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.