What has to be in the Christmas mix for it to really be Christmas? I’m doing a top ten most popular carols on Sunday morning. I’ve asked the congregation to pick their favourites. Only I, Sarah who is sharing the service with me, the organist and the projectionist and the stewards know what the ten are. The favourite is a surprise! I guess we all have a carol we have to sing before it is Christmas for us.
What else has to be there?
A sprout. I love sprouts, but so many people don’t! My mother would be made by my Auntie to eat a few as it is Christmas. She would swallow three whole!
Cheese footballs. I’ve made sure we have several tubs of them.
Children in a school nativity.
A bottle of Baileys. There’s an article about you mustn’t pour Baileys down the sink as it might damage your pipes. It’s too good to pour down the sink.
The King’s Speech - my Aunt, who had Christmas planned to the letter and used to moan I went to church on Christmas Day as it mucked up her timings, used to have to have dinner done by 2.30 so she could get changed into her best frock for 3 to see the monarch.
The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show with Andrew Preview “I’m playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order!”
After Eights
Pigs in blankets!
The world easily misses the radical agenda of Christmas. What cannot be missed out is that God considered his world so much he sent his son to be with us in it. It’s huge, that. Charles Wesley described it as “our God, contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man.” The world enjoys a frothy, fluffy, feel good Christmas with the things it enjoys every year. The trouble that froth doesn’t last, and the realities of a new year can hit hard.
What cannot be missed out is the heart of Christmas: Jesus. I’m conscious as a minister there’s a huge responsibility on me. I need to invite people who only engage with church once a year to take seriously one thing you cannot miss out - that God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Don’t miss what’s at the heart of this season and don’t miss what God might be up to. You might have to leave your what needs to be there and be open to revolution! I though need one essential. I’m searching in the Radio Times. When’s the Father Ted Christmas special on?!?
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