War Cry 5 December 2020

Author unwraps origins of Christmas celebrations

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WAR CRY

EDITOR From From the editor’s desk

HAS there been a Christmas as eagerly awaited as this one? Ever since coronavirus led to the national lockdown in March, many people have struggled with the restrictions placed on everyday life.

Consequently, numerous households have looked to Christmas as a source of light, colour and hope at a difficult time. After all the cancellations and disappointments, it has been something to look forward to.

As the governments of the UK’s nations rolled out their coronavirus rules for this month, we have all come to realise that this will not be a normal Christmas – even with the limited loosening of restrictions in the days around 25 December. But still people will be hoping that it will be a time when they can know, for a few short days, peace from the worries that the pandemic has brought and joy in what has been for many a joyless year.

The reality, though, is that the historical events celebrated at Christmas mean that it is possible to experience the longed-for joy and peace for more than just a few short days. For Christians, Christmas marks the birth of Jesus. The Bible says that angels declared his birth to be an event of great joy that would bring people peace (see Luke 2:10–14).

Christians have not been immune from the misery and distress of coronavirus. But through it all, they have known that the same Jesus whose birth they celebrate at Christmas has been with them, offering to help them through their tough times.

That offer is open to everyone. Will we accept it and experience help that lasts beyond this time of year?

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Contents

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FEATURES 3

Signed, sealed, delivered Royal Mail’s seasonal stamps

4

An empty story?

A special message for Christmas

6

A focus on acting Theatre company puts a stage play on screen

9

Christmas traditions unwrapped How our festive celebrations originated

REGULARS

12

Now, There’s a Thought!

13

Bible Series

14 Puzzles 15

War Cry Kitchen

FEATURE

Heaven sent Philip Halcrow is given insights into this year’s Christmas stamps

W

HATEVER the value, Royal Mail’s Christmas stamps this year are all first-glass. The eight stamps carry images of the Nativity as depicted in windows of churches.

Royal Mail has been issuing Christmas stamps since 1966, the idea arriving as part of a move into producing stamps that carried illustrations of subjects rather than simply the head of the monarch. in the frame. Then Royal Mail went ‘Christmas fits into an ongoing through a panes-taking process to schedule of special stamps,’ says ensure that the scenes – which mostly Royal Mail’s Philip Parker, ‘and we are focus on Mary and her baby – could working between two and three years be reproduced on a one-inch square ahead at any one point to consider stamp. the hundreds of subject requests we ‘When an image is reduced to get every year. the size of a stamp, it changes its ‘Christmas is a regular theme, but appearance,’ Philip points out. ‘It can we try to make a differentiation in become darker and indistinct. We appearance year on year.’ have to make sure that each image So a long time ago, Royal Mail will be clear and colourful enough. planned to highlight Christmas as ‘Most of the windows selected seen in stained glass. are from the 19th century, but ‘The artistry of stained glass they’re from different designers and is beautiful,’ says Philip, ‘and we manufacturers, and one is from the thought the Christmas story had 1970s. We chose them for the beauty a clear concept that would work of the colours. They’re very vibrant, successfully.’ with bold yellows and blues.’

At first, thousands of images were Philip is conscious of the practical requirements of the designs – ‘they are distinctive so you wouldn’t get the stamps and therefore the values mixed up’ – but he also hopes ‘that people will see them as beautiful images that are characteristic of Christmas.

‘This year, more than previous years, people are aware of the importance of communication with family and friends. I know we have technological options, but I don’t think people keep emails and text messages in the same way.’

One of the stamps landing on doormats around The stamp showing the window at the country and Christ Church, Coalville farther afield carries

We chose them for the beauty of the colours an image that can be tracked to Christ Church in Coalville, Leicestershire.

‘The window was dedicated to a longstanding vicar here, because I think he loved Christmas,’ says the church’s present incumbent, the Rev Gill Pinnington.

‘It’s such a small transept window that people often don’t look for it. But if you really take time to look, the artwork and the subject are absolutely beautiful.’

