Christmas Hope

I have a distinct recollection of a Christmas when I was 10 years of age. I woke up at 2am. Excited, and unable to think of anything but presents, I went out into the lounge room. There I discovered that my brothers were also too excited to sleep. We stared for hours at the presents under the tree. We discussed what may be in each parcel. As the hours past we knew that the time was near for Mum and Dad to awake (actually, we went in about 5:30am to speed up the process).

Isn’t this hope? It’s where we long for something, we desire something. Christmas holds out hope (Of course it also holds out disappointment for children who don’t get what they want, and I’ll leave you to look at YouTube for this)

Once again though, our hope is rather reduced to what is inside a box and envelope. It’s reduced to what will make me happy.

Christmas hope is about longing, is about desire, but for a better world. And we have the example of people, such as Mary, Elizabeth, the shepherds and a widow named Ana who longed for a new beginning.

If you hope for a momentary experience of joy, place your hope in gifts. If you want a world where no-one suffers, where things are fair, everyone is cared for, animals are protected, armies aren’t needed, where people live with purpose, have integrity, will go to great lengths to help, then place your hope in Jesus. That’s the future He has come to bring. His birth marks the beginning. Now is the time for people to take up the offer of new life and be filled with anticipation of Jesus’ return.

This Christmas as you open the present, remember that there is a bigger one yet to arrive.

Christmas in Australia

If any event should bring offense to a secular, multicultural country, it should be Christmas.

Here, we focus on the birth of the Son of God, the one who comes to provide salvation. The event calls for people to respond by worshipping the newborn king. (Just in case you missed it, Christmas claims that Jesus is God, that He is the authority on heaven, that we are sinners who need saving and that we can’t live as however we choose). So why aren’t people offended?

I think it’s because Australians have the capacity to reinterpret cultural events. Take the Queen’s birthday or Labour Day. Christmas is celebrated because of the significance it brings to Australians.  Let me outline what I think Christmas means to Australians:

1) Time to get out

Summer starts in December, but it is a busy month. It’s only as Christmas draws near that we take advantage of daylight savings. I think this is why external Christmas lights have become popular. They invite people to go out after dinner and walk around the neighbourhood (Carols events also get people out).

2) Time to catch up

Australians try and fit a lot into their lives, often at the sacrifice of relationships. Christmas provides the space where we can catch up with family and friends and express our appreciation for the relationships we enjoy.

3) Time to look forward

After the winter months, the helter skelter of November, we can finally lift our heads above the daily grind. We can start to think about the year ahead. More importantly, we cast our eyes forward with a positive anticipation of what could be (what political campaigns fail to do, Christmas delivers).

So that is the focus of Christmas in Australia, and it means that any Australian can embrace it. Dick Gross commented that the “God of Sun, not the Son of God, is at the heart of the Aussie Christmas.” SMH December 12^th, 2013.

As nice as this is, I think it lacks. The Australian Christmas gives us hope (which motivates us to get up and get out) but lacks substance. I remember thinking that 2012 was bad (hurricane Sandy, Pakistan floods) and that this year would be better. But then I reflected on this year- the Blue Mountains bushfires, Typhoon Haiyan, Sichuan earthquake, Boston Marathon Bomb, Newtown shooting in US, Textiles company in Bangladesh… and I could go on.

We hope for a better year, but with no reason to think it would be any different. The Sun God rises and sets. Things go on as they always have.

The hope of Christmas is that the Son of God has come to change things. He has come to bring a new creation without the disaster, death and disease we see each year. He hasn’t returned yet, allowing as many people as possible will place their trust in Him, and find their home in the kingdom of God.

This Christmas, don’t reinterpret hope. Embrace it.

Ethic of consent

Christians seem to out of kilter with the rest of society. Issues such as same sex marriage, euthanasia and gambling raise the question- what's wrong with Christians?

To answer that we need to understand the dominant principle in modern day ethics- consent.

Now if there is no morality (only values), then it is unlikely that we will have a common ethical basis.
So it seems that we now have an agreed procedure:
                              If no third party is affected, the consent ethic is implemented.

It really is a procedural ethic of giving permission to do what you would like.

So what's the problem with this?
Let me share some:

1) Radical individualism
It nice that you have freedom to do what you want to do, but it also removes any communal obligations that you might have (remember, Kantian ethics are also void).

The ethic of consent remove the need to care for family members, volunteer at the local school or give to those in need.
The choice to do these actions engages another ethic.

2) Problem of akrasia (weakness of will)
The assumption is that you will choose what is best for you. But what if you don't (or can't)? Take dysmorphia (a person can't stop thinking about one or more perceived flaws with her appearance).
They could choose to consent to surgery, an eating disorder or removal of a limb.

We don't allow the ethic of consent to shape our actions because they don't know what is best for them.

3) Problem of environment
The ethic of consent is only concerned with the moment of decision. It doesn't consider background factors (ie abuse), cultural factors (peer-pressure) or power factors (ie doctor/ patient relationship).

4) There are virtues
In essence, Christians disagree with the ethic of consent being the primary guide to our actions because there is a way that thing are meant to work (a created order). We don't live in a world where people can hold their own values (ie terrorists). There is a way things work.

Does this help you understand where Christians differ?