What's your favourite Christmas movie? Did you watch it more than twice this year? I was surprised to see "Die Hard" by Bruce Willis picked as the best Christmas movie. Hardly the family one to watch with the kids. Mine at the moment is "ELF" with Will Farrell as Buddy seeking to reconnect with his human family having been adopted by the North Pole elves 30 years ago. The film falls apart in the last 30 minutes, partly, as in all Christmas secular movies, the premise is weak.
But the underlying tension in the movie is the reaching out of Buddy to his birth father whom he has recently discovered. The movie connects because of the resonating longing in all of us to reach out and put back relationships the way they are supposed to be. We also sympathise with the dad who's resistance resonates with our uncomfortable state with the inadequacies of human nature in others - it's easier at times to be isolated, though to our detriment (that's the moral of the Christmas Carol movie).
Built into our DNA, our code is a relational gene that if unfulfilled stunts us. It's the 'created in the image of God' part of us - the Trinity's character of relation is in us too. Thank God He reached out to us at first Christmas to put things back the way they were supposed to be. That putting back together just happens to be in community, not individualized.
And we as the Church, in community are living out and figuring out the stuff of relation as the foretaste of God's Kingdom. 'Simply Christmas' is more than an exercise in self-discipline. It moves and ends with us reaching out - to the balance of the Body, to the Body-to-be in our neighbourhoods.
Merry 12 Days of Christmas everyone!
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