Gill explains that the stamp ‘only shows a part of what’s happening in the story, because at the very top of the window are the wise men pointing to the star. So there’s all that going on, but in the main body of the window is just this young mum with her baby in peace.’

She believes the image can suggest a way of looking at Christmas.

‘The window shows a lot of busyness, but the heart of the picture is Mary simply looking at her baby,’ she says.

‘At Christmas, I would want for us to find time and space to have that peace and to look at Jesus.’

Christmas 2020 • War Cry • 3

Remember your A seasonal message from Commissioner Anthony Cotterill, leader of The Salvation Army in the UK and Republic of Ireland

H

OW we will be allowed to celebrate Christmas this year has been a massive question for us all during the coronavirus pandemic. There are some things about which I am certain, however – one of them being that there are still going to be a lot of empty bottles to be recycled once Christmas and the new year have passed. It is estimated that in the UK there will be at least 750 million bottles emptied over the Christmas period – that’s a lot of bottles and trips to the recycling bin or centre. But when you go and you hear the clanging of the empty bottles, there are four ‘empties’ that I’d like you to think about.

The first empty is a manger.

Every year many of us love to see nativity scenes in which Jesus is either being nursed by Mary or asleep in the feeding trough. Sadly, too many people are happy for Jesus to remain right there.

A cute baby, sleeping, even crying away in a manger – out of the way of our everyday living and experience.

But the baby didn’t stay in the manger.

Jesus, who is the Son of God, didn’t remain a helpless babe wrapped in swaddling bands. The manger became empty of a baby, and that raises the biggest question of all time, especially this Christmastime: ‘What on earth did the baby say and do when he grew up?’

The reality is that what he said and did as an adult attracted crowds who were amazed at his words and the love and power that flowed from his heart. However, at the same time, his stand for truth and love, which cut across the religious and political leaders of his day, inevitably landed him in conflict with them and others who could not live with him. A particularly gruesome and painful death, a Roman crucifixion seemingly ended his life. Jesus loved us to death, laying down his life in

4 • War Cry • Christmas 2020

order that we might go free.

The great Christmas Day carol ‘Christians Awake’ says: O may we keep and ponder in our mind God’s wondrous love in saving lost

mankind!

Trace we the babe, who hath retrieved

our loss, From his poor manger to his bitter

cross.

The carol tells us about the second place Jesus left empty, and that’s the cross.

As an old Easter hymn puts it: ‘His cross stands empty to the sky.’

Jesus didn’t remain on the cross, suffering and writhing in pain. He died, and they took him down and laid him out in a borrowed tomb.

But that is

Jesus didn’t remain a babe wrapped in swaddling bands

empties not the end of the story. We are not left with a dead saviour, a martyr to the cause, dead to the world.

The third empty is what continues to give us hope even in the darkest hours of our lives, even when we are overtaken by evil, when ‘man at war with man hears not the love song that the angels sang’. This empty continues to give us hope even as we live through this dreadful pandemic.

It is an empty tomb, which points to the truth that Jesus is alive, demonstrating that death and suffering do not have the last word – Jesus does.

It’s an empty manger, an empty cross and, thank God, it’s an empty tomb.

Because it is an empty tomb, because he was raised to new life, we too can know and experience this and enjoy his resurrection life –

GOOD NEWS

it is what Christmas is all about. Unto us is born a Saviour, a living Saviour who, by his Spirit, now dwells in the hearts of men and women and boys and girls who acknowledge their need of him, who confess their faults and failings and welcome him. It’s why we sing in the carol ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’ that Jesus was: Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.

That leads me to my fourth and last empty. It makes deeper sense of Christmas.

I’m the last empty, and so are you!

Although we may choose to be filled with all sorts of things, of ourselves and of the world, Jesus wants to fill our emptiness with his presence. Our lives can be overflowing with the things we really need this Christmas – Jesus, love, forgiveness, joy, peace and great hope. As one modern carol says: Christmas isn’t Christmas Till it happens in your heart.

Somewhere deep inside you Is where Christmas really starts.

