[st uriel's] Christmas

[Rev Fr Tim Mansfield]

Friends,

I spent Christmas day in Sydney for the first time this year. This is the
second time in my whole life that I haven't been in Brisbane with my family
at Christmas time.

When I was a teenager, living at home, family Christmases saw my mum, dad
and sister along with Mum's parents and her sister all together at our
place, eating and opening presents all day (and into Boxing Day). Dad's
sisters and their families would visit through the day, neighbours would
drop by. Vast amounts of food and endless gifts. Lots of joy and love and...
well... bounty.

Through my late teens and early twenties, dad's sisters got older and less
inclined to travel. Mum's parents died, then Dad, then her sister. For the
last ten years, it's been my sister, her daughter, Mum and me together on
Christmas day. In the last few years, since Mum moved out of our old
neighbourhood and into a house far out of town there's been no neighbours or
friends dropping around.

There's still been a lot of food and presents, but the whole event has had
for me a kind of grim determination to keep having Christmas. It's still
been a lovely time with my family, but with less of a sense of joy for me.
To me it's felt a lot of the time as though we're keeping Christmas largely
for Mum's sake - it's always been her favourite time of year and since she
lost Dad, it feels like we've all been very focused on "putting on" a good
Christmas.

Towards the end of this year, Mum died. My sister and I gave each other
permission to have our Christmas however we needed to - both acutely aware
that this was going to be a weird one.

So, I stayed in Sydney. A friend offered to join Anthony and I on Christmas
day, so I bought unreasonable amounts of food and spent the day cooking. And
we feasted and toasted and enjoyed each other's company. I had my own
Christmas, more or less on my own terms and I found myself delighting in
many of the things I'd always done.

Sydney at Christmas time takes on a very focussed character. Things get more
and more directed toward the day, special shops selling Christmas
decorations open, local groceries give away bbqed sausages, houses get
decorated in inflatable Christmas-bling. But the streets get quieter as the
day draws nearer.

It's usual for clergy to decry the "consumerist" character of modern
Christmas, to bemoan how "pagan" our Christmas customs are, to mourn the
"loss" of the "true message" of Christmas – the incarnation of the Divine in
the human form of the baby Yeshua, who will grow up to show forth the Word
Incarnate in his actions and his teaching.

But I kind of don't get all the hair-tearing. From where I'm sitting, the
true message of Christmas is Divine Grace: the free, unearned, unmerited
love of God. "For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten
Son". The story we tell is that we are given someone very precious - a gift
which nothing in our actions or our words really warrants - a gift of
healing and reconciliation, a gift of limitless, unconditional Love.

The story of Christmas is that no matter what, God always shows up first.
She is always there for us, She is always waiting, ready for when we want to
come home for dinner. She is overflowing with gifts and with food. Our time
spent with Her is full of love and joy and bounty.

When we ignore that inner meaning to Christmas, all our shopping and our
gifts and our cooking and eating can be debased into meaningless
consumerism. But when we walk in Her Light, those exact same visible actions
are lit from inside as manifestations of the Grace and Bounty of the Divine.

So next Christmas, shop shamelessly. Give shamelessly. Love shamelessly.
Christmas is the one moment in the year where without any boundaries or
limits we can celebrate the bounty of our material existence and the
spiritual bounty that symbolises. I don't think we should rein it in, I
think we should challenge ourselves to take it further. Deeper. Wider. To
family, to friends and beyond.

May the love and light and bounty of the Infinite Divine Mother-Father
overflow from the cup of your heart to illuminate your soul, life and world
with boundless joy, grace and peace. My blessings for the coming year in all
your endeavours. My regards to your families and friends.

Your servant in the Light,

Tim+

Reverend Father Tim Mansfield
Rector, Parish of Saint Uriel the Archangel <http://www.saint-uriels.org/>,
Sydney, Australia
Apostolic Johannite Church <http://www.johannite.org/>
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