As I write, we are trying to finalise details of our Christmas services. I have been lobbied by various groups who think we should have 'their' style of service. [We will do our best, but, I suspect, as usual we won't please everybody!] Listening to the differing expectations makes it clear that next year we will have to review all the things we do at Christmas and ask whether there really is a good reason and sufficient support for us to continue to do them all.
However, that is for 2005. Meanwhile I have been thinking about expectations of Christmas: not for 2004, but at the first Christmas. The Jews longed for the Christ to come, and expected him to come at Bethlehem. However, they were not expecting him to come right then, or in the way that he did. When he did come in an unexpected way (or was it because he came in an unexpected way?) most people did not even realise that he had come.
Among those who did realise that he had come, there were three distinct groups with very different responses to the news. There were the unimportant outsiders - the shepherds. Shepherds were social and religious outcasts, absolutely not the sort of people you would welcome into your home at any time, but they were the ones whom the angels invited and they came gladly.
Then there were the important outsiders - the wise men. They were racial and religious outsiders. You would welcome a visit from them - it would impress the neighbours when they parked their racing camels outside the house - but only as long as it was understood that there was no way they could get a residence permit, and there was even less chance of them becoming part of God's chosen people. The wise men were not longing for the Christ to come, and they did not get an invitation from the angels or anyone else, but they read the signs and set out anyway, invited or not, and they, alone, brought expensive presents.
Then there were the important insiders - King Herod and 'all the chief priests and scribes'. They expected a king to come in Bethlehem, but they were not at all pleased to get the news. King Herod was so concerned at the political implications that he took action - and slaughtered the innocents at Bethlehem.
It's all rather odd: the angel may have brought 'good news of great joy that will be for all the people', but most people did not notice it, and of those who did, the majority did not think it was good news at all. Perhaps rather less has changed than we usually think.
This winter everyone expects Christmas and some even expect the Christ-child to come with presents. Would society recognise Christ if he really came this Christmas, or would society now as it did then find him socially irrelevant or politically inexpedient? If Jesus really came this Christmas, would the religious people be overjoyed to see him, or would they be too busy with all the Christmas events to have time to bother?
What about us? Will our Christmas be a real Christ mass? If it is a celebration and proclamation of the coming of the Messiah then our concern should be to get the message through to 'outsiders': social outsiders and those who are not Christian (including people who think they are Christians but have not understood the message). This ought to be far more important to us than whether we have preserved a particular expectation of how we should celebrate Christmas.
May Christ exceed your expectations this Christmas and in the New Year
Yours in Christ,
Richard Pamplin