I went to a lot of trouble to make sure that the first Christmas happened in a very rough, dirty, human, unreligious way.

But Religion has tried to sanctify and whitewash the story.

God do you have anything you want to say about Christmas?

Mark are you serious?

Why do you say it like that?

I don’t want you to get the wrong idea Mark, this is not a reprimand, this is me God down at your level, like a friend, just wanting a conversation with you like any good friend would.

Okay??

I’m asking if you’re honestly serious? You HONESTLY want to know if I, God, have anything to say about Christmas??? Seriously????

Okay, umm, yes I guess I sort of do want to know that. (Feeling a bit dumb).

Mark Christmas was my idea – an idea I had before time began. And it’s more than just an idea, it’s an agreement between the three of us that I would come as a man. That God himself would come down to your level and be a man with you to show how serious we are about a relationship with you. We invented Christmas.

But God what about all the trappings and commercialisation? The Christmas trees and presents and festivities – are you okay with those things? Some people don’t like all that.

We love it. We like the rough and ready, every day human sort of celebration of Christmas – family, resents, festivities – we like that better than the sanctimonious religious celebration of Christmas.

What?? You love it? But you don’t like the way we’ve made it a religious occasion?

It’s supposed to be a time of family Mark, a celebration that something special happened on that day long ago. We’re absolutely fine with it. But there is a problem to do with Christmas that has NOTHING to do with festivities, celebrations and presents and much more to do with the way that Religion has reduced the real life significance of Christmas.

What’s that?

There’s nothing wrong at all with the festivities. We like all that, but Christmas was meant to start a discussion, a conversation between God and man. A very human sort of conversation, not another religion. We didn’t want you to start a religion, just a conversation. An ongoing conversation in your everyday life. But because you didn’t there’s nobody who really wants to know what I have to say about Christmas. You believers think you already know, and the rest of the world doesn’t realise that I have anything to say about anything. You believers have taught them that I’m grumpy and angry and don’t want to converse. I want to talk to you about that. There are three problems Mark.

Three problems?

Yes three problems that stop me telling you all what I really think about Christmas – and none of them has anything to do with commercialising Christmas. I like all the gift giving and the family getting together and even the parties. Yes even the parties. That’s a different conversation, but it’s true.

Okay so there are three problems? Is this a reprimand, do you want us to repent or something?

Not at all. I’m not cross Mark. Your enemy is cross and he pretends to you that I am.

What then?

I’m not reprimanding you, I’m inviting you to talk.  There are three problems that prevent me telling you what I think about Christmas. Three problems because there are three groups of people. First there are those who don’t believe I exist. They don’t want to know what I think about Christmas because they don’t think that I think.

Then there are those of you who believe. You’re a much bigger problem at Christmas than those who don’t believe.

REALLY?? We’re worse?

Yes. You’re much more of a problem. You believers can be divided into two groups – the first group are those who think I’ve already said everything I wanted to say about Christmas, they’re the ones who believe in the traditional sanctified ‘holy’ Christian Christmas and they teach each other the same message every year, they teach each other that what you already know about Christmas is all I’ve got to say. They don’t invite me to say more. They just repeat the same old story.

So is a traditional Christmas bad?

Not at all. I enjoy it. Every culture does Christmas a little differently, but that’s simply humans interpreting what Christmas is about. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Well what’s wrong then??

There’s a difference between you celebrating a great day according to your own traditions – and actually asking if I have any more to say about Christmas. The problem is that you involve me in Christmas without really involving me in it at all.

Religion has taught you, whatever denomination you belong to, that i seldom say anything much in a clear human sort of way. And you certainly don’t expect me to say anything new at Christmas. You think you already know all about it. Everyone knows the story. There’s nothing wrong with what you know, nothing wrong with celebrating it, but I would love to tell you more. There’s so much more to tell. The first Christmas was supposed to start a billion conversations. Thousands of years of thousands of conversations with millions of people Mark.

So who’s the third group, I guess they’re the ones who ask you what you think about Christmas?

No. That’s not a big enough group to really even call a group in this discussion.

Really?

Really. Mark very few of you ever ask what I think about Christmas.

Why?

Because you think you already know and you’ve never been taught that I want a back and forward conversation with normal every day people. That’s just not inside the normal Christian frame of reference.

That’s too big a subject to get into now God, just tell me who the third group are?

They’re the believers who think I’m cross about the way you celebrate Christmas. They’re wrong too. They think that I’m mad at you, that I think you’ve cheapened Christmas with all the shopping and giving presents etc, but I’m not cross about that at all. I like it. At least you’re doing something very human to place value on a day that I WANTED to be very human.

