Reclaim Christmas

 

Have a read through these twelve "C"s of Christmas. Which do you want to keep?

1. Consumption: the engine of economic growth which enslaves us and treats creation as a mere commodity there for our use.
2. Commercialism: that which sees the price of everything and the value of nothing and sees, in Christmas, one sole opportunity: profits.
3. Covetousness: the envy that drives so much materialistic pursuit and which is expressly singled out in the Ten Commandment for special attention.
4. Carbon: the by-product of so much of our modern over-consuming lifestyle
5. Climate Change: our great unchartered experiment with the biosphere. Threats to creation loom large if we don't awaken ourselves to the call to go back to some basic principles and live more simply, more sustainably.
6. Chaos: the disordered world that awaits if we do not live accordingly within the limits of God's precepts.
7. Creation: God's marvellous work, of which we are a small, but key part. God works ex nihilo , creating out of nothing. Even before the advent of humans in the Genesis creation narrative, God looks on at each passing day's work and declares all that he sees as "good".
8. Covenant: God's faithfulness pledged first to Noah and then through Abraham, resulting in the coming of "God-with-us": Emmanuel, promised to Israel .
9. Community: a true focus outside of ourselves and immediate families directing us to be mindful of those in need around us.
10. Carols: with their multiple and joyous references to the humility of the Christ-child story.
11. Candles: four for each of the weeks of Advent, signifying the coming light that will shine in the darkness and which "darkness cannot overpower." ( St John's Gospel Ch1)
12. Christ: on whom all our waiting is centred. In the simplicity and modesty of his birth, we find God's word among us with a clear message: "Live simply."

 

From Operation Noah's 'Reclaim Christmas' campaign.

For more inspiration and ideas go to www.operationnoah.org

 

Other articles you could use in your church magazine