Christmas in November

I’ve been joshing with folk this week about how early they are putting Christmas decorations up in their churches! It does seem like Christmas, even in churches begins in late November, well over a month before Christmas Day. We seem to need a long Christmas season that lasts nearly two months, rather than twelve days beginning on December 25! For many, Advent is an ignored season. We are doing Christmas now. 

I’m blogging this sitting in Peterborough Cathedral waiting to hear a performance of The Messiah. Lis is singing in the choir here for it. It’s a mighty work, reminding us of the presence of Christ through birth, death and resurrection. We shall end by standing to share the Hallelujah Chorus. The last time I heard the Hallelujah Chorus in here was walking down the aisle to it after our wedding. I’m trying to reflect this year why people need a presence of something better for a while in dark months, even the biblical Christmas story told them once a year. We seem to need comfort and peace and vast amounts of food to make us feel better. I’m amazed at the size of chocolate bars people buy! It seems this is a long season where we just do anything that makes us feel better. In Peterborough today you would think it is the Saturday before Christmas it is so busy. 

Into all of this comes the Church with a real opportunity. Perhaps we need in these weeks to take time to tell the story slowly. If Christmas commercially and personally is now longer, then maybe we need a programme through it of bringing a much deeper source of hope and cheer into it through loads of carol services and reflections. More people engage with religion at this time of the year than any other. 

 What’s the message people are longing for since they need all of this to begin so early? Surely it is light in the darkness. Just now there was a power cut in the cathedral. A health and safety lady shouted out to the queue for seats “stand still until we get some light!” People in this country at the moment feel stuck in the darkness of uncertainty and need a brighter presence. Hence Christmas lights, German sausage, sugary sweets and mulled wine outside the cathedral attract crowds every day. People want hope and relief from the darkness of gloom and despondency. We have the most important General Election in this country in a few weeks in decades. I worry that people are so disillusioned with politicians they won’t bother to vote. But the choice we make this time will affect so much after we have made it. All the four main party leaders in the Question Time programme last night offered us a vision of something better. I’m not allowed to say what I think - but two of them were really good, one wasn’t and the other, well... God help us! 

Surely the message of the Church whether a cathedral filling up with expectation tonight or this little place I visited the other week on a farm in the middle of nowhere, which has a handful of faithful members, is to offer a permanent light in the darkness that the darkness cannot ever put out. A light that will shine long after Christmas markets and brief encounter with the story is over. A light that will shine beyond the General Election and Brexit and prevalent selfishness and lack of respect that seems to have the upper hand in so many places at the moment. A message this cathedral, the tiny church at Dallowgill, the churches I’m helping in The Fens, wherever we meet and serve from, have faithfully offered and need to share urgently. That’s our task. And it’s a greater message than a bottle of Baileys or endless mince pies or temporary bonhomie. Where do we get our hope. As Canon Sarah has just said because of Jesus being involved and experiencing all of life including the horrible bits, Hallelujah is not just possible it is imperative...