COMMENT

The Very Rev Dr Albert Bogle makes a plea not to keep Christmas in a box.

LET’S not allow Christmas to get boxed in this year.

Advent is the time when the Christian church really begins anew as we “Open up Christmas.” Many of our friends and neighbours have literally placed Christmas in a box. They tidy it away from year to year only to bring it out at the right time displaying the lights and decorations and, of course, the Victorian Christmas tree.

Christmas, however, is much more than something that can be contained in a box of decorations or indeed in an annual festival. It speaks of eternity coming into time and that can’t be boxed up. In our reformed tradition the incarnation is something to be explored not simply on a yearly basis, tied to a liturgical calendar, it is to be lived out in our lives on a daily basis. For the Reformers every day was Christmas Day. Perhaps there is much we can learn from an idea that suggests Christmas is always in season inviting us to ponder the eternal, and to start living and thinking outside the time capsule of our lives.

Sanctuary First has chosen the theme It’s Time To Open Up Christmas to help us all begin to marvel at the sheer magnificence of the plan of God’s salvation for the whole of his creation. It’s breathtaking. It opens hearts, it opens mouths and it opens skies. Consider the role of the prophets in revealing the clues for the coming Messiah. Do they not cause us to stand back in amazement as we realise God has a masterplan?

So how does this masterplan roll into our time? Christmas invites us to ask questions about the plan. Does God continue to use prophets in the modern world? If so, who are today’s prophets? Do they give us hints about the nature and significance of God’s plans in a world of pandemic and recession? Do they help us feel secure or challenge us to live from day to day? Where in our time are the prophets pointing us to meet the Messiah? How open are we to seeing something new being revealed to us? These are some of the questions living Christmas every day brings up.

Take a moment to think about the open-hearted people who have received and believed the plan as it has unfolded to date. We come across Mary and Joseph and Elizabeth. What do we learn about their journeys of faith their open hearts? And what of us? When it comes to understanding our family celebrations this year? What must we learn first about our own personal Christmas before we can share it with others? What kind of heart do we require if we are to see and understand the sheer completeness of God’s redemption plan for the whole of creation? What kind of heart do we require if we are to grasp the love of God that seeks to mend our broken lives and relationships and planet?

I think, as we open up Christmas, we need to be prepared for the surprises of God. Surprises that leave us with our mouths wide open. Perhaps challenging us to look in another direction, even stopping us in our tracks. There are a number of interesting stories in the Bible that involve mouths being opened, including that of a donkey! (Numbers 22: 21-41) The masterplan invites us to concentrate on the sheer wonder and expectation that Jesus Christ brings into the lives of his followers. The biblical texts offer a rich context from which to explore the human experience of encountering the grace and mystery and love of God. Zachariah the priest whose silence and doubt ends in awe and wonder, Joseph, the carpenter, whose fears are changed by a dream, Mary, the teenager, who says yes to God, even if tongues wag. Christmas invites us to open our mouths and our lives in adoration and praise. To journey further and encounter the mystery that is beyond magic – leaving us with our mouths wide open in awe and wonder and surprise.

Christmas, however, is much more than something that can be contained in a box of decorations or indeed in an annual festival.

For the skies above us openly declare the vast extensive majesty of the creator. There is a mystery that goes beyond our memory and understanding. Angels, heavenly beings, stars and planets all called into the service of the creator to announce and explain to mere mortals like you and me that we need not be afraid to live. To explain God’s purposeful plan to bring all things together – God’s plan to reconcile the unreconcilable; God’s plan to place the longing for peace in the hearts of humans; God’s peace plan borne out in the life of Jesus the Prince of Peace; a master plan that cannot be kept in a box. ¤