This time of year is generally exciting for everybody, pretty lights and Christmas trees tend to have a caffeine effect on children, and parents and uncles and aunties throw lots of money at their nearest shop (ASDA?) to show their little darlings how much they love them. It all disappears in some sort of 'Fake-Plastic Tree' haze (thanks Radiohead). Personally I really dislike this kind of Christmas. It is meaningless and I am sure Tom Yorke (Radiohead composer) had this in mind when he created the song. So if you feel that Christmas is all a load of hype, then don't feel alone. The thing that bothers, reallty itches, is a Fake Plastic Tree life. They smell like plastic (not fir), they look really bad, and they ... yuck.
Us lot at Café Forever/ City of Peace already have lots of gaudy lights and a huge FPT. The idea is that locals will bring in some decorations from their home and hang it on our FPT and so foster a sort of belonging. I told Tom (not Yorke) that I did this once and somebody made an angel out of a beer bottle and added wings, so we have to be prepared for what we'll get! We will also be putting on a small carols service outside ASDA, nothing like our past years Christmas markets. It has been put on hold this year in order that we can focus more intently on reaching supporters (it takes a huge number of man hours to put on a Christmas market).
We will also be having our service in St John's hall and hoping that lots of people who are tired of FPT come along, generally it is quite popular, though the interest in Christianity tends to disappear by New Years day- people revert to the idea that FPT's are actually quite nice.
But for the small number who do maintain that the FPT is actually a drudgery and would like to see the real thing then they should get on down to Trafalgar Square where there is a massive Spruce from Norway that is donated each year, beneath which there will be a merry throng of singers.
A further addition to the Christmas activities is that I have a date to give a talk in Christchurch on the 23rd of December and all of City of Peace that remains for Christmas will move there for that service.
The reality of Christmas is that we should be celebrating the story of incarnation - a man begotten of God, born to woman. Excuse the strange words...begotten means basically replicated, a 1:1 CD version, with no defects, no errors. That this is an unusual event is renarkeable in that all other people who walk about on the earth are reproductions of other people, containing some of each party, with a lot of flaws, errors and scratches on the disk. As such we miss the beat, skip to other tracks when we are played, and some of us are better off as beer coasters than putting out any tune. Forgive the analogy but we started out with Tom Yorke.
If we want to hear the original, without any errors, scratches, flaws, we need to go to the master, the original. This Christmas, if you receive a DVD or a CD from somebody, will you be a little upset if it jumps about? Same with that FPT in your living room. Imagine what it would be like to walk in the forest among beautiful tall fir trees in the snow, smell the pine, hear the birds - THE REAL THING. Are you real?
Jesus is what REAL Christmas is about. The message of God, brought to life on earth, living, walking, showing how it is to live, from birth to manhood, suffering alongside us. To show what it is to be God as man. You want to show love to your children - become a duplicate of the master. Jesus is the firstborn of creation, the source, the master, and we can be reformatted. Now that's something to celebrate!
Of course some would rather stay in FPT bliss for what it's worth. In my opinion - Yuck!
BTW - here's Radiohead!
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| Fairly large FPT! |
Us lot at Café Forever/ City of Peace already have lots of gaudy lights and a huge FPT. The idea is that locals will bring in some decorations from their home and hang it on our FPT and so foster a sort of belonging. I told Tom (not Yorke) that I did this once and somebody made an angel out of a beer bottle and added wings, so we have to be prepared for what we'll get! We will also be putting on a small carols service outside ASDA, nothing like our past years Christmas markets. It has been put on hold this year in order that we can focus more intently on reaching supporters (it takes a huge number of man hours to put on a Christmas market).
We will also be having our service in St John's hall and hoping that lots of people who are tired of FPT come along, generally it is quite popular, though the interest in Christianity tends to disappear by New Years day- people revert to the idea that FPT's are actually quite nice. But for the small number who do maintain that the FPT is actually a drudgery and would like to see the real thing then they should get on down to Trafalgar Square where there is a massive Spruce from Norway that is donated each year, beneath which there will be a merry throng of singers.
A further addition to the Christmas activities is that I have a date to give a talk in Christchurch on the 23rd of December and all of City of Peace that remains for Christmas will move there for that service.
The reality of Christmas is that we should be celebrating the story of incarnation - a man begotten of God, born to woman. Excuse the strange words...begotten means basically replicated, a 1:1 CD version, with no defects, no errors. That this is an unusual event is renarkeable in that all other people who walk about on the earth are reproductions of other people, containing some of each party, with a lot of flaws, errors and scratches on the disk. As such we miss the beat, skip to other tracks when we are played, and some of us are better off as beer coasters than putting out any tune. Forgive the analogy but we started out with Tom Yorke.
If we want to hear the original, without any errors, scratches, flaws, we need to go to the master, the original. This Christmas, if you receive a DVD or a CD from somebody, will you be a little upset if it jumps about? Same with that FPT in your living room. Imagine what it would be like to walk in the forest among beautiful tall fir trees in the snow, smell the pine, hear the birds - THE REAL THING. Are you real?
Jesus is what REAL Christmas is about. The message of God, brought to life on earth, living, walking, showing how it is to live, from birth to manhood, suffering alongside us. To show what it is to be God as man. You want to show love to your children - become a duplicate of the master. Jesus is the firstborn of creation, the source, the master, and we can be reformatted. Now that's something to celebrate!
Of course some would rather stay in FPT bliss for what it's worth. In my opinion - Yuck!
BTW - here's Radiohead!
