Hi folks
Good thoughts here. As somebody who loves Christmas, I’ll throw my hat in the ring .
First off, I agree with Steve (alecf) in endorsing John’s statement in the OP that “God experienced humanity so that humanity might experience God”. Amen. The Incarnation is essential, and central to everything I believe. Not because Jesus came to earth so that he could die in vicarious sacrificial propitiation of God’s anger at our sins - I now find that doctrine both ridiculous and offensive. No, he came to show us the Father, because no-one has ever seen God, and it would be impossible for us to know him otherwise. (Of course, Jesus came to do lots of other things, including teaching, healing and defeating the powers of sin and death.)
So for me, the Incarnation and the birth of Jesus are more ‘worthy’ of celebration than Easter. (Although in his Christmas Carol Service address last Sunday my Dad said almost the exact opposite. I didn’t challenge him about it )
Does Christmas present an emasculated God? I’m not sure. I agree with Cindy - and GMac - that God is actually child-like in many important ways, and so the popular Nativity play image of him as gentle Jesus meek and mild doesn’t bother me - as long as it is not used to the exclusion of other, equally essential images of God.
Is it wrong to celebrate Christmas at all, given its pagan antecedents? Not for me. I don’t care about the pagan roots of Christmas - I celebrate Christmas a) to mark the Incarnation, for the reasons cited above; and b) as a holiday, time to spend with my family and loved ones. All the horrible secular consumerism of Christmas I would gladly hoover up and drop wholesale into a very large, very deep hole, along with all the advertising people responsible for all those execrable 'Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without …" ads. (I’m with Bill Hicks here: “Anyone here in advertising? Please, just kill yourself.”)
And how can you not love Boxing Day? Cold turkey sandwiches, cold sausages and pickled onions, and The Great Escape on TV - a great British tradition. Heavenly!
All the best
Johnny