You'd Think God Would Do Something

With so little Christmas peace and goodwill on the planet, Bruce Manners searches for signs of God.

Tis the season? Call me Scrooge, but I’m finding it hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year. It’s the peace and goodwill bit that’s getting me down. I don’t see too much of either. In fact, the peace and goodwill seems to be cancelled out by fear and despair. Think about what has happened around the world in the past few months.
Think Bali! Then think back before that.

A young suicide bomber walks into a busy pizza restaurant on a Saturday night in Jerusalem. The explosion brings death and injury, and shatters again any peace processes in this troubled part of the world. There’s no peace there.

Add to this Israeli retaliation and more bombings. More retaliation. How will it end? (Will it end?) Then there’s that niggling fear that the “limited” war on terrorism may turn into the wholesale terror of war.

Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman are dead. Two kids murdered after disappearing from a barbecue at Holly’s house in Cambridgshire, England, in August.

“It was a lovely summer evening,” said Holly’s father, Kevin, “they were within their parameters, they had a mobile phone, they were together and they were taken. I think people felt it could so easily have been their daughters.”

He’s right. And although I’m cautious to avoid causing paranoia, it raises issues of trust. How can you have goodwill if you don’t know who to trust?

Meanwhile, in Australia, how can farmers in the drought-riven areas be filled with the “Christmas spirit” when they’re facing a year of little or no income and possible financial ruin? By August 2002, in the worst of the drought areas of New South Wales, farmers couldn’t sell their sheep. They had no value. That will spread quickly if the drought lasts through Christmas-time hot weather.

Grain farmer Graeme Mann from Quambatook, Vic, told the Herald Sun that after a series of bad years he doesn’t expect to be able to get ahead. “We literally can’t recover from something like this,” he said.
Something is wrong. So much of our world is in despair, even the Lucky Country, so-called. You’d think God would do something.

so, this is Christmas?
John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s view of Christmas is one of longing, at least in their song “Happy Christmas.”
“And so this is Christmas,” it begins, the year is over “and what have we done?”
They hoped for Christmas fun for the family, those near and dear. They pick up on the anticipation of Christmas—by the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor. And they wish all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year: “Let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear.”
In their version of the song, it finishes with a repetitive line: “War is over if we want it.” And right here they put their finger on the problem. Peace and goodwill will take effort. It will certainly take more than a day or a season.

or is this Christmas?
Two thousand years ago the message of peace and goodwill first echoed around the hills of Bethlehem, as shepherds heard of the birth of Jesus. Here we find God doing something. But you have to go beyond the birth to find what it is. The events surrounding the birth—shepherds coming in from the hillside; the Wise Men with gifts; the death threat against the baby—signal that something is different. Yet there is more.

Look at Jesus’ life. No life was ever like this life. He brought a healing touch. He stood up for the weak and the marginalised. He challenged those in authority. He raised the dead! Think about those four words.
And He taught a new way of living, one that focused on others rather than self. “Do to others what you would have them do to you,” He said. “Love your enemies,” He said. “Do good to those who plot against you.”

Look at Jesus’ death. Crucifixion is a cruel death, but it isn’t the manner of death that’s important. It’s who died and why. No matter how you read the New Testament, you discover the claim that Jesus died to end death. He died to give humans a chance at real life—life eternal. His was a substitute death.

There’s a direct link from Christmas to Easter. Jesus was born to die, but in dying He gave life. In rising from the dead on Easter Sunday, He demonstrated He had authority over death.

Look at Jesus’ promise: “I will come again!” Just as He broke history in two—BC and AD—He promised to return to end history as we know it, and establish His kingdom. That’s a kingdom without suicide bombers, that’s safe for kids, and where there’ll be no drought.

No wonder His promise of a Second Coming is the most mentioned topic in the New Testament. No wonder Paul the apostle called it the “blessed hope.”

This is the package—the present—that makes it worth celebrating at Christmas time. And it’s this that will bring about the ultimate in peace and goodwill.

it’s personal
God has done something. In the teachings of Jesus, He demonstrated how we could bring peace on earth and goodwill to all. Lennon and Ono were right: war can be over if we want it. But are we willing to pay the price? Peace and goodwill? We could start in our own spheres of influence and let it ripple out to others. That may not stop a war, but it could begin to make our communities safe for Hollys and Jessicas.

In fact, Christmas gives us the excuse to begin to tackle some of the fear and despair in our communities: To go and talk to the neighbour we’ve never spoken to, to wish them a good Christmas. To help the Salvos, Smith Family or ADRAcare spread some happiness and cheer and be involved with them in helping those who are underprivileged. To initiate a street carols party. It’s about breaking down barriers and then keeping them down.

And why not, with your family or friends, drop into a church to consider the true essence of Christmas? We do have to ask the question: What do we do with the baby born in Bethlehem? For in Him we see hope—now and in the future. And we see the real chance of peace and goodwill.
OK, you can now un-Scrooge me.

Because God has done something, it begs a response. His Christmas gift—Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and His promise to return—is yours for the taking. Will you?

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