Good news for everyone?

While standing in Coleraine town centre yesterday, watching council workmen hack their way through ice in an effort to clear pathways, and watching UTV record this grand event, my mind couldn't help but drift back to 30°C of Cameroon. Watching people look hassled as they search for Christmas presents made me wonder if, for our society, how much of Christmas is about the good news of God made flesh.

Maybe we have believed The Good News, According to Diet Coke?

If you can't read it, the text says: 'Bernadette says, "Nothing heals a heavy heart more than a heavy shopping bag." '

I am writing this on 21st December – the shortest day of the year. It was exactly six months ago that we left Cameroon and there has been plenty of time for thinking and reflecting on our experience since. Adverts like the Diet Coke one, photographed soon after we got home, are still jarring. Of course we need to own things – whether they are clothes or cars. Of course the people who sell these things need to advertise them. But is happiness really in the amount of stuff you have?

This time of year is about someone who turned his back on stuff. As Philippians 2 puts it, “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave, and was born as a human being.”

He wasn't born in the place where the Magi expected – Herod's palace. Instead, he was born as a helpless baby whose bed was a borrowed animal trough.

Sadly, it's a story many people have forgotten. After one episode, BBC's 'Nativity' (weeknights 7pm, or iPlayer) seem to have done a good job of portraying it so far. Some people might be concerned about the accuracy of 'backstory' they have suggested – after all, there's not a lot of blow-by-blow detail in the Gospel accounts. In all honesty, very little is known about Mary or Joseph before their betrothal. However, they've done a good job of keeping to the spirit of the times. It shows that the marriage was, in all probability, decided on by her parents in a time when good girls definitely waited until the wedding night. In a time also, when Joseph and her parents could have demanded Mary's execution for her apparent adultery – instead, being a good man, he decides to quietly end their engagement (until Gabriel turns up to tell him what really happened).

The tax-collector being despised; the shepherd as the lowest of society – all fair comment for the times. Indeed, the shepherd leaving his flock behind to go in search of one lone lamb was a nice reference a story Jesus told in Luke 15. I hope it turns out as well as it has started.

In an age where Christmas seems to be centred around gifts, it's good to be reminded that the Magi started that tradition. In an age where 'religious cards' seems to be an ever-shrinking section of the card stores, it's good to be reminded that the Mass to celebrate the birth of Christ has very definite origins!

As my friends at Wycliffe are fond of saying, translating the Bible is ultimately about telling a story in someone's own language and the way of communication that speaks into their heart. In today's visual, multi-media age, hopefully The Nativity will carry that off well. I wonder if anyone has asked them to pop the Biblefresh logo on-screen at the end?

Last night ended with Gabriel appearing to Mary and a cliffhanger ending as he prepares to deliver some news to her. I wonder what the announcement will be?