MISSION MATTERS

A monthly take on some of the mission work the Free Church is involved in by our Mission Director, DAVID MEREDITH

Have you seen the Tesco Christmas advert? In a word, it’s about the transformative power of the season. Dad takes a sample cake from his local Tesco and immediately embraces the whole experience to the point that he morphs into a Christmas tree. The son, whist initially embarrassed, is drawn into the whole experience to the point that he too begins growing branches. Christmas can transform!

Talk s how host Larry King says his fantasy interview would be with Jesus Christ. “I would ask him if he believed that he was born of virgin birth, because whatever the answer is changes or reinforces the world,” King said in an interview in People magazine in 1990.

The Free Church of my childhood missed huge evangelistic opportunities in its ambivalence towards Christmas. Like 99% of my co-religionists I tucked into turkey and the trimmings and welcomed my new bright orange Chopper, my dream present. However, the official line was that it was a Romanist construction to be ignored at worst and to be boycotted at best. Even when the day landed on a Sunday it was not unusual to get a sermon which steered well away from the incarnation or any hint thereof. Yes, the Free Kirk was like Narnia where it was winter but never Christmas.

What a wonderful difference these days when many of our churches hold carol services and follow the incarnation theme through the four Sundays of advent. Grasp the power of a sermon which unpacks the implications of God born of a virgin proclaimed by a minister who not only believes in it but lives by it. Consider a church where real angels are not only believed in but welcomed and entertained. Imagine the sense of expectancy of prayer meetings packed with people who believe that the people in their communities can be changed in the same way as the wise men and the shepherds were by their first meetings with the God-child Jesus.

My point: let us avoid the vacuous Christmas of the liberal with their demythologised Christ who is incapable of performing miracles and whose only challenge is the alleviation of poverty and the demonising of the internal combustion engine. I’m not suggesting that poverty or the environment is inconsequential but it is not the primary reason for the season. His name was to be Jesus ‘because he will save his people from their sins.’ Our song and primary message is:

Hark! The herald angels sing, Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”

What an opportunity for Christians to speak about the events of Bethlehem which are so significant that they mark the beginning of our calendar. We don’t live in a common era but in the year of our Lord. We also point out the sheer ridiculousness of the attempt to reconstruct a Christmas without Christ. We think of the hapless bureaucrat who came up with the phrase ‘winter closure period’, lest people of other faiths are offended. We have many friends of other religious traditions and have never met one yet who is offended by the term. A good discussion starter may be: why is Jesus so offensive?

Our world is broken, there are wars and rumours of wars. Go big and testify to your family and friends that we must follow the one who alone can ‘shine on those living in darkness’ and ‘guide our feet into the path of peace.’

Revel in the feast of Christ and may the light of the world dispel the darkness in your life and in our wonderful world. •