Veiled in Flesh, the Godhead see

Ferndale Baptist Church welcomed the birth of the Chirst child with a midnight communion service and a family celebration on Christmas Day: both well attended.

At the Christmas Eve service, Stephen commented on the significance of Christmas: ‘Traditions can rapidly establish themselves. We can become so familiar with certain traditions that we fail to spot things that might otherwise appear odd: like the fact that we are now celebrating the onset of Christmas Day not by meeting around a crib but with a communion service. When put like this, we might suppose that celebrating Christmas Day (the day God became a human being) by a symbolic representation of Easter (his death and resurrection in adulthood) makes no sense at all…..

‘But sometimes it may be that something ‘embedded’ way back in the tradition and that inspired it can make sense of the senseless! Thus, celebrating Easter at Christmas makes sense if we ask the question, ‘why was God made man?’ Then we are brought face to face with the fact that the Christian faith has always seen Christmas as the first step to the Cross. God became a human being in order that he might be our Saviour: to deal with human sin and guilt by bearing the punishment himself. Put this way celebrating Easter at Christmas couldn’t make more sense: it is to celebrate the end from the beginning!

‘Another Christmas tradition (in England, at least) is the Christmas ‘hit’: songs like ‘Mistletoe and Wine’. The earliest I can recall is Harry Belafonte’s ‘Long time ago in Bethlehem’. It contains the words, ‘Man will live for evermore because of Christmas Day’. But Christmas songs are often short on ‘theology’: the clear understanding of the Christian faith. Thus, Mr. Belafonte is wrong on two counts. Firstly, the human predicament is not resolved on Christmas Day but at Easter! Secondly, his words suggest that the benefits of Christmas are ‘automatically’ conveyed to the human race. But this is not even true of Easter. The benefits of Easter are only bestowed upon those who, in their need, turn to Jesus and trust him to make good their own helpless condition.‘

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