iGod

Christmas Olympics

A dear friend of ours Helene from All Souls, Twickenham, always manages to raise a smile with her creative Christmas cards. Thought it worth posting to share the Christmas love wider.

Hope you are all well into the Christmas by now. I know we are are at SVV.

ASD

Keep Calm and Enjoy Christmas

(My article reproduced from Community News.)

I remember sitting in a church a few years and hearing a vicar talk about how Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill, and how we needed to find space to just be.

As a young parent I thought, “Yeh, right!”

In all honesty, I strained to hear how the talk finished as one daughter almost caused an international incident by stealing another child’s Buzz Lightyear, while the other threw a habdab because I asked to her give back an elderly lady’s walking stick. Peace in heaven maybe, but peace on earth was stretching it.

In the midst of a busy conference recently I came across a flavour of tea called Moment of Calm. Although not quite tempted to have a cup, it did remind me of those unavoidable ubiquitous Keep Calm and Carry On posters and mugs, which seem to be everywhere like a cheap suit. Originally a wartime poster produced by the British government in 1939, it now has its own parodies such as: Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake and Now Panic and Freak Out. Calmness is something we are seeking everywhere.

I wonder, though, if it possible to have a true moment of calm this Christmas?

When I think of having a calm Christmas myself the familiar Austrian carol Silent Night, Holy Night by Franz Xaver Gruber comes to mind.

What makes the hymn special for me is that it is said to have been sung simultaneously in French, English and German by troops in the trenches during the famous Christmas truce of 1914. It was one of the few carols that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew.

It was estimated that on that Christmas Eve around 100,000 troops ceased fighting and instead, quite bizarrely, shouted Happy Christmas to each other before eventually going over the top to exchange, not gunfire, but presents. There was even a friendly game of football.

I suspect Silent Night has never had a less holy setting, but it was sung where hope in a saviour of the world was needed most. I am sure it was also sung with gusto. It was a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the bloodiest and needless wars in modern history.

It tells me that if there can be calm in the midst of the Great War then, perhaps, aiming for some of our own peace and calm this Christmas is not beyond our reach.

We will, of course, be remembering our troops this year who will be far away from home, but for ourselves let me ask: where will we look for our calm? Will it be in a tea bag or somewhere a little more soulful like Church?

There are a number of local churches who have planned Christmas services where I know a time of peace on earth will be on offer (see Church Services on page 4).

But if you do have noisy excitable kids, like ours, you’re very welcome to bring them to our hour-long Christmas Eve Family Carols service at 7pm in the Delphi Centre. Why not come early for free mince pies and mulled wine? It’s usually a lot fun and just the thing after you’ve done all your shopping and preparations. We’d love to see you. We’ll even promise to sing Silent Night, Holy Night too.

Meanwhile, may I wish you a happy Christmas on behalf of all of us at Stour Valley Vineyard Church.

ASD

A thought for Christmas: when the light of faith flickers

Well, Christmas is fast approaching as our Christmas Eve Family Carols preparations start to take shape thankfully. It is going to be a joyous occasion and with so many families coming it will hardly be a quiet contemplative service, but, hey, there has been time for that within the Advent season.

Alongside the church preparing for God to come into the world we have of course had journos reporting the usual fare in the season of illwill toward Christians. For instance, we hear that Prof AC Grayling has been working on his humanist version of the BIble called the Good Book. He tells the Times that he hopes to have it out at Easter. (Good PR planning guys - original!) He says he is not looking to anger Christians. Hm. Either he is being incredibly naive or is treating the religious community as dingbats. What do you think?

More helpfully, I have read former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion's thoughtful piece in the Saturday Times about his own journey of faith. He admits that his own thoughts had taken him down the Hitchen view that Christendom was some kind of "celestial North Korea", as mentioned in the debate with former Prime Minister Tony Blair the other week.

But as so often is the case, when prejudice is removed and we stop pedalling someone else's doctrine, whether of the faith or atheistic kind, something can happen. An honest exploration of what it is to be human may be discovered.

For Motion, he sees his own encounter with faith not so much as a Damascene light, but more of a flicker. Sometimes he says he sees God clearly, sometimes not at all. In short, he is being honest with his struggle of faith versus doubt. Much like we all do.

I like this language a lot, but because, really, how can anyone experience God with a full uninterrupted light of certitude?

