Pash over cash
(a poem)

All of the gifts which I never got
Well I guess that I don’t miss them much.
Of all of the gifts that I’ve ever had
The ones I love most are the touch
Of a hand at my back and my feet on wet grass,
and my babies’ wet kiss on my cheek.
Well I guess that they’re right though I hardly believe it will be Christmas time in a week.

All those signs in the store that want us to buy more
Telling us that they’ll sell us love fast
Yes they’re ten percent off but they’re all made of crap
‘Cause they don’t really want them to last.

So I stagger along wondering what has gone wrong
And where’s just one good thing to eat?
I feel like a fool staggering down rundle mall
When there’s 26 shops for my feet.
Or a nice spray on tan or gifts for those from Japan
Who are only here for a day.
When they head for their plane you know I’ll be pray’n
That they take this whole place away.

All those signs in the store that want me to buy more
To show my great love with some cash.
Call me old fashioned but I’d rather show
My wife that she’s loved with a pash.
And my kids with a hug then a game on the rug
‘cause in the blink of an eye they’ll both go
So I’d rather be round now as much as I can
Than working to pay back what I owe.

So how about this Christmas, we all stay in the black?
Like the sun weathered skin of that Nazareth chap
Who went on about money and the dangers of wealth
For those trying to nurture their spiritual health

Give gifts of love, they won’t send you broke
Lots of big hugs (come on, even you blokes!)
To those who want one, offer a kiss
Celebrate love, not capitalist-mis*

(*or "be filled with the Spirit, not filled with piss")

An evolutionary Christmas story for kids

This is a story about Jesus.  Not a bible story. It starts long, long ago.  Way before the Bible, or even books!

Once upon a time there was God.  Just God, all alone.  Lonely.
All God wanted to do was love somebody.  Because that’s what being God is all about.  Loving.

But God had nobody to love.

So whoosh! God gave birth to the universe, which gave birth to stars, which gave birth to planets, which gave birth to living things.  Including right here on the outskirts of the milky way galaxy, where we live.
The very first life was tiny, and had no brain, so although God loved it and thought it was good, those little blobs couldn’t really love God back.
But they had babies, which had babies, and so on and so on for a loooooooong time!

And just like you are a bit different form your mum and dad, and from your grandparents, each of their babies was a bit different.  Eventually sooo different that Earth ended up with not just blobs, but grass, and plants, and huge trees.
And of course fish, and frogs, and lizards, and mammals like kangaroos and dogs and dolphins, and of course us! 
This was getting more like it!  Lots of different plants and animal for God to love.  And some of them started loving God back!
Which animals love God?  We can’t know for sure.  We know all mammals love their babies at least a bit, so they might love God at least a bit.  What do you reckon?
So, all these animals, for years and years, being born, growing up, having babies of their own.  Just as it should be.

But after a long time, one kind of animal started to get scared.  Not just when being chased by a crocodile, but a lot of the time.  Because they were scared, some of them started being mean.  Some of them kept to themselves and didn’t have any friends.  Some got selfish.  Can you think what kind of animal that was?

Now, not all of them got this scared, but a lot did.  Enough to cause a problem for everyone else.  A biiiig problem.
And if it’s a problem for others, it’s a problem for God!  These people were so scared they stopped loving each other, and stopped living God.  Uh oh!  The whole point of making the universe was starting to come undone!
So God started calling to the scared people, over and over again:
DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED, AND DO NOT BE AFRAID. 
I LOVE YOU!  YES YOU!  BE JOY-FULL, BE WONDER-FULL!
LOVE LIFE, LOVE YOURSELVES, LOVE EACH OTHER, LOVE ME!
Now what on earth has this got to do with Christmas!?!?

Well, if you’ve heard of Jesus of Nazareth, you will know that he was a Jew, born in Israel a long time ago.  Not long compared to how old the Earth is, or even how long humans have been around, but pretty long.

He walked all over the place talking to other humans, so he got very grubby.  He spent most of his time with the kinds of people that others thought were too grubby to even be seen with.  If you’ve seen Jewish people on TV, he probably looked like them (but grubbier).

Now,  lots of people who met Jesus came to believe that he was the one whom God had been promising would come and set people free.  Free from fear, free from people being mean to them, free from not having friends and so on.

The Jewish word for that person was the Christ.  So they ended up calling him Jesus the Christ.  And “Mass” was another word for communion, which means “being together.”  So Christ-Mas meant, being together with Christ, or with the One who sets us free.

Christ-Mas: Freedom is with us.  Love is with us.  That is God’s gift to all of us: love.  It’s the best gift we can ever give.  (All the grownups I know might remember one or two presents that their parents gave them when they were little but they ALL remember how much their parents loved them.  And if they have kids they might remember some of the presents their kids gave them, but they ALL remember the kisses and snuggles.)