What have we been taught?

To remember that this is a special time of the year. And it is. This is when God demonstrated his desire to be on the same level as ordinary average human beings. I came to a dirty farm building smelling of animals and poo. I came as the illegitimate child of an unmarried mother. I came smack bang in the middle of my people being counted by a brutal occupying army. I didn’t come to deliver them from that but to be part of it, a defenceless baby caught up in the middle of it.

In human terms the first Christmas was a bit of a mess Mark, fraught with all the problems of life. That was always the plan. I wanted to demonstrate my willingness to fit with humanity. Not to be distant and above all its problems. I wanted to get involved. I want conversation with you ABOUT your problems. Discussion. Not sanctimonious or hurried offerings of prayer with no expectation of intelligent response. The angels didn’t announce my arrival to pastors and preachers, they didn’t appear in the middle of a bunch of believers - instead they told the story to a few rough and dirty farm workers who had no real affiliation of faith. Can you see the picture Mark?

Yes that’s what we get taught. That’s the whole Christmas story.

Yes it is. But you’ve made it a nice ‘holy’ sort of story, when I went to a lot of trouble to make sure it wasn’t. It’s great to celebrate it but can you see why I got the angels to tell the story to non-believers, just farm workers, not people of faith?

You tell me God.

Because the unchurched take things at face value Mark. They have no religious understanding, no preconceived ideas that I must fit with before they’ll hear me. But you believers are different. You make a religion out of everything I do and set up structures that I must fit within. Christmas is one of your most complex efforts in that regard.

I’m getting a bit lost God.

No need. Let me lead in this conversation. I’m not lost. I told the Christmas story to farm workers with no strong connection to organised religion because the Christmas story isn’t for organised religion. It’s for people. Christmas isn’t supposed to be the property of church. It’s the property of mankind. Christmas belongs to the world, not to Religion. I’d like Church to stop acting like they own Christmas, to stop giving it religious overtones. I went to a lot of trouble to make sure that the first Christmas happened in a very rough, dirty, human, unreligious way. So I’m not happy with the way Religion has tried to sanctify and whitewash the story. Christmas isn’t a whitewashed story it’s a very down and dirty human story. Give it back to the world please. Not in a Churchy, sanctimonious sort of way. But in my way.

How?

You’ll have to ask Mark. That’ll be interesting. Christmas is for and about people. Normal people with lives that are far from perfect, people who party too much, smoke too much, eat too much and worry even more. And people who don’t. People who are just trying to get along – those who aren’t quite making it and those who are. It doesn’t much matter. Just people. Christmas is a time to celebrate, however you want to celebrate it. I like that you make up your own ways to do so because it means you are adding to an event that’s about you and me. Not just about my birth as a man, but about the reason God was born a man, and the reason is you.

There’s a but though isn’t there??

No there’s not Mark. You Christians are always looking for a ‘but’, always looking for me to be cross or for there to be a need for humans to be better behaved. Is it any wonder that normal society finds you all so painful? You can’t enjoy life and you can’t enjoy the real me or the real reason for Christmas because you’re so busy worrying that everything needs to be better, cleaner, whiter before I’ll be happy. I CAME IN THE MIDST OF MESS AND I CAME IN A MESSY WAY MARK. Because I like humanity. I wanted to demonstrate that I’m as accessible as accessible can get. I wanted to show that the Pharisees and temple rulers and teachers of the law were about as far from the truth of what I’m like as they could be, and Mark nothing much has changed. Organised religion in its many guises STILL fails to demonstrate to the world what I’m like or what Christmas is ACTUALLY about.

PRAISE FOR THE FREEDOM DIARIES

The Freedom Diaries will stretch you. It describes Mark’s real life struggle with Doubt as he discovered that he could hear God’s voice every day.Dr Mark Virkler. Author of 4 Keys to hearing God’s Voice. Buffalo. New York.

Like a child on Christmas morning, I was delighted to discover how simple yet wonderful it is to place my hand into the hand of God and listen to his whispers and enjoy his affection.  I could only ask why no one had ever told me he was this good and this close.  I wish I had read this book a long, long time ago.  Daniel Walker. Founder and Executive Director of Nvader. Author of God in a brothel.

This is new and exciting. It’s not the idea of hearing from God that’s new, it’s having conversations back and forth, question and answers. That’s new for most of us. Now I am enjoying my own conversations with God, which always leave me with hope. David Garratt of Scripture in Song. Hawaii.