotion, even an experience, something to which they can attach the commodity they are selling. Christmas is the time to sell – so they need ideas and feelings that they know will tug at our heart strings. Their skill is to link their commodity to our emotional attachments.

Finding ways to make the Christmas festival retain its meaning in the midst of such high powered sales activity can be daunting. However I think we can use this time of the year to make the connections for which many people are looking. It’s interesting to be reminded that recent research carried out by the Red Cross in 2016 has shown the high number of people in our communities who feel lonely. The report states: “Over nine million people in the UK say they are always or often lonely, but almost two thirds feel uncomfortable admitting to it.” These feelings of isolation are highlighted further at Christmas time, as the number increases. All the broken relationships that have not been mended come to the fore as well as the guilt and frustration that comes with it.

If there is one big idea that the true meaning of Christmas expresses, it must surely be that God is with us in the midst of all our struggles, hurts and fears. When hope has been abandoned and when we feel we have no right to pray or ask God for help. When we believe the comments of others, that we’re not worth caring about, are true. When we feel devoid of a spiritual home and, when we fear the future and retreat from the past. When we feel stuck and very much alone. The story of Christmas reminds us that the one who made us, is willing to become like us, vulnerable – as fragile as a babe; in order that we might encounter his grace and forgiveness and love. This message also inspires those of us who have been hurt by others to allow the grace of God to influence our thinking so that we too can be grace bearers. We want grace to be central to our Christmas message. So we’ve come up with the Christmas theme: “Everything changes when Grace comes to town.” We believe this message can inspire and change hearts at Christmas.

When we strip all our emotions away there are perhaps just two left: love and fear. And it is these two emotions that in the end shape our lives and destiny. The big idea that Christmas celebrates is God’s amazing grace. In other words: “Everything changes when Grace comes to town.” God upsets the apple cart. He makes the first move to heal our broken lives. The thing we fear the most is rejection. Love challenges rejection and makes a friend of fear turning fear into faith and hope into a reality. Now that to me is a big idea!

The Very Rev Albert Bogle is a Pioneer Minister of Sanctuary First Church Online at www.sanctuaryfirst.org.uk