So, give your heart to Jesus, You’ll discover when you do, That it’s Christmas, Really Christmas, for you!

Far from having an empty Christmas, may you be filled with Jesus himself. Oh, and don’t forget to recycle those empties.

Death and suffering do not have the last word

Commissioner Anthony Cotterill

Christmas 2020 • War Cry • 5

Theatre company

Smog (Patrick Burbridge, front) and Miff (Jeremy Cobb) in ‘The Selfish Giant’ 6 • War Cry • Christmas 2020

INTERVIEW

has a change of scene Tom Jackson

Paul Burbridge, artistic director of Riding Lights, tells Claire Brine why it was a giant-sized task to stage a play on screen

Filming a scene Paul Burbridge

A

GLOBAL pandemic may have forced theatres to close, but the show must – and will – go on.

This year, instead of performing on stages in northern England, touring theatre company Riding Lights is proudly offering its Christmas production of The Selfish Giant on screen.

‘Because we couldn’t gather an audience together physically, we knew that we had to find another way to put on our show,’ says Paul Burbridge, who directed the production on stage last year.

‘So we ventured into the unknown, learnt some new skills and tried to work out how to create a film of The Selfish Giant, without losing the sense that it’s a theatre show. Trying to follow the government safety rules as well – such as working out how many people could be on set – meant the project felt constantly on a knife-edge.’

Despite the behind-the-scenes struggles, Riding Lights managed to get The Selfish Giant in the can. Available online, the film has the potential to reach audiences beyond the company’s usual touring circuit.

‘People have been starved of all kinds of arts lately,’ Paul explains. ‘And our show, which should have been a schools and churches tour around Yorkshire, can

now go anywhere.’

Based on the story by Oscar Wilde, The Selfish Giant has been adapted by Jon Boustead and features original songs, lively storytelling, colourful sets and charming puppetry. Paul tells me a little more about the plot.

‘It’s a story about two giants – Smog and Miff – who allow children to come into their garden and play games. One day, for a reason no one really understands, Smog becomes very sad, so both giants decide to go away for a while.

When Smog returns, he’s furious that the children are still playing in his garden and he kicks them out. He closes the garden and builds a wall around it.

‘Meanwhile, the state of Smog’s heart begins to affect the garden, making it fall under the icy grip of winter. It’s taken over by two wacky characters, called Frost and Snow, who are energetic rappers.

‘But there’s one curious little boy, who somehow manages to remain in the garden. He isn’t afraid of Smog and explains to him that he needs to reach out to the children again. They become friends and Smog’s heart begins to soften.’

Before giving away the show’s ending, Paul moves on to explain why the story is suitable for Christmastime.

‘It’s about being generous and the joy of living in an unselfish way. It touches on the healing that can come from restoring relationships. All those things are associated with the true spirit of Christmas.’

Once school audiences have watched the film – which can be viewed as three episodes, or all in one go – they have the opportunity to engage further with the story.

Riding Lights is sending out activity packs to classes.

‘We suggest creative work the children can do, such as designing their own gardens or writing songs and new stories. Another fun thing we are offering to schools, on a first-come-first-served basis, is a Zoom meeting with the giants themselves.’

The Zoom meeting is also a way for the Riding Lights actors – who are used to live performances – to stay connected with their audience. This year, the company

People have been starved of all kinds of arts lately

Turn to page 8

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Christmas 2020 • War Cry • 7

Tom Jackson

From page 7 has had to take the skill of improvising more to the imagination than film, and we to a whole new level in its efforts to keep still wanted that to be the case. As making theatre. we rehearsed this different approach, we ‘When lockdown started back in March, were constantly thinking: “What will the all the tours and performances we had audience want to see at this point? Who booked in our diary just disappeared,’ should the camera be looking at?” And says Paul. ‘We thought: “What are we thanks to the skills of our film-maker going to do now?” We were booked to Jamie Foreman, it worked.’ perform at a Christian conference called To ensure the production was filmed Spring Harvest, and the organisers safely, Paul and the Riding Lights team decided to put it online. So, despite being locked in our homes, we began filming our material on iPhones. We were flying by the seat of our pants, working out how to film in four different locations and then stitch the dialogue together. Thankfully, people seemed to like what we did.

