Christmas is coming…Somehow every year the pointers towards Christmas seem to arrive earlier and earlier in the shops, on the TV, online – tree decorations, canned carols, wrapping paper, special “Christmas offers” – you name it! And they do, these pointers towards the Christmas of too much food, too much telly, too much spending…
But these are Johnny-come-latelies compared with Old Testament prophecies of the birth of Christ such as this week’s passage from Isaiah. Written some 700-odd years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah is full of predictions of the birth, death and purpose of Jesus. An early Christian writer, Jerome, said of Isaiah that “he described all of the Mysteries of the Church of Christ so vividly that you would assume he was not prophesying about the future, but rather was composing a history of past events!”
Christmas is coming…but which Christmas? The Christmas foreshadowed by more and glitzier adverts or the one prophesied and predicted in the Old Testament? The tinsel and stuffing version, or the Christmas celebrating the most momentous birth of all time? The Christmas of excess, or the Christmas of access as we realise with awe that through the coming of Christ God is among us, that we do have access to the God who loves us?
The reality is probably both. But this Advent season as Christmas approaches, let’s make sure to celebrate and share its true meaning even as we look forward to enjoying the turkey and crackers…