Coffee Theology

At the carol services I prayed that we would all hear God speaking to us in the Christmas season, as he spoke to the wise men in the stars. If you have had a joyful day, may God deepen your joy. If you have had a stressful day, may God bless your rest. If you have had a restful day with no work demands, may God bless you in this gift of sabbath. If you have felt excluded and alone, may God meet you in the margins. If you have had plenty, may God give you the gift of seeing the needs of others. If you have not had enough, may God fill you up. Whatever the day has held and whatever tomorrow brings, may we all become more and more aware of the God who walks alongside us.

In a comment on my last post I wrote about human brokenness and how limited we are in our capacity to do good.  Today I spent a whole day running the church coffee shop and lots of good things happened: A lady from the Catholic church opposite donated a large box of Christmas crackers to the winter night shelter for the homeless, which the Southend churches are running. Towards the end of the day a man came in to say he had three bags of good quality winter clothing for the night shelter. Nearly £150 was donated to suspended meals.  This was made up of lots of smaller donations.  Several people came into the coffee shop specifically to give to suspended meals, without ordering anything themselves.  Some people added a few extra quid onto their bills.  Several asked how much they would need to give to pay for a whole meal, and I explained that most of our homeless customers choose the all day breakfast at £6.60. We also received a cheque for £100 for suspended meals. Sev

I was reading the Huffington Post today and came across a blog post by Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association, on the real meaning of Christmas: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/andrew-copson/meaning-of-christmas_b_13653684.html?utm_hp_ref=uk Apparently, a survey by YouGov has revealed that going to church at Christmas comes bottom of the list of most people's priorities, with spending time with friends and family, giving gifts and nice food and drink being the considered the most important things to do at Christmas.  Copson argues that Christmas has no supernatural meaning and yet still fulfills an important human function.  He also correctly points out that Christmas predates Christianity. I have a lot of time for Humanists, who endeavour to live good and meaningful lives despite seeing no compelling evidence for the existence of God.  They believe (if I've understood Humanism correctly) that human beings have enormous potential for good, and

  The wise men lived at a time when the most intelligent, well-educated people in the world did not understand and could not control their environment.   N o one knew why some people became ill, and there were few effective treatments.   P eople lived at the mercy of the elements – bad weather could destroy a crop, sweep away a village, and there was little they could do to protect themselves.     Pe rhaps  if they could know the future they could try to prepare for it. The wise men were ‘magi’ – they were seekers after special knowledge which was hidden to most peopl e.  Perhaps they interpreted people’s dreams, advising the rich of the hidden meanings (for a price).  P erhaps people came to them to know their future, to receive visionary messages or hear predictions of things to come.  P erhaps they were magicians, developing special rituals to produce a good harvest.  W hatever else they were, they were almost certainly astrologers – men who studied the night sky and read s

The passage that was read to us tells a very well-known part of the nativity story, which you have probably heard before.  The carol ‘We three kings’ is very popular at Christmas.  We know about the presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  But I wonder if we all know this part of the story as well as we think we do?  Here are some multiple choice questions to test our knowledge… Firstly, how many kings went to see the baby Jesus?  A. Three? B. Two? C. None? D. No one knows? Hands up for each option…  The answer is… C – None!  Although the carol is called ‘we three kings’, in fact they weren’t kings at all!  Although they usually wear crowns in nativity plays and on Christmas cards, the Bible doesn’t tells us they were kings, it says they were ‘magi’ – wise men.  It may be because of the rich gifts they brought, such as gold, that we’ve got the idea they were kings.  You may have answered ‘no one knows’ because it is true that we don’t know how many there were.  There wer

In my previous post I made the comment that Christmas is the one time of year when some people who don't really believe in God quite happily go along to church.  This Sunday evening is our traditional 'carols by candlelight' service and I will be preaching.  (Ten minutes, tops.  People come for the carols, not the sermon).  I'm excited about it because I enjoy applying the Bible to people's lives, and trying to apply the Bible to the lives of people who may never read it is a challenge, and I like a challenge.  Unfortunately, at the moment I am short on inspiration. That's not to say I don't have any ideas; I do.  Unfortunately, I have too many: 1. Talk about A Christmas Carol , and how Scrooge learns to open up his heart to other people.  This has the advantage of being a familiar and well-loved story, but there isn't much about God in there.  The birth of Jesus is referred to obliquely, and his presence is implied - after all, the Victor

Some time before Christmas 2002 I remember attending a carol service at a football ground in Exeter.  I don't remember the details, but I guess some friends must have invited me.  I was training to be a teacher at Exeter University and some of my friends were Christians.  Singing carols together was great fun, although at that time I would probably have described myself as an agnostic.  I had never been taken to church as a child; I had never chosen to go as an adult; I knew very little about the Bible.  I don't think I would have described myself as an atheist at that time, because I did think there was "something there", but the question of what that something was didn't bother me.  I did not worship the God whose incarnation was celebrated in the carols I sang, but that did not stop me singing them.  I was not at all irritated at being invited to what was effectively a church service.  Who doesn't love singing carols?  Carols are basically Christmas hymns.

