A Christmas Selection

Christmas past ...

The Gospels are very matter-of-fact about the human drama of that very first Christmas. We only really know the bare bones of the story.

• Mary, a virgin, was told she was going to have a baby.
• The government planned a census which meant that she and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem.
• When they arrived there was no room for them at the inn.
• The baby was born and laid in a manger, an eating trough for animals.
• Angels told a group of shepherds, the social outcasts of the day, that a baby - a saviour had been born.

The Biblical narrative is not the comfortable, cosy story that we are all used to. From what we know -

There was no warm, softly illuminated stable.

No kindly innkeeper

No sweet smelling hay

No doe-eyed animals, gently lowing.

No saintly halos

No beatific smiles

Once you strip that first Christmas of all the sentimental Disney-esque fiction - What's left?

Not so much of the human drama - but rather, the divine purpose.
"Emmanuel ... God with us."

• God, the eternal and sovereign ruler of the universe, sent his Son to live on earth as a man.
• God the Son was willing to be born into poverty and to share our humanity.
• The supreme lawgiver chose to live under the law - in order to save sinners from the penalty of the law.

When we look at Jesus, we see God.
God as man, living a perfect life.
God as man, dying to bear the judgment that we deserve.

The real Christmas story unfolds the simple yet astonishing truth -

that God became a man
so that man can know God.

A Christmas eternally planned ... to reconcile people like you and me to God.

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." (2 Cor 8 v 9)

(Graham Kendrick)

But the following facts tell another Christmas story ...

Christmas Present ...

On average, each person will spend £330 on Christmas gifts.

Accountants Deloitte, who publish an annual study of Christmas spending habits, found average spending in 2007 to be around £712 per person on food, festivities, clothes and gifts. Their head of retail … said,

'Indulgence is a common theme at Christmas'.

... many consumers defied the credit crunch and attempted to spend their way to a Happy Christmas.

It is estimated that over 4 million consumers will still be paying off the Christmas debt they incurred from 2007, in Christmas 2008.

Research by Lloyds TSB Insurance found that the average child owns £1,720 of toys.

Around 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging are thrown away over Christmas.

A study has shown that January 8th is the busiest day of the year for divorce lawyers when up to one in five couples will enquire about divorce after the pressures of Christmas.

Away from the wealthy west - on Christmas day this year it is estimated that over 5,000 children will die of starvation.

And what of Jesus?

A survey conducted in November 2007 found that only 12 per cent of the 1000 people questioned about the Christmas story as told in the Bible could answer all 4 of the following questions correctly.

• Where was Jesus born?
• Who told Mary that she would give birth to a son?
• Who was Jesus' cousin?
• Where did Joseph, Mary and Jesus go to escape from King Herod when Jesus was a young child?

In another survey fewer than half of children aged 7 to 11 thought Christmas was about the birth of Jesus.

• 44% thought it was about Jesus,
• 29% said it was about thinking of other people
• 24% said it was about giving rather than receiving gifts.

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