Rod Benson is an ethicist and director of public theology for the Tinsley Institute, based at Morling College in Sydney, Australia. He is a former church planter and pastor. He is married with three sons and attends Dural Baptist Church.
Australia lies south of the equator, and Christmas falls in the middle of summer. The weather can be sweltering, there is often bush-fire smoke in the air and winter Christmas traditions seem strangely out of place. Yet most Australians persevere with the traditional trappings of the festive season.
Although secularists and multiculturalists have tried to abolish public expressions of the Christian tradition of Christmas in Australia, in recent years, there has been plenty of evidence that Jesus is the reason for the season. Nativity scenes appear in shopping malls, homes are adorned with Christmas lights, people say “Happy Christmas” to one another and there are nationally televised Christmas concerts featuring traditional carols and an implicit evocation of the biblical Incarnation narrative.
For Australian Baptists, Christmas is a time for spiritual formation, outreach and community service.
For example, Small Boat Big Sea, an innovative missional community based on Sydney’s northern beaches, kicked off Advent in 2009 with a labyrinth service (prayer walk), and the next two Sunday services will address different aspects of waiting on Jesus.
Blakehurst Baptist Church, a Sydney suburban church, will host a “stations of Christmas” event, where participants walk from house to house as elements of the Christmas story are presented in drama and song.
Kenmore Baptist Church, a large Brisbane church, presented a contemporary version of the Christmas story set to adapted lyrics from pop songs such as “I’m All Shook Up” and “Graceland,” emphasizing God’s gracious intervention in human history to save us.
Dural Baptist Church, of which I am a member, has a range of Christmas activities, including three fund-raising projects.
We will help develop Futsal, a small-court soccer program, in Solomon Islands, building a stronger sense of community through sport. Dural introduced Futsal to the Solomons in 2001.
We also will contribute to a Baptist World Aid Australia … project in Solomon Islands focused on employment, HIV/AIDS education and teacher training. And we will support a Baptist World Aid Australia project in Cambodia, providing microfinance to help people disabled by landmines to achieve economic independence.
Away from church, there also are opportunities for meaningful outreach. A friend of mine directs an [prenatal] ward in a major Sydney hospital and last Christmas, commissioned a series of scenes from children’s stories for the hospital — “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe;” “The Wind in the Willows;” and “Little Women.”
What I love most about Christmas, apart from the delicious rest and food, is a fresh awareness of the depth and extravagance of God’s love and the reminder that with God, the impossible becomes history. Christmas never fails to deliver.
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