Greetings

Happy Christmas to you all, wherever you are!

May the peace of God surround you at this special time.

Why Christmas?

There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays, like Christmas. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments. One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their children to a Christmas Eve service in the farm community where they lived. She asked him to come, but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower himself to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!" So she and the children left, and he stayed home.

A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out of the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. Then another thump. He looked out but couldn't see more than a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window. In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on.

They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew round the field in low circles, blinly, aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed. The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, and watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fl;uttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn or realise what it could mean for them. The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them and they moved further away.

He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a breadcrumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on. Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them towards the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe.

"Why don't they follow me?" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?" He thought for a moment and realised they just would't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud. Then he had an idea. He went into the barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled round the back of the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn - and one by one the other geese followed it to safety.

He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind. If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!" Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese - blind, lost perishing. God had his son become like us so he could show us the way and save us. That was the meaning of Christmas, he realised. As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood what Christmas was all about, why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished like the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer. "Thankyou, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm.

The Real Story

Christmas is, for me, a time I cannot enjoy as much as I would like. We see regular news stories about people in the secular world celebrating Christmas in a very inappropriate way. Their behaviour is antisocial for the most part. Many set out on sessions of binge drinking and finish up behaving in a fashion that is totally unacceptable. Their antics end with a number of them spending time in Accident and Emergency units being treated for drink inflicted ailments and injuries. They take up valuable police time as the streets are patrolled by large numbers opf officers. Many of them end up in police cells for fighting.

Then there are the motorists who have been out drinking and set off for home incapable of driving their cars. Some of these cause the deaths of other motorists, their own passengers, and pedestrians. This causes sorrow and heartache in families at a time when they too want to celebrate the festive season. Instead of the planned family Christmas they are bereaved at a time when all around are in festive mood.

There are no excuses whatsoever. Those who spread misery and heartache at such a time by their unacceptable behaviour deserve no consideration themselves. If they end up in jail for their actions they have only themselves to blame.

But let me now turn to the real story that Christmas is all about. It is the time when Christians celebrate the coming of Jesus, the saviour of the world. But even then I need to talk seriously about a number of aspects of the birth of Jesus. Some years ago I was preaching in a United Reformed Church during Advent. It was at a time when I had just got the real story of the birth of Jesus sorted out in my mind. What I said in my sermon alienated several of the congregation. Some of them walked out without a greeting.

Year after year we tend to accept stories of the birth which simply do not stand up to scrutiny in view of scholarship. Take the shepherds, for instance. It is highly unlikely that they would be out on the hillsides watching over their sheep on a cold winter night. They would have herded their flocks into sheepfolds where the animals would have been both safe and warm during very cold nights. If you accept this then it knocks on the head the story of the visitation of the angel and the choir of the heavenly host. Personally, I have grave doubts about such a story because it is just too sweet to be true anyway.

Now let's take a look at the story of the Magi and the start they are said to have followed. In those days there certainly were people who made a great study of the heavens. They believed that the movement of these heavenly bodies affected life and heralded great events. I can, therefore, accept the existence and perhaps the journey of the Magi. That there were three of them no one can say because the Bible story speaks of three gifts that were brought but not of three men. To actually give them names is an act within fiction. As for the star I can accept it as a happening and I can accept its movement. But do not ask me to believe that anyone could tell that it moved until it was over Bethlehem. As for the idea that it came to a stop over a specific location in the town, this is totally outside the bounds of reason. It is a beautiful story but it is not true.

Having torn these lovely stories to shreds, let me now give you what I believe to be the real story as recorded in St Luke's gospel. Although I do not go along with the tale of the annunciation word for word, there lies at its heart good news in abundance. Here I shall show what it was all about:

And Mary said:

"My soul tells out the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour;

for he has looked with favour on his servant,

lowly as she is.

From this day forward

all generations will count me blessed,

for the Mighty God has done great things for me.

His name is holy,

his mercy sure from generation to generation

toward those who fear him.

