Something that I think many of us will have been interested in over the years, if not still now, is what the N^o 1 record in the pop charts would be at Christmas. I don’t know if other countries have the same kind of interest in the ‘Christmas N^o 1’ as we call it, but in this country, it does seem to have been something of a national fascination over the years.

I’m sure we can all remember at least some Christmas N^o1s, and I’m sure we’ll all have our own particular favourites, but in terms of sales and chart success, the Christmas N^o1, in this and many other countries as well, must be Do They Know It’s Christmas?

As some of us will no doubt remember, Do They Know It’s Christmas was first recorded in 1984 as a charity record to raise money for famine relief in Africa, something it did very successfully. But the song has also been re-recorded 3 times, in 1989, 2004 and 2014, each time as a charity record, each time it’s reached N^o1 in the pop charts, and it’s actually been the Christmas N^o1, 3 times, in 1984, 1989 and 2004. But in spite of it’s success as a Christmas record, does Do They Know It’s Christmas really have anything specifically to do with Christmas?

The song contrasts the Christmas we enjoy in “our world of plenty” as the lyrics put it, with the suffering in Africa and urges us to do something to help at “Christmas time” those in the world who are suffering. But we could express the same sentiments at any time of the year, couldn’t we? The gulf between rich and poor, the haves and have-nots, is with us always, not just at Christmas and, although Christmas is a time when people perhaps think more than is usual about those less fortunate than themselves, that’s something we should do always, not just at Christmas time. So there’s nothing specifically Christmassy about the song Do They Know It’s Christmas; or is there?

In the song, there’s a line that I think encapsulates what Christmas is really all about more than any other single line in any other Christmas pop song. The line says:

‘The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life.’

Life, in that line refers, I’m sure, to survival. In the minds of those behind the song the greatest gift the starving people of Africa could get was help in the form of famine relief to enable them to survive, for life to go on. But if we look at that line from a Christian viewpoint, it’s a line that does encapsulate the true meaning of Christmas because what is Christmas but the greatest gift we could get, the gift of life from God?

 But the gift of life that God gives to us at Christmas isn’t simply about survival; it’s not about the simple continuation of biological life. The gift God gives to us at Christmas in the gift of a new life, a life lived to the full in loving relationship with himself and our neighbours. And of course, the gift of life God gives us at Christmas is, ultimately, the gift of eternal life. And all this is given to us through the birth and life of his Son, Jesus Christ. So what is the life that God gives us at Christmas?

At Christmas God gives us the gift of a life of peace. We could, I’m sure, be forgiven on hearing the angel’s message, of peace and goodwill among men, for asking, ‘Well, where is it then?’ because, as we look at the world around us today and at the history of the world since the first Christmas, one thing we certainly don’t see too much of, is peace. But the angel’s message wasn’t primarily about peace between human beings, it was about peace between us and God, given as a gift, in goodwill, by God.

During Advent we heard the prophecy of Isaiah,

‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.’

We can see the angel’s message as the fulfilment of this prophecy; the battle, the war between God and man is over. God, through the human life of his own Son, will pardon our sins so that we can live in peace with him. So the gift of life we received at Christmas was the gift of a life of peace with God.

God’s gift at Christmas is also the gift of a life lived in peace with our neighbours, or at least, it’s a gift that God offers us through the life of his Son. But we have to want that life.

I’m sure that, at some time, we’ve all received gifts that we’ve not really appreciated too much. Maybe it was something we’d already got or didn’t really want. No doubt we’ll have thanked the person who gave us the gift and perhaps said to someone afterwards, ‘Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.’ But, because we haven’t really wanted or appreciated the gift, it’s probably remained unused, perhaps even unopened. And that’s exactly the way we can treat God’s Christmas gift to us of peace between us and our neighbours.

Through his life, Jesus taught us to love our neighbours as ourselves, but how often have we, and do we, see our neighbours, other people, as opponents to be battled with, perhaps even as enemies to be defeated? How much peace have we lost in our lives because of that? How much peace has the world lost over the past 2,000 years because of that? God’s gift of life at Christmas does include peace between us and our neighbours. Through his Christmas gift of the human life of his Son Jesus Christ, he showed us how to have that life of peace. Is it God’s fault that we don’t have enough goodwill towards each other to appreciate and use his gift?

So through the Christmas gift of the life of his Son, God gives us a life of peace to be lived in loving relationship with him and our neighbours. But the greatest gift God gave us at Christmas is the promise that life is not simply a matter of biological survival for our time on earth. The greatest gift God gives us at Christmas is the gift of eternal life. That’s a gift we see fulfilled in the Resurrection of his Son at Easter, but it’s a gift that’s given in the birth of Jesus at Christmas and through the human life Jesus lived.

