| OUTSIDE EDGE (4): Gold, Frankincense and Body Lotion |
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First published in the Baptist Times - OUTSIDE EDGE column - 3/12/09 It’s okay to be a Christian who loves Christmas as long as you combine it with righteous contempt for the Crass Commercialism that swamps the True Meaning. Superfluous Consumerism is distasteful to increasing numbers of people, though not to my younger nieces or the Three Wise Men - who have spookily similar choices in gifts: jewellery, scented candles and body lotion. In my last church, the Christian love/hate of Christmas was illustrated by the Problem Family. No one called them that openly but they could read the patient sighs and teeth-baring smiles when they mentioned finances. The senior member of clergy called them a bottomless pit, presumably because once they’d had a meal today there they were again tomorrow, wanting another one. Oh, and they had Too Many Children. Even the hardliners on the charity committee conceded that it was unreasonable to delete the children, once born, so they tried instead to prove that committee members weren’t born yesterday and knew better ways to do poverty. The family should cope, with a wage-earner and a big Council house. Every small hand-out of cash was monitored for its use. The mother had been seen smoking. A child had been seen with chocolate. They had a mobile phone. New swings had appeared in the garden, though the park nearby had a free playground. Children’s shoes could be bought more cheaply than the sum they had requested. They had not kept to the budget worked out for them. They refused both the secondhand clothing and the kind offer of lessons in cooking cheap meals with mince. They weren’t only poor - they were Undeserving Poor. You just can’t help Some People. Jesus asked, ‘Who do people say I am? Who do you say I am?’ Only Peter asked the Father who he was, rather than, ‘Who does he think he is?’ If people had asked the Father - or even the Problem Family themselves - they would have heard different answers. They had asked to be moved to a smaller, lower-rent house but the Council refused on grounds of overcrowding and deemed the rent affordable because it was less than the father’s income - just. They were the only family on the estate not living on benefits. The swings in the garden were paid for by the dad working extra shifts and every rest day, because the park had a lurking paedophile, who had followed one of the daughters to school. They couldn’t buy the cheapest shoes because the child in question had wide feet. The mobile phone was cheaper than a landline. The budget had bust when the iron broke. The refused secondhand clothing was torn and sweat-stained, and the mother didn’t need lessons in cooking mince they couldn’t afford; the adults had been living on toast for a week. And yes, the children sometimes had chocolate, and the adults had the odd cigarette. When these facts were brought to the church committee, they responded penitently, by bringing Christmas presents for the younger children, though none for the over-10s, and a stuffed turkey. One member privately returned and gave them ten pounds. I called round next day and found the children ecstatic. ‘Come and see our grotto!’ The floors were bare concrete; the windows had curtains that didn’t fit; there was toast again for lunch - but one room was decked with baubles, tinsel and lights, around a battered doll in a shoebox. ‘Baby Jesus!’ yelled the second-smallest child. ‘And sparklies!’ Ten pounds worth of sparklies. But the joy in the children’s eyes was worth a million dollars. Many Christians choose to keep Christmas expenditure modest and their general lifestyle simple. But simplicity and poverty are not the same thing. So let’s follow the Three Wise Men and the sparkly star, find a No-Hope Family of Undeserving Poor, and spoil them with some Conspicuous Consumerism and be Good News to the Poor.
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