December 17

In his book The Moment of Truth: Reflections on Incarnation and Resurrection (Canterbury Press, 2023), Rev. Dr. Sam Wells tells a story about a reporter asking him “Don’t you think the problem these days is that Christmas has just gotten so materialistic?” 

Wells responds: 

“I need to tell you you’ve got that one completely wrong. Christmas is the celebration that God became material. At Christmas we remember just how God took material form inside the womb of Mary, God was wrapped in the material of swaddling clothes when Jesus was laid in a manger, God was put at material risk when Herod killed all the babies in Bethlehem looking for the new-born king. Christmas is about materialism. That’s exactly what we’re celebrating. Christmas is about the God who made the material world at creation becoming part of the material world in Jesus. You can’t get more materialistic than God. It’s impossible.” 

Wells continues by pointing out that the words “material” and “matter” come from the same root – that when we talk about something as being “material,” it’s a way of saying that it matters.  Based on that connection, he continues by saying that: 

“The Christmas story is about what really matters. It turns out that almost every detail in the story is about something easily ignored or people who’re habitually told they don’t matter. The story begins with the shabbiness of a woman pregnant with a baby her husband-to-be hasn’t fathered. Women with no economic independence or social standing matter. Then there’s a census that drags people back to their father’s home town, leaving Mary and Joseph with no bed for the night. Homeless people matter. Then they have their baby and lay him in an animal feeding trough. All of God’s creatures matter. The new family get their first visit from social outcasts, shepherds, who’re despised because they can’t keep the ritual washing regulations. Socially excluded, dirty, rough, despised people matter. Then they get a visit from some foreigners, travellers of another faith. People of other races and religions matter. Then the little family escapes to Egypt because Herod wants to kill the little boy. Oppressed people and refugees matter. 

“In the last 200 years our culture has turned Christmas into a season of bonhomie and the idealization of the nuclear family. But the Christmas story is telling us what matters: women with no status, migrants and homeless people, the non-human creation, social outcasts, foreigners, people of other religions, oppressed people and refugees. It’s not that we should spare a thought at Christmas for disadvantaged people: they’re what the Christmas story is all about, they take all the main parts, they’re center stage. They’re what matters. Of course we sentimentalize the Christmas story to be about a little donkey, a dusty road, a lullaby and a baby who lays down his sweet head. But that’s because we struggle so much with who the story is really about, and what the story is really saying. We want it to be a sweet story about long ago. It turns out it’s a very challenging story about today.” 

Wells continues his reflection by pointing out: 

“What else matters at Christmas? God matters… What’s really going on is expressed in the angel’s word, Emmanuel: God is with us. … Jesus is the place where God’s divinity and our humanity meet. … It’s always been about God becoming material. God becomes substance – matter. God… matters. 

… 

“At Christmas God makes the people who generally don’t matter the centre of the story. At Christmas God becomes just like you and me because what matters to God is being with us always.” 

The story we tell this time of year is about God becoming material – and it is a story that teaches us what matters – and who matters – to God.  God chooses to become one of us in order to open our eyes to what truly matters.  That’s the story we tell this time of year. And it’s Good News.