Taking Christ out of Christmas

This talk was first given at our 10:15 service on Sunday 30th December. Our Sunday School was still on leave for Christmas, so I tried to ensure the children were catered for in my talk today! The Gospel was Luke 2:41-52, where Jesus stays behind in the temple without his parents.

Right! Well, that’s it! Christmas is all done for another year, and now we’ve got some tidying up to do! We need to prepare to go ahead into 2019, and get ready for everything the new year will bring! We’ve got some stuff to do in the church here for that… would anyone like to help me?

<children come up>

Excellent. Ok. Up here, we’ve got our travelling nativity. Maybe it came to some of your houses over Christmas? Well, now Christmas is done, we need to get it all ready for the new year. Some of the figures probably need a bit of a wash, and maybe a bit of a patch-up here and there. And we need to get a new sign-up sheet sorted don’t we, so we know where it needs to go next year?

Ok – you take Mary, and you can hold the donkey…

<General loading of children with all the nativity figures and paraphernalia. Amidst the bustle, the baby Jesus is left behind. The procession winds its way around the church, dropping bits and stopping to pick them up, and generally causing a nuisance, until it gets to the vestry. 

Once inside the vestry, cluttering and banging can be heard as the nativity figures are ‘put away’>

Goodo! You put Joseph down there, and we can put the shepherds here in this cupboard. Great – now put the sheep and the donkey up there by the window… hang on! Wait! Be careful! <noise of breaking glass>

Ah, well, never mind that. It was getting a bit stuffy in here anyway; the breeze will help clear away some of those cobwebs too.

Right – who’s got Jesus?

<children protest his absence>

Argh! We must have lost him along the way! Come on! Let’s go back to find him!

<the group make their way back through the church until they get to the front>

Ah! Here he is! We never took him with us! We left him here. We were too busy with all the other bits, that we never noticed we left him behind.

<to the children> Thank you for all your help, you lot! Can you all sit down here on the step?

It’s funny that when we were sorting everything out to take with us, that we left Jesus behind, isn’t it? Because, that’s exactly what happened in our Gospel story today! Jesus’ family had been attending a festival called The Passover in the city of Jerusalem, and when the festival had ended, everyone was so busy with packing up and getting back to their ordinary lives, that they didn’t realise they had left Jesus behind.

I think that’s the key part of our Gospel reading today – When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they did not know it.

Now, we all know that – despite what I said earlier – our festival, Christmas, isn’t really finished, is it? It goes on for a few more days yet. Some people will tell you that it finishes on 6th January – Twelfth Night, but, actually, Christmas goes on until the beginning of February, when we celebrate Candlemas. But, for most people, that’s it now. The big day is over, and it’s time to get back to normal life, and get ready for the new year in a few days’ time, and all the excitement that will bring. It’s pretty soon, time to pack all this up, and put it away.

And that’s where our reading from today comes into its own. Because, when we return to normal life, and we put all of Christmas away and leave it here in December as we move into January, we need to decide what we’re doing about that little baby Jesus. Are we going to put him away too? Are we going to leave him behind here, with the stable and the donkey and the whole of the rest of Christmas?

I think that’s what our Gospel is trying to make us think about today. It’s odd, isn’t it, that in today’s story, he’s no longer the little baby; he’s a 12-year old adolescent, on the cusp between child and adult, but next week, he’s back to being an infant again, as we celebrate Epiphany and the visit of the wise men. I think we’re being reminded that Little Baby Jesus can’t stay a baby forever. If he’s going to fulfil the purpose of Christmas, if this baby is going to change the world, and change us, he has to grow up.

And we have a choice to make. We can leave him here, keep him as a baby and bring him out year on year, sweetly sleeping, to ‘ooh’ and ‘aww’ and ‘coo’ over, or, we can invite him to journey with us as we go through the year ahead. Are we going to leave him behind, or will we take him with us?

Some Christians often complain that Christ is being taken out of Christmas; that you’re not allowed to wish somebody else ‘Merry Christmas’, or mention Jesus or talk about God for fear of offence. Let me tell you, that those Christians are wrong. Not just because that’s all nonsense, but also because the idea is wrong. If today’s Gospel tells us anything, it is to do exactly that - Take Christ out of Christmas! Take him with you! Don’t leave him here; take him with you! Take him into 2019 and as you journey through the rest of your life, and let him grow in you and you in him.

Because, if you do choose to take him, you will be changed; that’s what happens when you have God as a travelling companion. That’s what the whole transformative power of the Christmas story is all about; God changing the world, God changing us. But, for it to happen to you, you need to choose to take Jesus with you.

I’m going to leave this baby Jesus from the travelling nativity here, on the piano. He’ll be here for the rest of the morning. It’s up to you, though, what happens when you leave those doors at the end of the service. Will he stay here, as the Little Lord Jesus? Or will you take Christ, the light of the world out with you as you go? Will you take Christ out of Christmas and into the world?