‘After that, we realised that all our followed the latest coronavirus advice set work had to go online if we wanted to out by the government. keep communicating. So we learnt about ‘On set, everyone was sanitised to the putting theatre on Zoom and ran our hilt and the crew were wearing masks,’ annual summer theatre school. For five he says. ‘Our two actors also quarantined days, we had 75 people participating together for two weeks before filming in five performance courses, which all started, so that we could film them took place online. Exploring the theme standing close to one another.’ of climate change, some devised a radio Despite the company’s positive and play or a Passion play for the Earth, while creative response to the pandemic, there’s others rehearsed scenes from a play first seen at the National Theatre. At the end of the week, the people on each course had a performance to show everyone. It was a satisfying experience.’

Emboldened by the success, Paul decided to transfer The Selfish Giant from stage to screen in time for Christmas.

‘The big thing we had to work out was how to turn a full-on theatre performance into something that would work on camera,’ he says.

‘So this was a kind of hybrid between film and theatre.

Jeremy and Patrick play a Theatre, for instance, leaves far variety of roles in the film

Our aim is to tell stories that reach beyond the here and now

8 • War Cry • Christmas 2020

no denying that it has been a tough year.

It closed the doors to its own Friargate Theatre in York, and had to cancel youth theatre and improvised comedy events.

When faced with such disappointment, Paul turned to his Christian faith to carry him through.

‘The Lord has really looked after us,’ he says. ‘And we are grateful for that. It has been a difficult few months, but as a company we continue to meet together a couple of times a week via Zoom to pray together, share needs and look after one another. We know that we are being led all the time – not always by still waters, like Psalm 23 suggests, because sometimes the landscape changes dramatically and life is much more scary. However, the promise of Jesus that “I am with you always” is true to our day-to-day experience.’

As Paul looks to the future, which remains uncertain for those working in the arts, he hopes that Riding Lights can continue to give people hope through its theatre.

‘Our aim is to tell stories that reach beyond the here and now,’ he says.

‘Of course, we want to entertain, but it’s also good if faith in the best of human nature, faith in God and the joy of understanding more about the created world come through in our plays. We want to tell stories that help make people’s lives better.’

l For more information visit ridinglights.org

The

truth about

INTERVIEW

tree-mendous

festive

traditions Nick Page

Author NICK PAGE tells Emily Bright where some of our ideas about celebrating Christmas come from

P

Roast Mexico

REPARE to have your preconceptions about the festive season pulled apart like a Christmas cracker. Roast turkey should actually be called roast Mexico, Jesus wasn’t born in a stable and the ‘Three Kings of Orient’ weren’t.

Author Nick Page is on a mission to bust some of the most common misconceptions about Christmas. His book Christmas: Tradition, Truth and Total Baubles reveals the true origins of treasured traditions and explores how they’ve evolved over time.

As we talk, he suggests why Christmas has such an enduring appeal.

‘We live in a culture that is heavily influenced and forged

by Christianity. Also, shops make a lot of their money at Christmas, and everyone needs cheering up with a midwinter festival.’

I have to admit that, although I love the festive food and family time, I’m more of a ‘bah humbug’ character – I can’t stand Christmas music and don’t decorate the tree until mid-December. So I surveyed the War Cry team about their favourite festive traditions to evoke my Christmas cheer. Turkey is high up in their pecking order.

Nick reveals the true history of the humble turkey to me. He starts off by dispatching the inaccuracy of the name itself.

‘This bird was discovered in Mexico,’ he says. ‘When the first Spanish conquistadors went over there, they shipped it back to Europe. The birds were then delivered across the Mediterranean by mostly Turkish merchants, so the bird became known as a turkey. But it’s not from Turkey at all, it’s from Mexico.’