I've blogged about Ebeneezer Scrooge in   A Christmas Carol    several times before, because I continue to be fascinated by this story and the many adaptations it has inspired over the years.  It's also the only book by Dickens I have ever finished (being a great deal shorter than most of the others!).  It makes me wonder if I should read more Dickens... When I was a sixth former I was in a school production of Nicholas Nickleby, and I will always remember what the drama teacher told us about Dickens' London.  You will all have seen beautiful 'chocolate box' productions, he said, which make it look very quaint and picturesque.  Make no mistake though, he went on, Dickens' London was a harsh place.  There were few choices for those facing money problems: the debtors' prison, the workhouse, or starvation on the streets.  Although Christian charity was a virtue prized by the Victorians, they distinguished (as Alfred Doolittle reminds us in   Pygmalion )

Several people have told me they've also been taking the 'Four Kinds of Christmas' quiz, and some have got 'Manger'. Manger people recognise, like Scrooges, that everything is not as it should be now.  Unlike Scrooges, however, they have hope for the future.  The Christmas story tells us that God knows everything is not right, and that he longs to put it right.  And so God comes to his people as a baby, born to humble people, a baby whose first bed is an animal's feeding-trough filled with straw.  I cannot put it any better than Christina Rossetti: In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, long ago. Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign. In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ. Enough for Him, Whom che

While Santas are delirious with excitement and Shoppers are seizing the day by the use of a credit card, Scrooges take a much more dim view of the Christmas season.  It is not that they are cruel and uncaring, like Ebeneezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' famous story, but they see the darker side of life of which Santas are blissfully unaware and which Shoppers are trying to ignore.  For some people, Christmas is a 'humbug'. Perhaps someone close to them has died, whether that be recently or many years ago, and the 'happy family Christmas' images rub salt in the wound of their grief.  Perhaps money is very tight indeed, they have been refused credit and are simply wondering how they will put food on the table, let alone buy expensive Christmas gifts.  Perhaps they are depressed, and no amount of mince pies or carolling can lift the gloom in which they are living.  Perhaps life has been cruel to them, and other people's happiness is an insult. These unhappy

The second time I took the 'Four Kinds of Christmas' quiz on www.fourkindsofchristmas.com I came out as 'Shopper'.  I was a bit alarmed, as I sometimes like to think of myself as above all that material stuff.  But whenever anyone compliments me on an outfit I tend to launch into a tale of where I bought it and how much of a discount I got (thus justifying the purchase), or who bought it for me (thus exonerating myself)... So, yes, I am pretty enthusiastic about shopping.  This is not something of which I am proud. It's a commonplace to say that Christmas is 'too commercialised'.  It's hard for me to conceive of Christmas without Christmas shopping.  The adverts start in October and bombard us non-stop for many weeks.  We make lists: decide who needs a gift, who should receive a card, and how much it will all cost.  The shops become steadily more crowded and the consumer frenzy sets in.  I have to say, although this all sounds like hard work, I

Last night, at our Advent Sunday Café Church service, we explored Glen Scrivener's 'Four Kinds of Christmas' www.fourkindsofchristmas.com .  This is an utterly brilliant resource which explores different ways we react and behave at Christmas.  You can take a quiz on the website to find out which is your default approach to Christmas.  The first time I took the quiz, I got 'Santa.'  Santa people LOVE Christmas.  They get really excited.  They love all the pretty lights and decorations, the Christmas music, the party food, the presents, the fun.  They put up their Christmas tree in October and start watching Christmas films as soon as the nights start drawing in.  This is definitely me.  I put my Christmas earrings in and my Santa hat on at the Christmas Fayre on 19th November and this will be my normal attire until 6th January... or for as long as I can get away with it.  Last year my husband had to insist that I take down the Christmas decorations as January d

Over the past few years I seem to have become one of those people who luuurves Christmas.  I'm not quite sure why.  I used to get really irritated by the fact that mince pies and tinsel appeared in the shops in September, but these days Christmas can't start soon enough for me. Perhaps it's because I'm no longer a teacher, desperately hanging on until the end of the long autumn term, around 20th December.  Growing up, my mum was a teacher, and Christmas preparations never got underway until the schools broke up.  The run-up to Christmas was less than a week when I was young, and when I became a teacher, I too found it completely impossible to think about Christmas until the start of the school holidays.  I've now been out of teaching and working in churches for nearly ten years, and the rhythm is quite different.  Christmas is one of the high points of the church calendar, and churches start their Christmas planning and preparation months in advance.  What's m

For the last few years I have become more and more interested in ways in which the festival of Halloween might be redeemed.  Today, while preparing for the 'Life & Faith discussion group' I came across some thoughts expressed in much more eloquent terms than my half-formed ideas: Christmas… was deliberately superimposed on pagan midwinter festivals, [so] why not do the same with Halloween? After all, many consider that the feasts of All Hallows’ and All Saints’ were placed at their particular position in the year to ‘take over’ the Gaelic, end of Harvest festival, ‘Samhain’. Many consider that consumerism has done a pretty good job at reclaiming Christmas and is now seeking to take over All Hallows’, completely forgetting about All Saints’. Despite all of its confused messages, Christmas is still a brilliant outreach opportunity for the Church, and one that many of us take advantage of. Why don’t we see Halloween as an opportunity as well? Tim Hastie-Smith, Nat