In one of the very large churches in a suburb of Los Angeles
and not far from Disneyland, they present every year about
this time their grand ‘Christmas Spectacular’. The aim of
this is to tell the story of the birth of Jesus with a new
and exciting realism. The angel who announces to Mary that
she will be the mother of Jesus is an up and coming
Hollywood starlet dressed in diaphanous white. Joseph, Mary,
the Shepherds and the Three Kings are all carefully selected
from Hollywood central casting. To the music of the Heavenly
Choir, dressed in fluorescent robes, Mary enters seated on a
donkey. She arrives carrying a real baby, but the baby has
been given a mild sedative lest he disrupt the proceedings
by screaming and bawling. The shepherds appear driving a
flock of sheep whose fleeces have been carefully shampooed,
bleached and blow dried. The Three Kings are guided to the
stable by a laser beam and arrive seated very grandly on
camels. Before the Spectacular begins, the camels’ owners
discreetly attend to them let they mar the proceedings with
inappropriate and undesirable behaviour.
The highlight of the show is the arrival of Father Christmas
on a sleigh pulled by a team of reindeer. These have been
rented from a company which specialises in hiring out
animals for appearances in film and TV commercials. While
Father Christmas is distributing presents to the children,
the reindeer are now carefully trained to stand still and
not to butt the organist, as unfortunately happened on an
earlier occasion.
The whole atmosphere of the grand Christmas Spectacular is
one of happy families, affluence, success, glamour, fun and
joy. It is extremely popular, attended by thousands of
people and frequently shown on television. Although the
tickets are expensive, they are quickly sold out.
Now perhaps the only real difficulty about this Grand
Christmas Spectacular is that it doesn’t seem to have too
much connection with the original story. Certainly the New
Testament tells us that the birth of Jesus is a time of joy,
but it doesn’t really place the birth in the context of
happy families, affluence, glamour, success and fun. ‘The
light shineth in darkness’ says St John and in the biblical
story of the birth of Jesus it’s the darkness which is all
around.
The story begins in St Matthew’s Gospel with Joseph
contemplating divorce. He has discovered that the girl to
whom he is betrothed is pregnant and so plans to divorce
her, lest disgrace should come on him and his family. He is,
in the story, only prevented from this by the most powerful
divine intervention. When Joseph and Mary set off to travel
the eighty or so miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, it wasn’t
a happy family outing. It was a tedious, dangerous and
expensive expedition forced on them by the demands of an
occupying power – the Roman Empire.
When they arrived at Bethlehem, there was certainly an inn,
but there was no room in the inn. The birth took place in a
stable. The Wise Men certainly brought splendid gifts of
gold and incense, but they also brought myrrh – ointment
used for the anointing of the dead. No sooner had the child
Jesus been born, than his life was threatened by the
jealousy of King Herod. Joseph and Mary and the Child are
forced to flee for their lives to safety in Egypt. Herod
orders the massacre of all male children of two years and
under. The New Testament description of the birth is set in
the context of doubt, upheaval, insecurity, poverty,
squalor, jealousy, fear, danger, exile and death.
It’s a birth set against a background of darkness -
the shadow side of human existence. And in this country of
Britain, our celebration of Christmas finds its origin in
fear and darkness. As you will have been reminded many
times, when the early Christian missionaries came to this
country some 1,400 years ago, they very wisely attached the
Christian celebration of Christmas to an already existing
pagan midwinter festival, a festival which had already been
observed for many centuries. Our long-distant ancestors,
living in their squalid huts and surviving entirely off the
land, found the dying of the year a terrifying experience.
As the leaves fell from the trees and as the days grew
shorter, darker and colder, it seemed to them as if the very
world itself was dying. So to renew their hope and their
spirits they had a midwinter festival of eating and drinking
and kept before them their symbols of hope, fertility and
renewal – evergreen plants like holly and mistletoe.
The Christmas story isn’t just a colourful fairy tale
suitable for a grand Disneyland spectacular. It’s the making
of a profoundly important statement about your life and mine
and about the reality of our human existence. Christmas
certainly is a time of celebration and festival. It
certainly is, in part, about happy families, affluence,
glamour, fun and joy. But it’s also about doubt, upheaval,
insecurity, squalor, poverty, jealousy, fear, danger, exile
and death.
‘The light shineth in darkness.’ The distinguished
mathematician and thinker, Albert Einstein, was once asked:
‘What is the most important question which it is possible
for anyone to ask?’ He thought about it and then replied:
‘The most important question is “Is the universe a friendly
place or not?”’ Is this life, with all its contradictions –
this reality into which we have been born – ultimately evil,
sinister and destructive, or is it ultimately gracious,
merciful and caring?
To that question our Christian faith doesn’t provide long
lists of answers. To that question our Christian faith
provides us at Christmas with a picture of a mother with her
child. And that picture is humanity’s most powerful symbol
of unconditional love, grace and care. And at Christmas, it
is that Light, that Divine Light, which shines in the
darkness of our world.