[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during November 2023]
Summer holidays, Halloween, Bonfire Night, Black Friday – what’s next on the advertising agencies’ calendar?
Ah, yes! Christmas is coming, as indeed it has for the past 2000 years. Every year those with responsibility for Christmas activities face the same question: “What can we do to make Christmas different this year?” Advertising agents and TV producers have been working on it for months; now window dressers, stationers, choir-masters, caterers and preachers are all looking for something to add a new slant on a story that we have all heard before.
Maybe it’s easier if we just leave Christ out of Christmas altogether.
?⛄????❄
This search for something new is not, itself, new. The apostle Paul encountered something similar in Greece in 49AD:[1]
Now all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing more than hearing and articulating new ideas. Acts 17 v21 [BSB]
Are we tempted to join the Athenians and the other groups mentioned above in speculating about aspects of Christmas beyond those recorded in the Gospel accounts?
… Surely Mary did not walk all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Maybe Joseph possessed a donkey – we often see one portrayed in the stable scene. And why didn’t they go back to Nazareth after the census?
… Did anyone else see the choir of angels who sang to the shepherds? Such a spectacular event would certainly have attracted the attention of other people who were out and about that evening. And who looked after the sheep whilst the shepherds went for a night on the town?
… Perhaps the Wise Men were descendents of the Jewish nobles exiled to Babylon and whose ancestors chose not to return with Ezra or Nehemiah. And did their gifts pay for the flight to Egypt?
?
As we have seen in Ecclesiastes, seeking for something new is futile:
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1 v9 [NIVUK]
Surely we should not expend so much effort on seeking something new when the answer lies with something old.
Tell me the old, old story Of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, Of Jesus and His love.
Tell me the story simply, As to a little child;
For I am weak and weary, And helpless and defiled.Tell me the story slowly, That I may take it in,
That wonderful redemption, God’s remedy for sin.
Tell me the story often For I forget so soon!
The “early dew” of morning Has passed away at noon.
– Arabella Katherine Hankey (1866)[2]
†
References:
[1] timeline at Biblehub.com
[2] full text at Hymnary.org
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Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © the Author
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Thanks again, Steve. Your comments bring to mind another song – Give me that old time religion, especially the line that says “It was good for Paul and Silas, it’s good enough for me”.