He also notes that there’s a discrepancy between what the bird is called in different languages. ‘In French it’s “dinde”, which means “from India”; in India they call it the bird “from Peru”, so at least it’s on

Turn to page 10

➥

Christmas 2020 • War Cry • 9

From page 9 the right land mass. It’s a geographically confused bird.’

Christmas trees also crop up in conversations with my colleagues. Traditionally, many people think that Prince Albert alone planted the Christmas tree in British culture. However, as Nick outlines, the festive fir trees predated Victorian Britain.

‘Christmas trees originated from a German tradition beginning back in the early 1400s of putting on medieval plays on Christmas Eve to celebrate the Festival of Adam and Eve, a story which features a tree.’

As time went on, people decided to spruce up their trees. Nick relates: ‘They began putting things on it, like fruit, pretzels or biscuits. One account I found said that they put turnips on, which must have been a slightly depressing tree ornament. So, although the royal family certainly popularised them, they were already well known among German immigrants.’

While I enjoy trees and turkey as much as the next person, I ask Nick why we decided to celebrate Christmas in the bleak midwinter when we don’t know the date of Jesus’ birth. It’s a turkey bone of contention, which Nick tries to clear up.

‘A common theory is that Christians basically nicked the date of the Roman festival of the sun, which was on 25 December. But there’s no proof of that.’

The story of Jesus’ birth has become immortalised in school nativity plays and church carols across the world. But as Nick points out, the Gospels have been retold with a dollop of creative licence over the centuries. The carol ‘We Three Kings of Orient Are’ is a case in point.

‘The Bible doesn’t say there were kings, or that there were

three of them. It says that they were magi, or astrologers and astronomers from the East, what we could call Iran today.

Since they brought three gifts with them, people assumed there were three of them.

Not until about the 6th century are they suddenly called kings and given names.’

How about the scene described by the ‘Calypso Carol’: ‘See him lying on a bed of straw/ A draughty stable with an open door?’ That’s a lot of figgy pudding too, apparently.

‘When you actually read the Bible, it doesn’t mention a stable anywhere; it just says that Jesus was born in a manger,’ Nick explains.

‘In peasant homes in 1st-century Bethlehem in Judaea, where Jesus was born, the manger and the animals were kept inside the house. They didn’t have a separate stable. So Jesus would have been born in a peasant home.’

But one thing on which we can surely rely is young children shaking their heads and declaring boldly during their nativity play that there was ‘no room in the inn’.

Right? Wrong.

Nick says: ‘The inn was probably a mistranslation of the Greek word cataluma, which Luke uses. It can mean “inn” but far more often it means “spare room”. Jesus is born into a simple peasant household, where a room is

The Bible doesn’t say there were three kings

Weihnachtsb au

m

10 • War Cry • Christmas 2020

INTERVIEW

No room at the inn found for him. And I think that’s a very powerful story, because it’s about Jesus finding a home among poor people.

‘I do feel sorry for innkeepers, because they’ve had 1500 years of terrible PR. Luke uses the word cataluma for the room where the Last Supper was held. Yet nobody has ever suggested that the Last Supper was held in a pub.’

However, while Nick sets the record straight on the inaccurate retelling of the Gospel accounts, he believes we shouldn’t miss the essence of the story while chasing after details.

‘I don’t think there’s any point in standing up at your child’s nativity play and berating all the people at preschool for getting the details wrong,’ he says.

‘You just have to accept that the story has a life of its own. The real challenge for

us is to always go back to the text of the Gospels, which were written about who Jesus actually is.’

As a Christian, Nick has carefully studied the veracity of the biblical claims for himself, and has written a number of books about the Scriptures and the Church, including The Badly Behaved Bible and A Nearly Infallible History of Christianity.

‘I think the Gospels are historically true, and there is good evidence for that,’ he

says. ‘The Gospels aren’t necessarily written in the documentary style of modern history, but I think of the stories as testimonies.

‘With testimony, you can choose what to do with it. You can choose to believe it or disbelieve it. But it’s somebody saying: “This is what I saw. This is amazing. This is the story I have to tell.”’