But how did Christmas work?  How does it work today?  How did God saying “I LOVE YOU” turn into Christmas?  Books and books have been written arguing about it!

Some people think that during all the walking Jesus did, and the time he spent in the outback, and the time he spent eating with grubby people, he heard those words of God calling, and told everyone else about them.
 
Some people think that he heard those words more clearly than anyone around him, maybe more clearly than anyone ever has.  That made him brave enough to speak up, even when people didn’t want to listen.

Many people think that Jesus actually was God’s words calling to us!  Like if you wanted to talk to a dog you would have to turn into a dog, so God had to turn into a human to be able to speak to humans.

So: was Jesus one of the people who heard God, or the person who heard God best, or the only person who heard God, or actually God?  Different people who wrote the bible seem to have different answers.  What do you reckon?  See what some adults think.

Only God knows the real answer I suppose.  But whichever it is, Christmas is a great story.  God didn’t come to earth as a rich and powerful ruler, but as an ordinary person like us.  Or: God didn’t choose to speak to a great king, but to an ordinary person.  Or: When God speaks to everybody, it isn’t the powerful rulers, but the ordinary people like us who are most likely to hear it!

The point is to make sure that we listen!  Whatever Jesus did, the same Spirit of God who was with Jesus is now in all humans, saying over and over,
I LOVE YOU!  YES YOU!  BE JOY-FULL, BE WONDER-FULL!
LOVE LIFE, LOVE YOURSELVES, LOVE EACH OTHER, LOVE ME!
Let’s see if we can hear it this Christmas!

Capitalistmas reflection
Now, we all know that Father Christmas doesn’t exist. He’s a figment of the imagination.  But I miss him.

We also know that there is a spiritual Father who does exist.  We know him to be real.  We know him to be evil!

Who is he? Father Capitalistmas of course!

Father Christmas was just unchristian. He gave to those who were good and not to the bad. 

Admittedly, he knew nothing of the gospel of grace- with him you were saved by good works (being naughty, not nice).  He was not a Father who brought rain on the just and the unjust.  But he was fairly innocuous.  In the old days most kids got a little something (and that’s all they got) to tell them they were good after all.

These days Father Christmas is just an innocuous PR front man for the new Father- Father Capitalistmas.  The new Father is just plain evil.

He doesn’t use elves, but turns poor children around the world into slaves to make toys for rich children.  He doesn’t give to the good, but to the rich.  At capitalistmas time, the rich are the good.  They get lots of toys, Father Capitalistmas' little retail minions fall over themselves to serve the rich. 

Meanwhile, the poor, those seeking refuge, aren’t welcome, whether it’s in Australia itself, or any of our shopping centres.

Father Capitalistmas has bought out, and hides behind, the jolly, harmless looing, fat old git in a red suit.  The one who prostitutes himself to children at hundreds of brothels around Brisbane.  He offers them a pat on the head and a fleeting sense of being loved and affirmed- as long as their parents have cash!

Jesus declared a God who fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty.  He comes to bring good news to the poor.  He scatters the proud and lifts up the lowly. The rich man who kept his possessions went away sad, rich Zaccheaus found salvation when he shed his possessions.

Father Capitalistmas and Santa, his bearded puppet, do the exact opposite.

So…
Do we believe in Jesus' Father enough to resist Father Capitalistmas, and the hoards of retailers who manipulate us into bowing down to their God? 

How do we resist Father Capitalistmas without being a killjoy, a spoilsport, a cheapskate?

If we are going to pour cold water on FC’s good news for the rich, we need to really believe JC’s good news for the poor.  The problem is it can be hard to work out if we are the rich or the poor. 

We’re not Packer.  We’re not homeless.  I’ve heard the situation most of us are probably in described this way, in comparison to conditions in the time of Christ. 

We aren’t the masters of the house, and we aren’t the absolute poor who have no house.  We are the household slaves.  Wanting to make things better for the outcast but afraid of our masters and their ability to cast us out.

So we make some gains and some losses in our desire to follow either Jesus, or the God Jesus pointed us to: engaging with the very heavy reality that what Jesus said about hospitality and giving and living life is pretty much the exact opposite of how we are expected to live at capitalistmas time- the time when we are supposedly celebrating the arrival of the revelation of Christ.

How different would the world look if we applied just three of Jesus' thoughts at Christmas time:

1. Give in secret
2. Do not give to those who can repay you.
3. When you give a feast, don't invite those you know, but the poor and the outcast.

I have to admit its too much for me, too late, this year. Perhaps a bunch of us could get together next year and give it a go!