Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
December 15, 2019
Scripture:
Isaiah 35:1-10
So I’m going to ask
you to reach back in your memories.
Reach waaaaay back. Reach all the
way back to the year 1984 (and if you are much younger than me, your memory may
not reach back that far!). Remember the
80s hair. Remember the 80s
clothing. Remember the 80s music.
One thing that was
going on in the world in 1984 was that the country of Ethiopia was in the
middle of a 3-year famine, and on TV screens around the world, you saw pictures
of emaciated children. And a group of
famous musicians decided to come together and raise a bunch of money to help.
Does anyone remember
“Band Aid”?
Does anyone remember
the song that was released? (“Do They Know it’s Christmas”)
Confession time – I
hate that song. Even if we were to leave
aside all of the political issues – the idea that all you have to do is raise
enough money and all of the problems will be solved; the idea that all you have
to do is buy food without addressing the socio-political issues that led to the
famine; the paternalistic and patronizing idea that “we” who are wealthy are
the “good guys” helping out those “poor hungry children in Africa.” Even if we were to set aside all of the
political issues with the song, I still don’t like it.
Because the whole
premise of the song is questioning whether Christmas is possible if you aren’t
surrounded by material wealth and over-abundance and excess and over-the-top
decorations. “Do they know it’s Christmas
time at all?”
I spent three years
living in Tanzania in East Africa, and so I had three Christmases there. I moved back to Canada in late-November 2006,
and was instantly thrust back in to the chaos of Canadian Christmas. And I remember one of my sisters asking me
about what Christmas was like in Tanzania, and she only half-jokingly sang at
me, “do they know it’s Christmas time at all?”
I was floored. In my opinion, Christmas is much better
celebrated in Tanzania. It only lasts
for three days – Christmas stretches from Christmas Eve through Christmas Day
to Boxing Day (or Second Christmas as the 26th is called in
Swahili); even though the festive mood usually lasts until New Year’s Day. People cut fresh branches to decorate with on
the 23rd or 24th.
Children receive a new outfit to wear to church on Christmas day. There are certain dishes that are only cooked
on Christmas day. And it is a time for
getting together with friends and family; a time for going to church on both
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; a time for celebrating and rejoicing. So yes, they definitely know it’s Christmas
in Tanzania, and yes, they definitely know how to celebrate it.
This month, we’ve been
reading through the story of A Christmas
Carol by Charles Dickens; and I would say that the character of Ebenezer
Scrooge begins the story with the same attitude of the writers of the song “Do
They Know it’s Christmas” – the attitude that if you don’t have material wealth
or possessions then you can’t celebrate or enter in to the season of
Christmas. Two weeks ago, we met the
character of Scrooge, a mean and miserly man, who tells his nephew that he, the
nephew, has no right to be merry since he is poor enough; to which the nephew
replies that by this logic, Scrooge has no right to be miserable since he is
rich enough.
Last week, we saw the
visit from the first of the three spirits, the Spirit of Christmas Past who
took Scrooge to re-visit the Christmases of his childhood and young adulthood;
and we saw Scrooge beginning to soften, beginning to see that he used to be
different, beginning to see that maybe there is a different way of being in the
world.
The second spirit to
visit Scrooge is the Spirit of Christmas Present, who takes Scrooge to see how
different people are celebrating Christmas in the present day (or at least in
Scrooge’s present day, which is almost 200 years before our present day).
They see people
singing and frolicking in the snow; they see people preparing their Christmas
feasts; they see people dressed in their finest clothes and happiest faces
going to Christmas church services; they witness a spirit of love and
forgiveness and joy in all of the people they see.
And their roaming goes
further afield from London too. They
visit the house of a miner in the desolate moor where they find a warm fire and
multiple generations gathered together to feast and to sing. They visit an isolated lighthouse on the edge
of a cliff in the storm, where the lightkeepers raise a toast and wish each
other Merry Christmas. They visit a ship
tossed on stormy seas where the sailors working on the cold wet deck hum a
Christmas tune and share stories of Christmases past with their companions.
And they visit the
home of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s poorly-paid, poorly-treated employee and his
family. And we witness this scene
unfold.
And with all of these
visits, Scrooge begins to see that the joy of Christmas, that the ability to
celebrate Christmas, has nothing to do with the circumstances that we find
ourselves in.
And to me, that is the
biggest difference between joy and happiness.
Our happiness depends on what we have or don’t have; it depends on what
has happened to us today or yesterday; it depends on what we expect to happen
tomorrow. But joy doesn’t depend on any
of this. Joy is a gift from God, and it
is always flowing, no matter what is going on in our lives or in the
world. That is the joy that we celebrate
in Advent and at Christmas.
We see that in our
scripture reading for today as well.
This middle part of the book of Isaiah was written to a people in
exile. A people whose land had been
taken, whose temple, the very home of God, had been destroyed; who had been
shipped hundreds of miles away from their homes to Babylon, where they remained
for 70 years, for more than 2 generations.
And there, in exile,
God tells the people through the prophet Isaiah to rejoice. To rejoice with joy and singing; to say to
those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear”; that everlasting
joy will be upon their heads; that they shall obtain joy and gladness for
sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Our joy doesn’t depend
on our circumstances. Our joy comes
because God is with us, filling us with joy, no matter what life might bring or
not bring. Our joy is always there,
flowing beneath our lives, bubbling up and overflowing to the world around us.
And so no matter where
our life is at this year, we will know that it is Christmas, and we will
rejoice. Thanks be to God!
The Christmas Present - full of joy and love and forgiveness
Illustration - Public Domain
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