Nick elaborates on the life-changing significance of Jesus’ life as told through the Bible. ‘Go back to the Gospels and you’ll find a uniquely amazing story of inclusion and of God becoming man. It’s a miraculous story.

‘Fundamentally it’s about God becoming one of us. There’s nobody who’s beyond the reach of God, there’s nobody who’s excluded, there’s nobody who’s beyond his understanding, his empathy and his love.’

l Christmas: Tradition, Truth and Total Baubles is published

by Hodder & Stoughton

How many?

Christmas 2020 • War Cry • 11

EXPLORE

Prayerlink YOUR prayers are requested for Mandy, who is in prison and feeling emotionally stressed.

The War Cry invites readers to send in requests for prayer, including the first names of individuals and details of their ­circumstances. Send your Prayerlink requests to warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk or to War Cry, 101 Newington Causeway, Lon­don SE1 6BN. Mark your correspondence ‘Confidential’.

j

Becoming a Christian

There is no set formula to becoming a Christian, but many people have found saying this prayer to be a helpful first step to a relationship with God

Lord Jesus Christ, I am truly sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. Please forgive me. I now turn from everything that I know is wrong.

Thank you that you died on the cross for me so that I could be forgiven and set free.

Now, ther Now, there’s

a thou a thought!

by Peter Mylechreest

Help in a bleak midwinter CROWNED the greatest Christmas carol ever in a poll of experts by BBC Music magazine in 2008, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ has remained popular and was the nation’s third favourite carol according to Classic FM last year. Its opening words are: ‘In the bleak midwinter/ Frosty wind made moan.’

This year, more so than in previous years, the outlook for many people is a bleak midwinter. The hospitality industry is desperately concerned that it may never recover from lockdowns. High street retailers are seeing online giants taking their trade. Small businesses are closing. Employees have been furloughed and their incomes reduced; others have lost their jobs completely.

Many people have moaned because they haven’t been able to meet up with family. Some have moaned because they’ve been stuck with family!

Whatever the frosty wind is doing, there is cause for many people to moan.

By contrast, the Christmas story tells of divine messengers announcing joy and peace when Jesus was born. The carol ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ goes on to say: ‘In the bleak midwinter/ A stable-place sufficed/ The Lord God Almighty/ Jesus Christ.’

Jesus Christ was called Immanuel, which means ‘God with us’. He was born in dire surroundings and raised in a tough environment. As he grew from a baby to manhood, he experienced all the trauma of being with people who were frustrated or disappointed.

He was not shielded from stress, yet far from moaning, Jesus was characteristically full of joy and peace. Not a happiness dependent on external circumstances, but an experience of deep inner contentment. Not a peace that knows no problems, but a calmness, even in the worst of situations.

Wherever we find ourselves this year, our Christmas Day meal probably won’t be as glamorous as some television advertisements portray, but if we put Jesus at the centre of our celebrations, something special can occur. If we remember the gift of his birth, a sense of bleakness may subside as we are able to experience an awareness of God being with us.

Jesus was not shielded from stress

Thank you that you offer me forgiveness and the gift of your Holy Spirit.

Please come into my life by your Holy Spirit to be with me for ever.

Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Amen

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Looking for help?

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EXPRESSIONS

BIBLE SERIES

q

quick quiz 1

2

What is the Christmas tree variety Picea abies commonly known as?

What book begins: ‘Marley was dead: to begin with’?

a 3

4

5

6

Who plays the character of George Bailey in the film It’s a Wonderful Life?

What gifts did the wise men present to the infant Christ?

Who had a No 1 hit with the single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ in 1984?

What festival in the church calendar, celebrated in Spain as Día de los Reyes, falls on 6 January?

ANSWERS

by Mal Davies

From him to us I

confess: I love getting gifts. But then, who doesn’t? Do children look forward to Christmas because they’ll enjoy a nice roast dinner, because they can sing carols or because they’ll get the annual hug from Aunt Hilda who wears too much perfume? No, they look forward to it for the presents.

We all get excited when we’re passed a present and start to unwrap it. Maybe it’s the inherent mystery of the act: what is it?

