BBC Christmas Thought
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/documents/t20061221.shtml
Thought for the Day, 21 December 2006
Anne Atkins
Don't we talk a lot of nonsense at Christmas! The other day I was reminding our three year old of her resolution to be impossibly good so her stocking would be filled with presents not coal, when she fixed me with a beady eye and said, "This Father Christmas: is he real?" I looked as shocked as I could and replied, "Good-ness, what a question!" She looked at me, looked at the telephone, and said, "Go on then: ring him up!"
I'm not sure why we're fussing about the Wintervalisation of Christmas, given all the rubbish we've added to the Christmassing of Christmas: the bleak mid-winter and crisp and even snow and three kings from Persian lands afar, all of which I love but none of which are historical. Jesus was not born on the 25th of December - and frankly, if some automated humanoid councillor wants nothing but godless gorging and faith-free shopping that's fine: we'll celebrate His birth in March or April, as the early references suggest.
Which might be no bad thing. Have nothing to do with myths and fairy tales, St Paul wrote. Richard Dawkins recently compared believing the Christmas account with belief in fairies. But when an academic strays off his subject, CS Lewis commented, one should ask how much he really knows - for instance about fairy tales. "I've been reading romances, visionary literature, legends, myths all my life," he contin-ued. "I know what they are like. Not one of them is like this. Of this text there are only two possible views. Either this is reportage - pretty close up to the facts - or else some unknown writer in the second century suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern novelistic realistic narrative," Lewis concluded. The account of Jesus' birth is as far from a fairy tale as could be.
Fairy tales are make-believe, swirled in the mists of obscurity. "Once upon a time, in a far-away land, in an age long ago..." Christianity is rooted in history: in Bethle-hem of Judea, during the reign of King Herod. We know the location down to a mile or so, and the time to within a year or two. As Dorothy Sayers said, Jesus Christ is the only god with a date in history. This is no fantasy, but verifiable fact.
Fairy tales are escapism, rags to riches, handsome prince and gallant rescue. This tells of foreign occupation, illegitimacy and shame, and the brutal murder of all male babies and toddlers by a savage and merciless tyrant. No feel-good factor here, but harsh political reality.
Fairy tales have cosy endings, the couple married, the happy ever after. But the young girl who was given burial spice at her son's birth was to see Him tortured and dreadfully executed in the prime of life. And of course the end hasn't happened yet. He also promised to return, in a terrifying day of Judgment, when He will save for ever all those who commit to Him now.
After all, a fairy tale makes no demands on us¦
copyright 2006 BBC
Thought for the Day, 21 December 2006
Anne Atkins
Don't we talk a lot of nonsense at Christmas! The other day I was reminding our three year old of her resolution to be impossibly good so her stocking would be filled with presents not coal, when she fixed me with a beady eye and said, "This Father Christmas: is he real?" I looked as shocked as I could and replied, "Good-ness, what a question!" She looked at me, looked at the telephone, and said, "Go on then: ring him up!"
I'm not sure why we're fussing about the Wintervalisation of Christmas, given all the rubbish we've added to the Christmassing of Christmas: the bleak mid-winter and crisp and even snow and three kings from Persian lands afar, all of which I love but none of which are historical. Jesus was not born on the 25th of December - and frankly, if some automated humanoid councillor wants nothing but godless gorging and faith-free shopping that's fine: we'll celebrate His birth in March or April, as the early references suggest.
Which might be no bad thing. Have nothing to do with myths and fairy tales, St Paul wrote. Richard Dawkins recently compared believing the Christmas account with belief in fairies. But when an academic strays off his subject, CS Lewis commented, one should ask how much he really knows - for instance about fairy tales. "I've been reading romances, visionary literature, legends, myths all my life," he contin-ued. "I know what they are like. Not one of them is like this. Of this text there are only two possible views. Either this is reportage - pretty close up to the facts - or else some unknown writer in the second century suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern novelistic realistic narrative," Lewis concluded. The account of Jesus' birth is as far from a fairy tale as could be.
Fairy tales are make-believe, swirled in the mists of obscurity. "Once upon a time, in a far-away land, in an age long ago..." Christianity is rooted in history: in Bethle-hem of Judea, during the reign of King Herod. We know the location down to a mile or so, and the time to within a year or two. As Dorothy Sayers said, Jesus Christ is the only god with a date in history. This is no fantasy, but verifiable fact.
Fairy tales are escapism, rags to riches, handsome prince and gallant rescue. This tells of foreign occupation, illegitimacy and shame, and the brutal murder of all male babies and toddlers by a savage and merciless tyrant. No feel-good factor here, but harsh political reality.
Fairy tales have cosy endings, the couple married, the happy ever after. But the young girl who was given burial spice at her son's birth was to see Him tortured and dreadfully executed in the prime of life. And of course the end hasn't happened yet. He also promised to return, in a terrifying day of Judgment, when He will save for ever all those who commit to Him now.
After all, a fairy tale makes no demands on us¦
copyright 2006 BBC
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