He has shown the might of his arm,

he has routed the proud and all their schemes;

he has brought down monarchs from their thrones,

and raised on high the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

He has come to the help of Israel, his servant,

as he promised to our forefathers;

he has not forgotten to show mercy

to Abraham and his children's children forever."

This, my friends, is what Christmas is all about. We have great reason for celebrating the coming of the Saviour because he came to show us new and better values by which to live. The whole Magnificat spoken by Mary came true within his life span. Mary spoke fundamental truth in those few verses. All that Jesus preached and all that he did was refected in those few words. We can absolutely rely upon this.

But do not, for one moment, think that I shall not be singing Christmas carols and listening to the ancient stories this year. On Sunday I shall be there at the candlelit carol service in our historic church in Amlwch, Anglesey and singing as loud as anyone else! I am taking part in a sketch about the Three Wise Men. A few days later, Pauline and I will be going over to Bangor Cathedral on the mainland to be in the congregation when they have "Nine Lessons and Carols". I shall enjoy celebrating once more our dear saviour's birth along with many other Christians. As we read the stories we simply need to say "They may not be literally true but they speak volumes about the truth."

Celebrating Christmas

There has been a lot of nonsense in the United Kingdom press lately about odd attitudes towards the celebration of Christmas. There have been quotes regarding the banning of office decorations at this time. There have also been people suggesting that street decorations rtelating to Christmas might be offensive to people of other religions. Much of this has come from those who are keen to promote political correctness. Over the years they have sniped at expressions such as accident black spots, gollywogs, black holes, etc. Basically, this has all been a load of rubbish.

Back in the 1980s I became very active in my trade union. It was a time when we were suddenly required to stop using the expression, "chairman", in favour of chairperson. Sexism was being outlawed. In addition we were being harangued to take a different view of homosexual men and lesbians. I accepted all of this because it was necessary to halt the traditional marginalisation of particular groups of people. In fact, I would assert that it was not Christian to continue with the old stereotyping of people. Therefore I was able to accept what was said and retrained my brain to change the words I spoke.

But now, in 2006, we are being harangued into certain things which do not stand up to the test. In the UK we are still, albeit nominally, a Christian based society. I would like to think that, for the most part, we accept many different people of varying faiths simply on the grounds of their humanity. I hope that our Christian beliefs cause us to accept as neighbours those of other faiths. But I cannot accept that Christmas festivities should change because we are now a multi-race society. If we visited a Muslim or Hindu country we would be expected to accept their ways and laws as the basis for living. In the UK our visitors and new residents need to accept the make up of our society.

When he came 2,000 years ago, Jesus gave us a new set of rules to live by. He declared the old rules outdated and established a new set of laws to live by which reflected the incarnation of God. Suddenly the people who followed him heard that a rich man was not favoured by God and that a he had problems with entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount which seemed to echo the Magnificat sung by his mother, Mary, before his birth. He gave us a new set of values which were to take us onwards from that point.

This new set of values has continued right up to the present time. In recent years the churches of the UK have become less and less well attended. Our society has become more interested in the new age where commodities impress us and describe our achievements. Yet we must not lose sight of the fact that our laws have all been laid down on the basis of the new laws given to us by Jesus. The majority of our population may not espouse Christianity but it is still affected by Christian influence.

Therefore I assert our society has Christian values and standards. I see no need to do a U turn and begin watering down our Christmas way of celebrating the birth of Jesus. Many people of other faiths celebrate Christmas with us, simply because that is the way things are done in the UK. This makes sense. I met a Jew one December and noticed that in his house there were Christmas cards on one wall and Hannukah cards on another. This made perfect sense. In fact, he was the first person to wish me "Happy Christmas" on Christmas Day that year!

We live in a multi-racial society and can learn a lot from each other. But this does not mean we have to abandon all Christian ethics and practices because churches are poorly attended. The fact that society has, for the most part, decided against the relevance of regular worship is no reason to turn everything on its head and treat our country as if it is a foreign state. God will eventually call his church to account and require it to start anew. The day is coming when we all begin, once more, to realise that God is still speaking and calls us to worship as before.