25 December 2008 - Christmas Day

William Allberry 25^th December 2008 Christmas Day
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those on whom his favour rests.
The song of the angels, heard by the shepherds in the fields, gives us the message of Christmas: a message we’ve heard many times before, but one which can be heard again and again.
Or should we listen to a more modern message? Here’s one:
There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.
This is the Christmas message brought to you by the British Humanist Association, which we read will be emblazoned on the sides of bendy buses in London from January. The BHA hoped to raise Ł5,500 to fund the scheme, to match the same amount put up by Richard Dawkins, but they’ve been overwhelmed by the public response; so far Ł130,000 has been sent in, and they plan to extend the scheme to other cities.
‘This will make people think,’ their chief executive said, ‘and thinking is anathema to religion. We see so many posters advertising salvation through Jesus or threatening us with eternal damnation, that I feel sure that a bus advert like this will be welcomed as a breath of fresh air. If it raises a smile as well as making people think, so much the better.’
Well, anything to make us smile in these dark days can’t be a bad thing. And neither can it be bad to get people thinking, despite what he says. I don’t agree with Christian voice, who spluttered: ‘Bendy-buses, like atheism, are a danger to the public at large. People don't like being preached at. Sometimes it does them good, but they still don't like it.’
The spokesman for the Methodist Church had a better view of it and thanked Professor Dawkins for encouraging a ‘continued interest in God’.
There is probably no God …
Personally, I think – the ‘probably’ is rather good. At least they are allowing us the possibility that there is a God. And the second half of the slogan is something I hope we’d all agree with: Now stop worrying and enjoy your life. Jesus said, I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
		But we’re risking getting rather theological here. Let’s have a look at another slogan, this time on the bus shelters. (You may see a bus theme developing here – but we’re not going to get onto the Esher shuttle bus with its sponsored advertising on the sides – or that it did have before they lost that vehicle.)
		The Churches’ Advertising Network has a poster this year which has been displayed in the run up to Christmas on 1,000 bus shelters up and down the country, including two in Kingston. It’s a reproduction of a specially commissioned oil painting of the nativity, set in a bus shelter. Here it is. It shows the holy family, with haloes, in a bus shelter, the shepherds and kings replaced by the passengers around them waiting for a bus. Some are watching the nativity scene intently, but others appear to be disinterested and are checking the bus timetable or flagging down a bus.
		The sponsors suggest that local churches might like to arrange carol singing at the bus shelters where the poster is displayed, which is a rather nice idea. They say, ‘We are very used to the Renaissance image of the Nativity. But what would it look like if it happened today? Where would it take place? We want to challenge people to make them reassess what the birth of Jesus means to them.’ The artist himself says, ‘At first I didn't like the idea of painting a nativity scene in an urban setting. However, once it was explained that it was to be designed for bus stops, it gave me an idea - this idea. The bus stop when simplified is like a stable. It is after all a shelter; a place people go to but never want to be. So where better to stage a nativity?’
		But it does make you think, and it does help you to take a fresh look at what it was all about. The cosy images of the donkey and the stable, the shepherds and the strange visitors from the East – they’re all very well, but what do they actually have to do with the price of the euro? What do they have to do with the mortgage that’s got to be paid, and the prospect of the pension fund and how much further it has to go down before things pick up? What do they have to do with our dysfunctional society – our dysfunctional families – our worries and concerns?
		What does the Christmas story mean? The Churches’ Advertising Network ran a competition last year, offering a prize of Ł1,500 for the best summary of the Christmas message, on audio or video, lasting not more than 30 seconds. Here is the winning entry, by Frankie Hipwell-Larkin, a video clip: http://www.churchads.org.uk/live/competition_media/speedy_christmas_ipod.mp4.
And here’s one of the runners up, from John Crowley in Little Rock, Arkansas: http://www.churchads.org.uk/live/competition_media/marry_me.mp3. I also liked this one by Revd Taffy Davies in Cheshire, which received a consolation prize ‘for sheer comedy brilliance, even though his ad doesn't tackle the Christmas story...’: http://www.churchads.org.uk/live/competition_media/doubts.mp3.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those on whom his favour rests.
There most certainly is a God, despite what it might say on the bendy buses, and that’s the God who made the world, and made us, and more than that – much more than that – cares for us and for the world he made. We can’t prove it, and it’s always open to people to say that there probably isn’t a God, but we know all the same from our experience that God is real, and not our own creation or imagination. Why doesn’t your God sort out the problems of the world, they say? If he cares, how can he stand by and watch all the suffering and the mess we make of things? We want a saviour who’s going to put things right. Just as they did 2000 years ago when the Messiah was going to come to put things right, to liberate the people from the hated Roman occupation, and re-establish his rule on earth.
It wasn’t like that, was it? The baby born in the cowshed turned out to be very different from the messiah they were expecting. He didn’t march in and destroy evil by sheer coercive power and liberate Israel from the Roman rule. But he did reveal in his person the glory of God – he did show what God is like – he did reveal the infinite beauty of love which healed the sick, which offered forgiveness to sinners, which ate with outcasts, renounced violence and emptied itself of pride and power so as to bring people close to the unlimited goodness of God.
This is the God who came as a human baby, this is the king of glory, who liberates us from self-centredness, and rules through the attraction of indestructible love. This is the God whose coming the angels sang in Bethlehem and whose presence they sing still, if we will listen for them.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those on whom his favour rests.
And who are those ‘on whom God’s favour rests’? Sometimes it’s translated peace, goodwill to all men (and women). But the text is actually more specific – those on whom God’s favour rests. And who are those on whom God’s favour rests? Is it the poor, the marginalised, the downtrodden in society? The sick … disabled people? Those who are down on their luck? Certainly, all of those – the Bible is clear, in both the Old and the New Testament, that God favours those in particular. But surely it’s not who we are but how we are. God loves and favours those who are open to him, whether they are poor or rich, down on their luck or at the peak of their success – if they have time for God.
It is a bleak world we live in, as the poster reminds us. A draughty bus shelter, a draughty stable. A world where some are fascinated, but many are indifferent. But the story is there, and is just as real now as it was then. And in the midst of that bleakness, there is glory. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those on whom his favour rests.
And that means that we can stop worrying – and begin to enjoy our lives, really enjoy them, because we are set free. That’s the Christmas message for us – and like the bus – use it or lose it! Amen.

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