Maybe we enjoy the thought behind it, that someone cared enough to give us a gift.

In the Bible story of Jesus’ birth, we read about his mother, Mary, being told by God that she will give birth to a boy who will be both unique and world-changing. Imagine how she felt about that news!

We read Mary’s words: ‘From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me – holy is his name’ (Luke 1:48 and 49 New International Version).

Note the reason or cause of her joy: it wasn’t anything she’d done or achieved in her own power, she said God ‘has done great things for me’.

In the Bible’s Book of Isaiah we can read, ‘To us a child is born, to us a son is given’ (Isaiah 9:6 New International Version), and in a letter written by the early Christian James we read: ‘Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father’ (James 1:17 New Living Translation).

In both of these texts, note the words ‘to us’. The notion that God does things for us and gives good things to us is at the heart of the Christian faith. It’s about God’s grace giving us what we don’t deserve.

Christmas brings a lot of elements to mind, and it’s good to celebrate them: family, food, presents, carols, friends, holidays. But they’re not the key focus of Christmas. Christmas is about what God has done for us. As John 3:16 says, ‘God so loved the world that he gave’ (New International Version).

Jesus was the greatest gift God has ever given the world. So who is Jesus to you?

Christmas is about what God has done for us

Christmas 2020 • War Cry • 13

1. Norway spruce. 2. A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens. 3. James Stewart. 4. Gold, frankincense and myrrh. 5. Band Aid. 6. Epiphany.

CROSSWORD CROSSWORD PUZZLES

QUICK CROSSWORD ACROSS 1. Restrain (5) 5. Stark horror (5) 8. Live coal (5) 9. Plenty (5) 10. Group of eight (5) 11. Angry (5) 12. Be anxious (4) 15. Water boiler (6) 17. Cut off (5) 18. Run quickly (6) 20. Presume (4) 25. Student (5) 26. Clutch (5) 27. Happen (5)

28. Live (5) 29. Apportion (5) 30. Detested (5)

DOWN 1. Misgivings (6) 2. Dominions (6) 3. Bloodsucker (5) 4. Loathe (5) 5. Thrive (7) 6. Numbskull (6) 7. Oxen (6) 13. Zenith (3)

14. Spray (3) 15. Opener (3) 16. Falsehood (3) 17. Cutting (7) 18. Mark of shame (6) 19. Sell (6) 21. Draw out (6) 22. Impaired (6) 23. Ruin (5) 24. Textile (5)

SUDOKU

Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9

HONEYCOMB HONEYCOMB

6

8

Each solution starts on the coloured cell and reads clockwise round the number

Answers QUICK CROSSWORD ACROSS: 1. Quell. 5. Panic.

8. Ember. 9. Ample. 10. Octet. 11. Cross.

12. Stew. 15. Kettle. 17. Sever. 18. Sprint.

20. Deem. 25. Pupil. 26. Grasp. 27. Occur.

28. Exist. 29. Allot. 30. Hated.

DOWN: 1. Qualms. 2. Empire.

3. Leech. 4. Abhor. 5. Prosper. 6. Nitwit.

7. Cattle. 13. Top. 14. Jet. 15. Key. 16. Lie. 17. Snippet. 18. Stigma.

19. Retail. 21. Elicit. 22. Marred.

23. Spoil. 24. Cloth.

HONEYCOMB 1. Parcel. 2. Sheath. 3. Squash.

4. Madame. 5. Forage. 6. Octave.

7 8 3 9 1 5 6 4 2

6 5 1 2 4 8 9 7 3

9 4 2 7 3 6 8 1 5

5 6 9 8 2 7 1 3 4

4 3 8 6 5 1 7 2 9

2 1 7 4 9 3 5 6 8

1 2 6 3 8 9 4 5 7

3 9 5 1 7 4 2 8 6

8 7 4 5 6 2 3 9 1

SUDOKU SOLUTION

4 7 1 2 3

8

6

14 • War Cry • Christmas 2020

4 2 7

3 8 2 9 7

7

6

5

4

7

5

1

9 4 5

1

4 7 1 2 3

9

ordsearch ordsearch ordsearch ordsearch ordsearch

1. Object wrapped in paper and sent by post 2. Cover for the blade of a knife 3. Squeeze 4. Form of address for a Frenchwoman 5. Search widely for food 6. Series of eight notes

