The birth of Jesus itself is surrounded with both wonder and tragedy. Think of the insane massacre of all the little boys his age in Bethlehem. Think of his tortured death only 33 years later. But think about who this is and why he came. It is impossible not to want to celebrate with the greatest energy and joy.
The trouble with many celebrations is that they are not too loud but that they are too weak. Too distracted, focussed on anything but the main story. Fuelled only by the sugar of presents and the calories of food. A new book called The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas (Ariane Sherine (Ed), The Friday Project, 2009) promotes an idea of Nietzsche who wanted to contrast two ways of living – the overt pleasure enjoyment of Dionysius and the suffering self-denial of the Christ. But the atheists have once again misunderstood the Christian story. It is not a choice between but a choice of both.
The Christian wants to celebrate with all the pleasure and enjoyment that comes not from Dionysius but from God . The human pleasures and enjoyment of fine wines, rich food, laughter, tears, friendship. After all this is about God becoming human. Human is good. Human is what God created. Human is what he is bringing back to himself.
But the pleasure and enjoyment comes from something deep and profound. It is not caused by sugar. The food and wine is a means to express it. It comes from love. An awareness that God loves humans. That he loves this human. That he has become human himself so that we can be his friend.
Grasp that and you can laugh and cry with happiness at the same time.
Dale