UNPACKING THE GIFT OF CHRISTMAS

FIRST PART: Find the gift.

Step 1. – Look in the Gospels, and in other parts of scripture too.
Step 2.– Get ready to be surprised. Lots of us imagine we already know what Christmas is all about, and consequently miss out the bit that really matters.
Step 3. – Be prepared to search. The shepherds and the wise men had to do so, why should you be different?
Step 4. – Ask real questions, not just clever ones. Our questions should bring us face to face with what we want for Christmas – from Jesus
Step 5. – The Gospels are not stories for children, they are serious theology done in a friendly way, a way which only the heart of a child really understands.

SECOND PART: Know where the writers are “coming from”.
This is nothing like as difficult as we imagine. We already know what the writers of the Christmas stories had at the back of their minds, because we have the same thing at the back of our minds.

In big serious theology we describe the work of Jesus by using words such as, "Redemption", "Atonement", "Salvation" etc. But the Gospels explain it all using simpler words and colourful stories. Here’s a good example of how they do it.

Theology reminds us that before Jesus, only Jewish High Priests could go through the curtain in the Temple into the very presence of God (the Holy of Holies). It then goes on to use big words like “Justification” to teach us that by his death and resurrection, Jesus changed everything. Now, because of Jesus, we can all meet up with God. Wonderful stuff, but heavy!

The Gospels put all that wonderful but serious-sounding teaching in a way we can easily picture and remember. Even a child could. Here it is. When Jesus dies on the cross, the Gospels say,“The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

There you have it, big serious theology expressed in an unforgettable image. That’s the way the Gospels work with Christmas too.

When we come to unwrap Christmas that's the kind of thing to look out for. The events surrounding the birth of Jesus are NOT there to entertain us or give us nice memories of our childhood but to explain what the birth of Jesus means to us now that we are grown up. This takes us very nicely to part 3, below.

THIRD: Now you have found the gift, you should do like they do in Scripture:

1. Like the shepherds in the Gospel of Luke, you should praise (GLORIFY) God for the sheer wonder of it all.
2. Like The Gospel of Matthew talks of the wise men laying their gifts before Jesus and going back to their own country by a different way. You too should let the your meeting with Jesus change you so that you go back to your own life and live it differently.

That done, you have definitely unpacked
the Gift of Christmas