mgpcpastor's blog

This was published in Mount Gambier’s local paper today.

‘Strings of lights above the bed, Curtains drawn and a glass of red, All I ever get for Christmas is blue”. So begins a song by the duo Over The Rhine. With its ever-increasing build-up from somewhere in early November, it seems more and more people are finding Christmas a melancholy, not merry, time of year.
Sometimes the reasons for those feelings are more obvious: a death or tragic event around this time of year brings an annual reminder of sadness; for others, the first Christmas after a loss means attempting celebration with the tangible reminder someone or something is missing.
For others the reasons are harder to define. Having to manufacture joy and happiness to suit an occasion is hard. Feeling no joy within when everyone else seems so upbeat magnifies the sense of being the odd one out.
If only joy could be purchased as easily as a tree, a turkey, and exactly the right choice of gift. Sometimes we fall into the mistake of thinking that we can spend our way into happiness. As we find ourselves repaying the credit card bills through the next year we remember that we can’t.
The news broadcasts are not much help either; the whole world seems to be lurching from one social or environmental crisis to another.
Maybe all you ever get for Christmas is blue.
Even if you feel lonely, you’re not alone. There are others who feel this way too. Others who are putting on a brave face, but are filled with dread. Others who simply disappear off the social calendar this time of year, rather than be seen as out-of-place, not wanting to endure well-meaning efforts to cheer them up.
‘Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!’ the Bible says. It was an expression that encouraged exiles to anticipate a future return to their home. Those words allowed a company of people who shared a common experience of loss and sadness to look forward with hope.
Their tears, their loss, the unexplainable burden of their hearts, their blues, were expressed in common and affirmed by God. Their blues were not the sign of something wrong with them, but a sign of their deep desire for a better future.
One of the biblical phrases describing Jesus is ‘man of sorrows’. The state of the world was a burden to Jesus as well. He stands with us in sorrow, while bringing hope that the source of sorrow will be overcome. In fact he claimed he would be the source of that victory.
Christian churches have historically mixed their celebration of the birth of Jesus with remembrance of our expectation that Jesus has to return again. We long with a burden for everything to be made right, even as we celebrate the coming of the one promised to make everything right.
If all you ever get for Christmas is blue there is a promise that ‘weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning’. We may cry together in the dark, but we’ll laugh when the light fully shines on us.