Elf

So, only 3 shopping days until Christmas – are you ready? Are you sure you’ve bought everyone their present? Are you sure that you didn’t give Dave a tin of Roses last year too? Did Sian really not remember to give you a card last year? Do you have a spare pressie or card for that “just in case” moment when Bill turns up at 11pm on Christmas eve with a bottle of wine?
Christmas can become so much a “tick box” exercise that it is easy to forget the true meaning. The Elf on the Shelf now 16 years old has been a recent, and in my humble view, not so good addition... An elf who tells on you?
But just how much is myth and how much is true about how we remember the Christmas story? Well how about a short test. How many of these statements are true?

• Jesus was born in a stable, on 25th December, just after Mary and Joseph arrived
• There were four types of animal present at the stable
• Three kings visited Jesus within those first few days

Well? …In fact none of them is true.
Nowhere does it say Jesus was born on the day they arrived and no date is mentioned for their arrival. Indeed, as the shepherds were outside with lambs it was unlikely to have been December. The evangelists refer to a manger or stall and not a stable and apart from the donkey (which wasn’t necessarily little), animals are never mentioned. There were three gifts, not three kings, in fact they weren’t even kings and it is even possible they didn’t visit Jesus until he was 2 years old, just before the family left for Egypt.

The fact that we have come to believe these myths shows the power of images, tradition, custom and practice in moulding our views and even creating our understanding of truth. In the same way, people’s views of religion, faith and God has been moulded and conditioned through images, tradition, custom and practice. So, when those who wrestle with the idea of God and faith have their views reinforced by continuing to experience prejudice and discrimination at the hands of people of faith, you can understand how those views are confirmed.