However, when we are disciplined enough to press into the presence of God through prayer and devotion the flickers become subtly less. For me at least. Theologically we may understand this as the Kingdom of God breaking into the present, touching the edge of darkness of men's hearts, as Paul the apostle might have said to the young Timothy.

Now, I know Christmas can be a sentimental time. It can be a lonely time. It is also a time when we remember friends near and far, family and lost loved ones, but somehow the flicker of light in the Advent candles is an encouraging image for us all to huddle around. There is really nothing wrong with that.

For me, Christmas is a constant reminder that Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, continues to expose any darkness of doubt and disbelief I may hold to draw me into a deeper experience of himself.

ASD

 

 

BBC trailer for Nativity starring Garrow's Law actor Andrew Buchan

Here is the trailer for the four-part BBC one drama of the Nativity which starts next week.

Writer, and executive producer Tony Jordan him of Eastenders,Hustle and Life on Mars fame was asked if adapting the nativity story has changed his perspective of it:

"When I first started the project I am not sure I had an opinion about whether the Nativity was true or not. I guess that I just thought it was a lovely Christmassy story with baby Jesus in a manger and I liked it, but I had never thought about it more than that.

For the first couple of months I was talking to historians and scientists who did everything they could to convince me that the story never happened.

They claimed that it was a story patched together from bits of other stories and was concocted by the people who wrote the gospels to make Jesus the Messiah. They invented the census because the Messiah was supposed to be born in the City of David. So they concocted this fictitious census to get him there and that was their take on it.

So after the first couple of months I believed that the story never happened. But then the more research that I did and the more people of faith that I spoke to, I realised that this was a story that wasn't written down at the time, it was passed by word of mouth for a hundred years before anyone thought to write it down. So details and some of the timings get lost by the three hundred thousandth time you tell the story.

To me all the things that the historians held up to say 'this doesn't work' – for example, the dates don't match with the consensus that was held by Quirinius – become irrelevant. This was just a story that was told by those shepherds that were in the stable to some other shepherds and then they told some other shepherds who told someone else and they told someone else and that went on for a hundred years until someone wrote it down.

How on earth can you expect that story to be spread by word of mouth for a hundred years and for the last person who hears it to have all the dates and facts right?

So by the end of the process I am now in a position where I actually think it is true and I think that it happened more or less as I have portrayed it."

Four half-hour episodes tell the traditional tale starting next Monday on BBC One in the evenings.

ASD

 

Don't accept a bog standard Christmas

Someone said to me recently that a Greek friend of his was visiting the UK in early November and couldn’t get over the fact that we were we already gearing up for Christmas. In Greece, he said, people only allow themselves to get excited the week before the big day. I have sympathy with that position.

It seems even though we are in the midst of the longest and hardest recession in 70 years, it is Christmas business as usual.

Not that I want to sound like a Scrooge, but I remember visiting one of my daughters’ nativities at their school when we lived in West London. Being frank, the production was a marathon. Half way through, about an hour and twenty in, there was a break for a mulled wine in a flimsy polystyrene cup and a mildly warm mince pie served on a bit of kitchen paper. I would have slipped out home had it not been for an over-zealous parent who berated me for killing the festive mood for daring to suggest time had stood still. It is not that I am a natural humbug, it’s just that I have my threshold of pain and at that moment I had not only reached it, but was doubling back for a second run up.

However, when get rid of the politically correct version of the school nativity play, Argos, decorations, Festive 50 Radio shows, and the Dr Who Christmas Day special I think we are left with quite a bog standard Christmas. I mean it’s adequate, but just not deluxe. I have seen some outdoor posters that say, “Christmas starts with Christ”. I want to recommend that sentiment to you. Does it really give us satisfaction to know that Christmas starts with our wallets and purses?

Now I know I am expected to speak positively about the Christian message of Christmas. After all, that’s what pastors do. But, I say these things because I care for the many households who will struggle to stay out of the red this month. I think also we can go into the red emotionally and mentally, because maybe we are trying to place our energies into the wrong things.

In the Bible, the book of Luke tells us that the first visitors at the stable maternity ward were the shepherds. They went to Bethlehem because they knew that Jesus’ birth was good news of great joy for all people. So it seems to me that if you take the Christ out of Christmas then what you’re left with is bad news of real continued misery for everyone. That can’t be good. Now I am not silly, I know that many are happy to remove Christ from Christmas.

