Wednesday 23 December 2009

A crisp November night, and the good people of Teddington had gathered to switch on the lights and usher in the Christmas season. The event has grown over recent years, and there was a good crowd of young and old - breath rising into the chill night air in great clouds as they chatted and laughed. One of the features of the event has been a flurry of temporary stalls selling every kind of light-up toy imaginable. Yo-yos, windmills, light sticks - you name it, they've got it. On this particular occasion the toy of choice was a light sabre. Lots of children persuaded their parents to buy them, and little flurries of pretend Jedi knights were scampering around the streets.

All of which would have been fine if it were not for the choir. Perhaps I should explain. Towards the start of the evening a choir from all the local churches was asked to sing carols to get things off to a good Christmassy start. I was there with the best of them, belting out the carols and trying not to drown out the good singers. Our voices were just rising to a crescendo singing "peace on earth and mercy mild" when I spotted two little boys out of the corner of my eye. There they were - knocking seven bells out of each other and utterly oblivious to the musical accompaniment.

As a minister I have learnt to appreciate the irony of such moments. Like the time when a little boy said in a loud voice on his way into the candlelit service that the trouble with Christmas is that it's 'always the same boring stories'. Alternatively there is the crib scene I bought in a sale where if you turn the key the baby Jesus rotates in his manger to the plinky tones of 'Santa Claus is coming to town'. If you didn't laugh, you'd cry!

Personally, I think we are a lot more sensitive about these things than God is. If he'd wanted to keep things terribly nice and holy I don't suppose the baby Jesus would have been born in a stable on the back of a pub and spent his first night in a feeding trough. Christmas takes place in the real world or not at all. If anything it's a celebration of God stepping into our messy world - where people belt each other with light sabres by way of starting the Christmas season. So no - I'm not offended. In fact, I might just try and buy one to take out with me carol singing. It would certainly be a novel twist on the old-fashioned lantern!