Christmas 2020
I went down to the Church the week after Christmas with Ray to take down the Christmas Tree. The church was so cold and uninviting and our hands were red with the cold, in fact it felt colder inside the church than outside! I felt really sad that after the Christmas Tree had been put up in all its splendour, it was only admired twice in the shortened advent services before lockdown struck again.
I had always loved attending the Christmas morning services, seeing the Christmas tree all lit up, and singing O Come all Ye Faithful with great gusto for the last time in that particular Christmas, singing the very last verse which is only sung on Christmas morning, but all was different this year.
Before we removed the decorations and tinsel, I had to put the lights on and stand and admire the tree just once more. It seemed such a shame that this beautiful tree had been cut down in the prime of its life and decorated for only two morning services of less than an hour, and this reminded me of Jesus who was sent to us at this season, such a young, wonderful, compassionate man who had a new and radical message for his people, whose life was cut short because of envy, pride, greed and fear of the religious leaders. The message he gave of forgiveness and reconciliation with his heavenly Father, so that each of them could have access to God without the need for an intermediary. No longer did his people have to go to the priests asking them to sacrifice animals and sprinkle their blood for forgiveness of sins. They could approach God as ‘Abba, Father’ which translated really means ‘daddy’, such a beautifully close sentiment showing a very different type of relationship with God than they had ever experienced before.
So revolutionary was Jesus’ teaching that the religious leaders feared him and wanted to silence him. All of the people who looked to the priesthood for their opinion on this man who taught with such authority and performed miracles, signs and wonders, were told he was a sorcerer and that his power did not come from God but Beelzebub and that if they chose to follow this Jesus, they would be in effect be excommunicated from the synagogue and ostracized from their community.
When we had removed all the trimmings of the tree and the lights were placed back in the box for next year (God willing) I looked at the tree, bare and sober. The next time we see a decorated tree will be at Easter, the tree of Calvary when the only thing hanging on that tree will be Jesus, no tinsel, no decorations just the glorious Saviour of the world hanging in shame, in place of you and me. Jesus, the one rejected by his own people, opening the way for us. Jesus the light of the world illuminating the tree of Calvary with the Shechinah glory of God, his work finished. The Christmas tree is outside now, waiting to be sawn up and put in the recycle bin its own work finished.
Let us keep the spirit of this season in our hearts, holding onto the promises of God, the love of our Saviour and the promptings of the Holy Spirit encouraging and enabling us to be a light in the darkness to others we meet who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Keg