I suspect his absence is hardly, if at all, noticed on the big day, but for me this is really what makes a bog standard Christmas. So what if, instead, we started the Christmas run up putting him first, allowing ourselves time to reflect on the hope for all humankind coming into the world 2,000 years ago as a vulnerable baby? It might even lead to some inner peace. Who knows?

My advice to you is don’t accept a bog standard Christmas, get to church this Christmas. Stour Valley Vineyard Church is having a Christmas Eve Family Carol Service at the Town Hall, Sudbury. It starts at 7.00pm, but we invite you to arrive early from 6.30pm where we’ll put a cup of mulled wine and mince pie into your hand. And we promise no flimsy polystyrene cup.

If you are in town the Saturday before Christmas you might see our church out giving away mince pies in the market place. Come and say ‘hello!’

ASD

Couple of great church flash mobs to watch

 As we begin the season known as Advent, I thought I would post the video mentioned by Bishop Nick Baines this week. It has the Hallelujah Chorus breaking out in a food court in a busy shopping mall.

I found it not only fun, but also very moving. It reminds me that God broke into our ordinary everyday lives to do an extraordinary thing among us - changing history, the present and the future forever.

 I thought also I would post the flash mob from our friends in the Cincinnati Vineyard (Dave Workman's church) who took to the streets to do this more contemporary Christmas tune. Both to me are a powerful expressions of what it means to being an outward focused church.

Meanwhile, would love to know if any other flashmobs are planned by any enterprising groups this Christmas.

Enjoy.

ASD

What colour is your Christmas?

Following on from yesterday's post, which admittedly has the tenuous connection with colour, here is this year's creative offering from Helene, a dear friend of ours back at All Souls Church.

Although Richard Frank has this year pipped me to posting it, I bear him no grudge. No, really, honest!

ASD

 

White Christmas or Christmas blues?

My family and I visited a Christmas craft fair recently, we do it every year. We go there to buy our tree. Out comes Bing singing "White Christmas" and we are in the zone!

While at the craft fair I came across a poster which read, "If Christmas did not exist it would have to be invented."

For some, Christ is the reason, but for many others He is the excuse. I cannot blame people for wanting to piggyback on one of the two greatest Christian festivals of the year. It has been a difficult year for many families. Jobs have been lost, homes repossessed, unsecured debt hugely increased. Christmas is a timely gift when we can have some respite from the harshest recession in living memory. God bless all those who are struggling.

But I pray the excuse will turn to a reason, because we all need hope beyond ourselves. Hope beyond our own personal predicaments. These are places where the state system can't touch or voluntary organisations get near.

However remarkable we are as human beings, and we are, I believe it is because we were made to be remarkable by a remarkable God. Lest we believe our own press that we are so good that we don't need divine help. That would appear to me to be arrogant and, let's be honest, a bit short-sighted.

 I like Dave Hayward's cartoon, because finding space for the son of God is not always convenient, especially when so much of the lives are filled up with worries of work, our children and the future. And that's just us in the church!

More wider, of course, the world struggles to find room to accommodate the coming of salvation. Our spiritual condition just does not get priority. Talk about putting the cart before the donkey.

Yet, somehow Jesus' birth still manages to be celebrated each year. For some, it will be in a grand cathedral in a prominent well-heeled part of a city. For others, it will be in a non-descript business unit on an industrial estate in South-east London. All expressions are loved by God.

For ourselves, it will be in Sudbury Town Hall on Christmas Eve at 7.00 pm.

A Christmas carol written by Christina Rosetti:

Angels and archangel

May have gathered there

Cherubim and seraphim

Throng'd the air

But only his mother

In her maiden bliss

Worshipped the Beloved

With a kiss.

Have a peaceful and joyful Christmas. God bless.

ASD

Christmas starts with Christ (article reproduced)

Each month I try and write an article for our town magazine, Community News. It gets distributed for free far and wide to all the households. The magazine editors, themselves, do an absolutely brilliant job and really serve our community well.

Here are my latest collection of rambling thoughts reproduced here:

I love Christmas. I love it all. It brings out different sides in all of us, though some can be dubious. 