5

Wordsearch ANGEL

CHIMNEY

FRANKINCENSE GOLD

HOLLY

JESUS CHRIST JINGLE BELLS MAGI

MANGER MYRRH

NATIVITY NOEL

NUTCRACKER ORNAMENTS PRESENTS

SLEIGH BELLS STOCKING TINSEL

8

6

Look up, down, forwards, backwards

7 and 6 diagonally 9 5 4on the 2 grid 1 to3find8these words associated with Christmas 8 5 4 6 3 1 2 9 7 3 1 2 9 8 7 6 5 4 A P D H Q U G S K F C U J K Q J R D U L E G N A Z Q R Z R Q F Q U R G W 9 2 7 8 6 4 3 1 5 N T D E T U Q G I E P Y Y V T Q C Y 1 4 3 2 5 9 8 7 6 E L H W W Q T A Q I S M Z Y I M U T S N P A V 5 T 8P C 6 F 7P V 1 Z 3T K O Q O 9 4 2I C J E S U S C H R I S T H B Z D X V 6 9 8 1 7 5 4 2 3 F H N F Y L O E A A B Q E Y M M S I A K I H P L S K N Z C Z V A B Q F T 4 7 1 3 2 6 5 8 9 Q I B M L E O N K M Q K G R C W W A 2 3 5 4 9 8 7 6 1 T C Q Y N B Y C I R A I E E A D W N

D I S T N E M A N R O N A R U U F G V H S L I L Y X C T J G G Z M N H Y J S L E I G H B E L L S O E O R T N E U P W Q N R Z N E Z M F L R H P Z E U G B Z I Q K S A N V C Y D Z J A K X V Z C J R N E Q A S M I Z Q U G A J G E F O I G I H S J W N L Y Y N I Y K K C T C A C Z G N I K C O T S

1

4 5

9

D Pot roast brisket with spices Ingredients

Method

1.25kg lean beef brisket joint

Season the beef brisket with salt and pepper and place in a large casserole dish.

Salt and freshly milled black pepper 2 bay leaves, roughly broken 4 whole cloves 10 black peppercorns 2 star anise 1 cinnamon stick, halved 2tbsp demerara sugar 2tbsp Worcester sauce 100g ready-to-eat dried figs, halved 600ml grape juice 2tbsp sunflower oil 175g carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

SERVES

6

450g leeks, roughly chopped

In a small bowl, mix together the bay leaves, spices, sugar, Worcester sauce, figs and grape juice. Pour the mixture into the casserole dish and coat the beef. Cover, refrigerate and marinate for 8 hours or overnight.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas Mark 3.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan.

Remove the beef joint and leave the marinade in the casserole dish. Pat the beef dry, then brown on all sides in the frying pan. Return the beef to the casserole dish and add the carrots, leeks and red onions. Roast in the oven for 2 hours.

Serve the beef and vegetables with creamy mashed potatoes.

4 small red onions, peeled and quartered

Pear and cranberry chutney Ingredients

Method

900g dessert pears, cored and diced

Place all the ingredients in a large pan. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cook uncovered for 15–20 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.

1 medium onion, peeled and finely diced 150g light brown sugar 100ml fresh orange juice

Serve the chutney hot or cold with ½ tsp ground ginger cooked roast meats. ½ tsp ground mixed spice Alternatively, spoon the mixture into 225g fresh or frozen sterilised jars and cranberries (thawed, store in the fridge, to use within 4 weeks. if frozen) 2tsp mustard seeds

Recipes reprinted, with permission, from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board website simplybeefandlamb.co.uk

SERVES

20 Christmas 2020 • War Cry • 15

I bring you good news that will cause great Luke 2:10 (New International Version)