It is that time of the year again and while we (my family) aren’t particularly Christmasy people (although we do send Christmas cards, go along with the festivities etc.) there is no escape from this season to be jolly and the action that usually happens in the lead up to what as a child I looked forward to as a magical time of year.

Anecdote 1: back in the distant past I found myself in the role as peacemaker between two devout Christian friends (Bill and Ben – not their real names) who had fallen out over their views concerning whether / how to celebrate Christmas. Bill loved Christmas and it went far beyond going along with the festivities that occupy the attentions of many of those not much into Christianity beyond the Christmas story being a nice reason to hope for peace and good will to all men, for with Bill it was a great opportunity to celebrate the Saviour’s birth. As for Ben, he cared not at all concerning anything to do with Christmas, although he loved the Christ, and any visit to his domain would reveal none of the Christmas paraphernalia that one would typically associate with the season. I suppose, I had some of the credentials one might want to see in a peacemaker. At the time, my own outside of my church involvement held significant store to recognising Christmas but then being part of the Plymouth Brethren set-up that weren’t into special days and felt every day we should consider Jesus birth, death and resurrection (celebrated in traditional Christian circles at Christmas, Good Friday and Easter Sunday respectively) I could quite see where Ben was coming from.

Anecdote 2: and especially appropriate because of my growing disability that amongst other things has to do with going to the toilet (I will spare the details) and is a story told by the itinerant Bible teacher, the late David Pawson. He spoke of staying in the homes of dedicated Christians and also pious Jews. With the former, when he needed to relieve himself, he would often be faced with a sublime Bible text for the day of his visit, strategically placed, which while lovely had little to do with the reason for his visit. In the Jewish home, he would often see a prayer posted in the toilet along the lines of thanks being given to the Almighty that having done one’s business one now feels so much better and one is wanting to express gratitude of being able to function in the toilet department as designed. Pawson used this experience to illustrate the difference between Greek thinking that he argued has so much influenced western Christianity, which also related to churches recognising days like Christmas and Easter, that had been taken over from the pagan ones, and the Jewish recognition of feasts, as had been set out in the Torah, which had associations with various harvests and also some of the highly significant happenings in Jewish history.   

In recent years, I have come across groups of Christians, that could be labelled as messianic, who ignore the traditional Christian festivals but celebrate the Jewish ones (in certain cases, their advocacy for thus celebrating was as enthusiastic as that of my friend Bill when it came to Christmas). I am not one to advocate traditional Christian festivals (feasts) like Christmas and Easter (to which we could add Advent and Lent and in certain circles like High Anglican there is something for each season of the year and thereby cover a wide range of Christian thought). And as much as I love the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles, because of their profound prophetic significance, I would not particularly advocate going out of one’s way to celebrate Jewish Feasts at the designated time any more than I would Christmas etc. Rather, I would go with the flow with whatever set-up I might find myself in, recognising each have merits: the agnostic approach of Ben and my Plymouth Brethren forefathers, Bill’s enthusiasm for traditional Christian festivals (to some extent shared by my current church) or that of my messianic leaning Christian friends and their enthusiasm for the Jewish feasts.

Whether Happy (Merry) Christmas, Happy Passover (or rather the appropriate greeting for the time of the year) or a simple Jewish or Christian greeting (I particularly like “Shalom”), that is what I wish folk who have read this far, especially as many now consider the reason for the season: the Word that had became flesh dwelt among us and the angels’ message to the shepherds: “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord“, and at this time especially as we observe the world in great turmoil, and its only real hope is in the Saviour born at Christmas:  

Update 28/11/2024

I had a thought, after I published my blog, that regarding Jewish folk I could have wished them “Happy Hanukkah”, just as I wish my Muslim friends “Salam Alaikum” (peace be unto you). I decided not to do so as like Christmas, Hanukkah is not mentioned in the Bible as God initiated. But it does fall on the same day (25th December) as Christmas in 2024. Moreover, what it represents, going back to when the celebration began after the Maccabean revolt, is incredibly significant, not just then but also for today.