A very good leader in the Church Times pointed out how Christmas highlights the extremes of wealth and poverty in the UK.
“Figures from the retail industry show that seasonal sales in the UK are the highest in Europe: £88 billion in 2024, up £3 billion on the previous year. Second place went to Germany, which lagged £9 billion behind us. And, according to the Bank of England, average household spending went up by more than £700 last December.
“This sits uncomfortably against a background of statistics about deprivation in the UK, which has one of the worst child-poverty rates in Europe: it is ranked by UNICEF as 37th out of 39 comparable European and OECD countries. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, three in ten children (approximately 4.5 million) live in poverty in the UK. Of these, an estimated 3.6 million live in households that cannot afford food, heating, or bills.”
Shocking, shocking stuff. Read the whole leader article here.
I was reminded of that wonderful song by Amy Grant, with its enchanting chorus:
“I need a silent night, a holy night
To hear an angel voice through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear, a little peace right here
To end this crazy day with a silent night”
And it is not that we need to hide away at Christmas, to find our safe little place and think sweet holy thoughts. Not at all, because our God is not that sort of god. Christmas isn’t about escaping from the noise and the chaos, and the world. It is about the angel voice, right there, in the midst of the chaos and the noise. And that includes the chaos and the noise of shopping, and cooking and decorating and rehearsing, partying…and praying!