For instance, there is the Christmas Party Animal who has the knack of sniffing out a soiree the other side of the county and always stays till the bitter end when the host is begging for their bed.

I remember as a theological student asking a cheery Catholic priest how he would like to be remembered when he left this mortal life.  He paused, smiled and then replied, “He liked a party”.  Not a bad way to be remembered. Better than a dour, miserable Christian.

Quite the opposite to the Christmas Party Animal is the Christmas Stress Head who gets more ill with the run up to the big day. They desperately try to juggle their children’s nativity play rehearsals and productions, and wonder when the shopping will get done and the food cooked.  Their Christmas can be far from fun. To boot, come January their body collapses with a major cold or flu.

As a Christian I value the anticipation of the Christmas Day. Like my Catholic friend I am not one for religious solemnity, though the thought of Jesus entering our world as a baby should make us reflect and find us in momentary places of stillness.

I saw a poster recently that said ‘Christmas starts with Christ’. For many of us who have a faith in Jesus that is most certainly true. It is not just an opportunity for some additional church services, it is first and foremost a birthday celebration. And with celebrations come parties. That means party decorations, food and drink, singing and dancing. Surely the arrival of the saviour of the world and hope for all humankind deserves some noise.

In the Bible the people of Israel used to celebrate all the major occasions with big feasts and parties. Although they were not without their ritual and solemnity they were certainly not dour occasions, and often lasted for days.

Yet what makes this birthday celebration different is how we give the presents. 

In our church we see giving gifts to each other as a symbolic gesture of remembering the gifts that were given to Jesus by the three wise men, as well as in thanks to God for the gift of Jesus.  Our presents to one another can be seen as reflection of the ultimate gift given by God to man, which is at the heart of our Christmas.

It is a pity then that when this wonderful truth gets overlooked the giving of gifts becomes just a meaningless ritual that everyone does, but simply hasn’t got a clue why.

Well, here’s a suggestion to put meaning back into your own Christmas. Why not join Stour Valley Vineyard Church at its Christmas Eve Service in the Town Hall on Thursday 24 December?  It starts at 7 pm.  Mulled wine and mince pies are served from 6.30 pm onwards.  And if you can’t make our service there are plenty of other churches where I know you will also receive a warm welcome.

Merry Christmas!  May you know the peace and love of God at this time. God bless.

ASD

How the X got factored into Xmas

Well,the season of Advent begins next weekend and I am starting to get my head of all the things that need to be done in our church. And there is, indeed, much to be done!

In the last few days I have already heard people talk inevitably about the secularisation of Christmas. With that some people continually take umbrage with the use of  "Xmas". So I thought I'd share where it is thought to have come from.

Abbreviations used as Christian symbols have a long history in the church. The letters of the word "Christ" in Greek, the language in which the New Testament was written, or various titles for Jesus early became symbols of Christ and Christianity. For example, the first two letters of the word Christ are the Greek letters chi (c or C) and rho (r or R). These letters were used in the early church to create the chi-rho monogram, a symbol that by the fourth century became part of the official battle standard of the emperor Constantine.

It has to be said that although historians struggle to pinpoint the exact origin of the single letter X for Christ, some scholars believe that it came into widespread use by around the thirteenth century, along with many other abbreviations and symbols for Christianity, but the truth is we're not quite sure if that is 100% the case. More helpfully, one theologian writes:

"But by the fifteenth century Xmas emerged as a widely used symbol for Christmas. In 1436 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with moveable type. In the early days of printing typesetting was done by hand and was very tedious and expensive. As a result, abbreviations were common. In religious publications, the church began to use the abbreviation C for the word "Christ" to cut down on the cost of the books and pamphlets. From there, the abbreviation moved into general use in newspapers and other publications, and "Xmas" became an accepted way of printing "Christmas" (along with the abbreviations Xian and Xianity)."

So, all in all, we need to, perhaps, encourage each other to take a deep breath, calm down and not get exercised when we see shops use 'Xmas' in their displays. It really is nothing new! It is no different to any other abbreviations being used such as Mr or Dr.

We can also take comfort that although it is written "Xmas" everyone still generally pronounces it as "Christmas". However, it is for us, as Christians, to give it its precious meaning to those unaware of the life transformation it brings.

Not a bad thought to have as we enter the season of preparation.

ASD