This is the brief message I brought to the adult component of the Pomonal Community Carols in 2023. Earlier in the evening I had brought a children’s message.:
Heaven on Earth, we need it now, I’m sick of all of this hanging around. Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain, sick of hearing again and again that there’s gonna be Peace on Earth.[1]
Christmas is a time when, regardless of your personal philosophy or religion, or lack of one if you think that fits you, that our thoughts look upward. If not to Heaven, then at least to higher ideals like hope, peace, joy, and love. Christmas is about family, Christmas is about children, Christmas is about kindness and forgiveness, and Christmas is about a fresh start with a new year only a week away.
Jesus, can you take the time to throw a drowning man a line? Peace on Earth. [2]
Sometimes Christmas is the time when those who believe but do not practice Christianity, and those who don’t even believe, do at least think about the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay. Christmas music is playing in shops, some of that music is about the baby and some of it is about the snow. For many secular Australians neither seems appropriate; nevertheless we enjoy the festivities and no one really wants to be a grinch, even if they would rather be left alone for an afternoon of drinking white wine in the sun.
In the coming week I will be presiding at two funerals in Stawell, and in the week after that I will be leading a service of remembrance for those who have died since last Christmas, for the comfort of those who have lost them. I too have lost a friend in the last week. Christmas is not always a happy time; there are reasons to deny Joy to the World when joy has been denied to us, just as there’s never any dashing through the snow to be had here in December.
It was Christmas Eve babe, in the drunk tank; an old man said to me, “won’t see another one”, and then he sang a song, “The Rare Old Mountain Dew”, I turned my face away, and dreamed about you. [3]
This will be his family’s first Christmas without Shane Macgowan, author and singer of “Fairytale of New York”. This is a song that you won’t find sang at many Carols by Candlelight events in Australia, the themes are not entirely child-friendly, but the song speaks of hope and perseverance nonetheless: solid Christmas, Christian themes.
I’ve got a feeling this year’s for me and you. So, happy Christmas, I love you baby, I can see a better time when all our dreams come true. [4]
I pray that your Christmas is a time of peace, love and joy, but above those values and emotions I pray that it is a time of hope for you, a time of promise and a time of encouragement and optimism. The truest meaning of Christmas for me, the one that I find in The Bible, is that we are not alone, regardless of either our circumstances or our perceptions.
The Christian meaning of Christmas is found in the name “Emmanuel”, one of the lesser-known titles given to Jesus and it means “God with us”. Wherever you are this evening, and further into Christmastime, my understanding is that God is with you. As true as that statement is for me, I pray that it can at least be your fairytale.
[1] Peace on Earth lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group. Songwriters: Adam Clayton / Dave Evans / Larry Mullen / Paul David Hewson.
[2] Peace on Earth lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group. Songwriters: Adam Clayton / Dave Evans / Larry Mullen / Paul David Hewson.
[3] Fairytale of New York lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group. Songwriters: Jem Finer / Shane Patrick Lysaght Macgowan.
[4] Fairytale of New York lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group. Songwriters: Jem Finer / Shane Patrick Lysaght Macgowan.
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