By Chris WittsMonday 23 Dec 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
I read a report by the Hillsong Church that shows that more than half of us are worried about how we’re going to pay for the Christmas gifts and the presents this year. It’s true. The financial pressure on families means that many of us will be cutting back this year on our Christmas spending. We just can’t do what we’ve done in previous years.
And eBay research shows, too, that back in 2009, Australians received $1 billion in unwanted gifts. In other words, gifts that they didn’t particularly want or didn’t suit them, so that that means that more than half of us unwrapped at least one unwanted present. So isn’t it all a bit of waste? Do you sometimes feel like banning Christmas? That you’d like to ban Christmas? So if you work in the retail business, I guess your tolerance for this festive season could be at breaking point. I mean, from mid-November, maybe earlier, the carols have been playing in the in the shopping centres, and those stressed out at the thought of cooking Christmas dinner for all the family members, mum and dad and everybody else who comes.
The history and meaning of Christmas
They could already be looking forward to the 26th of December rather than Christmas Day. And why? Because the budgets are already overstretched and the extra expenses of people coming and the food that has to be bought. So you put all that together and no wonder people feel like banning Christmas. It’s interesting as I thought about this, that Christmas celebrations and the anxiety that they create is nothing new.
For example, let’s go back to the mid 16 hundreds, and I’m talking about Oliver Cromwell. He was the Lord protector of England. Well, Cromwell and his Puritan forces took some extreme measures to stamp out festivities that they thought were wasteful and undermined the Christian beliefs. So Christmas Day was the start of this extended period of eating, drinking and merriment – the 12 Days of Christmas. So as well as making the religious significance of the event, there was also lots of dancing, singing and drinking, the exchanging of presents and stage plays.
Someone has written that there was more mischief that was created and committed in that time than any other. They called it dicing and carding, eating and drinking, he said. The writer of this book, called the Anatomy of Abuses, said It brought great dishonor to God and the impoverishing of the realm again. Remember, we’re talking about the 16 hundreds.
Well, in 1644 Oliver Cromwell passed an act of parliament to actually ban Christmas celebrations. And he and his people, they actually those who ruled, imposed fines and all sorts of punishments on people that wanted to continue to make merry and continue on with the festivities. In London, for example, the soldiers were even ordered to patrol the streets and to seize any food that they saw was being prepared for the Yuletide Christmas celebration.
But it really wasn’t until Oliver Cromwell’s death that this act was repealed and that Christmas could be celebrated again. And, of course, we’ve been celebrating all around the world Christmas ever since. Well, every year there are groups who take this stance that Christmas ought to be sort of almost done away with – it should go.
But of course, where the Puritans believe the celebrations watered down the message of Christianity, we’ve got an opposite problem today. What’s been questioned is the relevance of Christ’s birth. People say Jesus Christ was born. So what? And we have what we call political correctness. And sometimes schools and kindergartens and community groups prepare for the end of year concerts. And this actually, of course, ends up, offending somebody else.
And the question is asked, do we sing these Christmas carols or not? Do we tell the Christmas story or not? Can we have the kids dress up as Joseph and Mary? Or again, will that offend someone? But at its core, Christmas is all about the celebration of the birth of God’s son, Jesus Christ. It’s a message we talk about this week – the message of peace and goodwill. It’s more than 2000 years old, but it is a pivotal point in history. And may God give us a very good Christmas as we celebrate the real meaning of Christmas.
Let’s Pray
Thank you, Lord, for this time of Christmas, may it be a real celebration. Amen.