merry christmas

I was interested to read in The Telegraph an article about the Bishop of Reston urging caution in wishing people "Merry Christmas" - well not so much caution in the wishing as an urging to people to develop resistance to the bubble wrap happiness which we try to envelop ourselves in at this time of year, no matter the cost.

He is right that many folks will not want a twee and ill-thought out greeting when they are in so much pain - but the part of the article that was not well-developed - and I suspect that is because it gets to the heart of Christianity which is not a comfortable place - and it was about the Bishop of Reston not by him - was that the message of Christmas is not about shoving things under carpets and sugar-coating them, it is about rolling up our sleeves and jumping in to the depths of humanity - our own and those around us - because God is already there, in a baby in a manger, come as one of us.

As Christians we live in an uncomfortable place between our own aspirations and the reality of the Incarnation which we celebrate. The purpose of our journey through Advent is to, once again, turn our attention to the tension we feel between what we want for ourselves and who we are in Christ. It is not supposed to be easy - otherwise there would be a manual - no it is not easy but neither does it have to be a journey of misery.

Security is lacking in so many places today - jobs, wars, sickness - but out security is beyond all that - our hope and joy is in Christ and in the Good News which begins in a manger in Bethlehem. But to stop here and tell ourselves how lucky we are is precisely the Bishop's point - we can't stand still at the fairy-tale scene because this is real life - and in real life we have to dig down with Jesus into our commonality and do something about the things that need fixing.