In the song Do They Know It’s Christmas, we find the lines:
And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time.
The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life.

We might get snow in our part of Manchester this Christmas time, but that really makes no difference whatsoever to the greatest gift we’ll get. The greatest gift we’ll get this Christmas, or any Christmas, is life. Not simply life as survival, but the fulness of life lived in peace and loving relationship with God and our neighbour. A gift of earthly life that leads to eternal life with Jesus in God’s heavenly kingdom. It’s a gift we first received on that first Christmas Day over 2,000 years ago. It’s a gift that’s renewed for us each and every day of each and every year of our lives through God’s ongoing presence with us in the Holy Spirit. It’s a gift we’re especially reminded of at Christmas. Let’s hope it’s a gift we’ll always appreciate and use because it is the greatest gift we’ll ever get, this or any other year.

Amen. 

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The Propers for The Nativity of the Lord can be viewed here.

One of the things that’s often said nowadays is that Christmas begins earlier every year. I’m sure we’ve all heard people say that; we might have even said it, or at least thought it, ourselves at some time. And when people do say that it’s usually meant as a complaint, not so much about Christmas itself, but about what we might call the pre-Christmas build-up that we see on the TV or in the shops; the Christmas themed adverts, the TV channels devoted to Christmas films and music and the Christmas decorations and goods sold as Christmas gifts in shops that, these days, appear months before Christmas.

I don’t know about you, but I think this year has been particularly bad in that respect. TV channels devoted to Christmas films have been showing since the late summer and in shops, some shops at least, Christmas decorations went up for sale at the same time as Halloween goods went on sale in the early Autumn, so about 3 months before Christmas. Perhaps it’s because of the way the coronavirus pandemic restricted our Christmas festivities last year that ‘Christmas’ has begun so early this year. Perhaps people have tried to make up for last year’s quiet Christmas in some way by making it a bigger and longer celebration this year. But whatever the reason, Christmas, or at least what many people nowadays call the ‘Festive Season’, does seem to have begun very early indeed this year.

When we think about how long before Christmas the so-called Festive Season begins these days, and just how long that makes the season, it’s not really surprising that people complain about it. It’s not surprising that, after around 3 months, a full quarter of the year, of being bombarded by Christmas films, music, adverts and goods for sale, people are a bit tired of it all by the time Christmas really does come around. It’s not surprising that by the time Christmas Day comes people can’t wait for the whole thing to be over and done with for another year. It’s not surprising that, for some people, Christmas Day itself is greeted with more of a sense of relief than with the joy it should bring. 

But, if we think about it, what is it that people are really complaining about when they say that Christmas begins earlier every year? What are they really sick and tired of by the time Christmas Day actually comes around? What are they relieved to see the back of for another year? I think the truth is that people aren’t complaining about Christmas itself, what they’re really complaining about is what’s grown up around Christmas over the years. The vast money-making industry that’s attached itself to Christmas and, for society at large, seems to have become what Christmas is all about. I think that’s what takes the joy away from Christmas for many people because they’re sick and tired of after being surrounded by it and bombarded with it for months before 25^th December, and that’s what people are relieved to see the back of for another year. Because, after such a long ‘Festive Season’, people simply want life to return to normal.

That’s a great shame because it takes away the joy that people should feel at this time of year but it’s tragic too. It’s tragic because all the paraphernalia of the Festive Season, all the humbug, the meaningless, secular things that have grown up around Christmas has so overgrown and obscured the real meaning of Christmas, that most people can’t see that meaning anymore. And that’s tragic because, if people can’t see what Christmas is really all about, how can they feel the sense of joy that Christmas should bring? 

When we think about what Christmas is really about, how can it not be a joyful time? How can people not look forward to Christmas? Christmas is our celebration of the Incarnation, the birth as a human child of God’s Son. It’s our celebration of that time when God sent his own Son in to the world to teach us and show us the way of life we need to follow, and to offer us the promise of eternal life if we can follow that way. It’s the greatest gift we’ve ever received and ever can receive, so how can that not be a cause for joy and celebration? And if we can see what Christmas is really all about, how can the build -up to Christmas not be a joyful time too? Christmas, and the approach of Christmas should be joyful times because, unlike the secular Festive Season, which is ultimately meaningless, these things have some real meaning to us and for us, all of us. And if they don’t give us cause for joy, that can really only be because people either don’t know, or don’t want to know, or have forgotten what Christmas is really all about.

If we can see the real meaning of Christmas, something else should become clear to us too. People can be relieved to see the back of Christmas because they want life to go back to normal.

