Thoughts on Life

I’ve shared at different times about the insanity of how rushed we are in December each year in the lead-up to Christmas. It’s sadly ironic that the time of Advent - which covers most of December - is designed to be a time of reflection when we have turned it into the most stressful time of the year.

Having time to sit and reflect is good for our emotional and mental health, as well as our spiritual health. We are more rounded, whole people when we spend time doing these things. And we are invariably happier as well. The fact in Australia is though that, as a nation, we spent $8 billion on Christmas and $14 billion on post-Christmas sales.

The Boxing Day sales used to be about stores getting rid of excess stock; that’s why they were on sale. Now what the major stores do is actually get more stock in to sell, and they can afford to have them on sale because they know that demand will be at its peak. And in recent years post-Christmas online sales have been increasing as people try to find bargains online by shopping on Christmas Day. To use a cliche, nothing is sacred anymore. But cliches are cliches because they’re true. We even have to shop on Christmas Day now.

Back in the late ’80s, the Jubilee Centre released their ‘Keep Sunday Special’ campaign as a way to remind society about how good it is for us all to have a day of rest. A campaign like that is timeless and is more important now than it was then.

Through all this madness we hear the words of Jesus whispering, maybe yelling, down through the centuries, “Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions,” and “What will it profit you if you gain the whole world but lose your very self?.” This is exactly what we’re seeing. It’s worth mentioning again that Brene Brown, a social researcher in the US, says we are the most depressed, obese, medicated and addicted culture in history. It’s also worth repeating that American psychologist Martin Seligman has research showing that the rate of depression in the affluent world has risen tenfold since the Second World War. This is at exactly the same time as we have never been richer in terms of material and financial wealth.

“Come to me all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest” says Jesus again. As we move further into the second decade of the 21st century, the good news of Jesus is more relevant than ever. The world needs saving, and Christmas is a celebration of the great news that we have been given a Saviour.

Christmas was never meant to be stressful. It is instead the best news ever. God coming to earth on the great rescue mission, identifying with us in our brokenness, and all while we are still in our madness. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” May this truth refresh us as we get into the post-Christmas season.

I love people like Richard Rohr who are so warm and Christlike, and who just say it as it is. I am tired of the way Christians have gone along with the sanitised “sweet baby Jesus, no crying he makes” version of Christmas that we have been fed. The reality is far from that. Let Richard Rohr explain it better than I ever could:

“Jesus identified his own message with what he called the coming of the ‘reign of God’ or the ‘kingdom of God’, whereas we have often settled for the sweet coming of a baby who asked little of us in terms of surrender, encounter, mutuality or any studying of the Scriptures or the actual teaching of Jesus.

“This is what you are invited to this Advent. But be forewarned: the Word of God confronts, converts, and consoles us - in that order. The suffering, injustice and devastation on this planet are too great now to settle for any infantile gospel or any infantile Jesus. Actually, that has always been true.”

One of the pastors at my church mentioned last week that people had been asking her if she is going away for Easter. She said she felt like replying “No! And that’s the whole point”. When she said that I felt a little pang of conviction, for I have asked the same question alot recently. Easter is just another holiday for most Australians, including many Christians. I wonder if they sell cards at this time of year in the US which say ‘Happy Holidays’ like they do at Christmas time.

The point my pastor was trying to make was that Easter is ideally spent with other believers in community, for that is what Jesus did on His last night on Earth. He spent it with His friends over a meal. But we see this time of year as a chance to get away and have a break. And in so doing we lose what Easter is really about: God coming to earth as a human, relating with us, teaching us, and above all, saving us. Reconciling the world to Himself, and in so doing, reconciling people to each other, God is His own community - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Lord, help me to remember the reason for this season. You coming to die and then being raised to life, to give us the life that is truly life.