But if we do understand what Christmas is really all about, we’ll understand too that life can never go back to normal. Life, human life, can never be the same and has never been the same since the very first Christmas when Christ was born. In fact, life has never been the same since the build-up to that first Christmas began.

Through Advent, we’ve been hearing about that build-up. We’ve heard the prophets who first told people that God would send a Saviour, who first told people about the coming of Christmas, in a sense. Life wasn’t and couldn’t ever be the same again either for those prophets or for anyone who heard them speak. We’ve heard about John the Baptist, the Messenger who was sent to prepare the way for Christ. His life was changed forever by the knowledge of Christmas and so were the lives of everyone who heard John preach and were baptised by him. Today we heard about Mary and Elizabeth, their lives were changed forever, as were the lives of Joseph and Zechariah, by the knowledge of the coming of Christ. Today we also heard about the joy that brought, as the unborn John leapt for joy in his mother’s womb at the sound of the voice of Mary, the Mother of the Lord. In fact, the lives of everyone connected with the Christmas story in any way were changed forever by the coming of Christ and by his birth. And through his birth, through Christmas, the lives of everyone on earth have been changed because Jesus, having been born on that first Christmas Day can never be unborn. Christmas can never be over and done with. Jesus, son of Mary and Son of God, lives forever so life, for any of us, can never be the same as it was before that first Christmas Day. 

Our celebration of Christmas, the true season of Christmas that is, not the secular Festive Season idea of Christmas, is almost here again, just 6 days away now, in fact. But if we do know and understand the true meaning of Christmas, we’ll also know that, in a sense, Christmas never comes and goes, it’s with us all the time because Christ is with us all the time. And so, while we may experience the joy of Christmas in a particular way at this time of year, the joy of Christmas should also be with us all through the year.

After months of Festive Season humbug, we may very well be relieved to see the back of it for another year. But if anyone asks us, before we answer them, before we say we’ll be glad to see the back of Christmas for another year so that we can get back to normal, let’s just take a moment to think about what it is we’re actually glad to see the back of. And rather than telling anyone that we’re glad to see the back of Christmas for another year, we might want to say instead that we’re glad to see the back of the Festive Season for another year so that we can get on with enjoying Christmas.

Amen.

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The Propers for Advent 4 can be found here.

During the week, when I read the Gospel for this morning and began to think about the theme of this morning’s sermon, I was at once reminded of a conversation I once had with some neighbours of mine. The conversation happened after they, a couple with 3 young children, had returned from a 2-week caravan holiday in Cornwall. Quite naturally I asked them had they had a good holiday to which the mother said that her and the kids had but her husband had spent most of the holiday in hospital. So, again quite naturally, I asked why, what had happened? And what had happened is that the children had come running in to the caravan one morning, very frightened, screaming that there was a snake outside. Dad had gone out to check, saw the snake and told the children not to worry because it was only a grass snake and wouldn’t do them any harm. Wanting to calm his children down though, he decided to move the snake but, when he went to pick it up, it bit him because this grass snake was actually an adder, a snake also known as a common European viper and the result was that dad spent the next 10 days in hospital!

One connection between that story and this morning’s Gospel is obvious because this morning’s Gospel begins with John the Baptist calling the crowds who went to him for baptism, a “brood of vipers.” But there’s also a more meaningful connection that’s perhaps not so obvious and which only becomes clear when we think about what John meant when he called the crowds ‘vipers’.

We know that to call someone a ‘snake’ is a very derogatory and offensive thing to do because it implies that person is untrustworthy and deceitful. When we call someone a ‘snake’ it implies that they’re hiding something, hence the term, ‘a snake in the grass’. We say that of people because just as snakes hide in the grass to ambush their prey, so deceitful people hide things from others that are unpleasant, and very often hurtful or damaging to them.

We also use the imagery of a snake to imply that people are untruthful too. We say that someone who lies, ‘speaks with a forked tongue.’ Despite Hollywood’s best effort to convince everyone that this is something the Native Americans, the ‘Indians’, said of the ‘White Man’, the origin of this saying goes back much further than America’s Wild West period. The saying is thought to originate in the story from Book of Genesis where the Serpent, or snake, lies to Eve about the consequences of eating the fruit God had forbidden Adam and Eve to eat. And it’s in light of this story that we need to read this morning’s Gospel because, in essence, it’s about people who aren’t what they seem to be, or indeed, claim to be, being told to be what they claim to be, and should be.

When John called the people a “brood of vipers”, the implication would have been that they were the offspring of the Serpent in the Genesis story. And as we read on, and John begins to speak about repentance and bearing good fruit, we find an implication that there’s something false and deceitful about the people. John calls them a “brood of vipers”, and then goes on to tell them,

“And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” 

So what John seems to be saying to the people is something along the lines of,

‘You think you’re right with God because you’re children of Abraham, but you’re wrong. You’re not right with God because your deeds show you to be children of the Serpent. Being right with God isn’t a birth right; being right with God isn’t about who you are, it’s about what you do.’ 

And that’s how the people seem to have understood what John said because they asked him,

“What then shall we do?”  

John then goes on to tell them what they should do and, quite obviously haven’t been doing,

“Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 

And John also tells them what they shouldn’t do and, quite obviously, have been doing. To the tax-collectors, a group of people who were despised, in part at least, because of their corruption;

“Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”

And to the soldiers,

“Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

Those people who went to John, would have found all this in the Scriptures and, if they really were children of Abraham, God’s people, rather than a ‘brood of vipers’ they would have already been doing what John told them to do.

Of course, the teaching we heard in this morning’s Gospel was John’s teaching and we are not John’s disciples. We call ourselves Christians because we claim to be Jesus’ disciples, and we claim to follow the teaching and example of Jesus. But don’t we find these same things that John taught, in Jesus’ teaching too? The urging to share what we have with those who have less, the urging to look to spiritual riches rather than succumb to the temptation to pursue earthly wealth and the urging not to abuse earthly power to “Lord it” over others? And don’t all these things anyway fall under the scope of the great commandment to love God and love our neighbour as ourselves? So these words of John apply to us just as much as they did to the people he spoke to. And what also applies to us is John’s warning to be the people we claim to be rather than a ‘brood of vipers’. 

One of the great criticisms levelled at Christians is that of hypocrisy, I’m sure we all know that. It’s not always true, but sadly, it very often is. But I think one of the great misunderstandings people have of the Church and of Christians stems from the Church’s own practices and lack of teaching. These days the Church itself refers to the sacrament of Baptism as ‘Christening’. But that gives a false impression of what being baptised means. Using the term ‘Christening’ rather than baptism, gives the impression that once a person has been baptised, they are, as if by magic, a Christian. But that is totally wrong. It’s the kind of thinking John criticises in this morning’s Gospel. The kind of thinking that allowed people to think they were right with God simply because they were Jews, ‘children of Abraham’. So, we have people today thinking that they’re Christians simply because they’ve been baptised.

But being baptised doesn’t make a person a Christian, it makes them a member of the Church. And it’s as a member of the Church, and by coming to Church where the baptised start to become Christians by learning what being a Christian means which is, living their lives according to the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. That’s a misunderstanding that can, and does, lead people to think that they’re right with God simply because they’ve been ‘Christened’. But it’s a misunderstanding that leads to another, greater misunderstanding.

People often do think, and say, that they’re Christians simply because they’ve been ‘Christened’. But if those people never come to Church, if they never learn the teachings of Jesus, they’re not Christians, they can’t be. But because they think and say they are, other people can, and do, see them as Christians. And so others can and do see them as examples of what Christianity is all about.

And I think many accusations of hypocrisy that are levelled at Christians and give the Christian faith and the Church a bad name, are actually examples of un-Christian behaviour by people who claim to be Christians but whose Christianity, in reality, has never gone any further than their baptism.

But in addition to that, the misunderstanding about baptism also means that people think the Church is full of Christians, people who should be paragons of virtue and shining examples of Christianity. But the Church isn’t like that. What the Church is really full of is people who are at various stages along the road to becoming Christians; the Church is full of people who are trying to learn how to be Christians and, like all learners, at whatever activity, they make mistakes. And so accusations of hypocrisy aimed at people who do come to Church are often the result of people who’ve not done what they should, or done something they shouldn’t, because they haven’t yet learned enough to know better.

As always though, there is a flip side to this. Those of us who do come to Church can’t allow ourselves to think we’re right with God simply because we come to Church. We have to understand and remember, always, that whilst we come to Church to learn how to be Christians, being a Christian is something we do outside the Church too. Being a Christian is something we have to be, and try our very best to be, always and everywhere. If we don’t do that, especially when we do know enough about the teachings of Jesus to know better, then accusations of hypocrisy aimed at us, may well be right. If we don’t do that, especially when we know enough about the teachings of Jesus to know better, then we’ll become a ‘brood of vipers’, false, deceitful people who are claiming to be something we’re not.

In this morning’s Gospel, John asks the people a question;

“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

The answer is that John himself warned us, and so did Jesus. And we know where to go to escape what John called “the wrath to come”. We go to Jesus, to learn from him and to follow him so that we can, truly, call ourselves ‘Christians’ and children of God.

Amen.  

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The Propers for Advent 3 can be found here.