Penguins, Pagans and Real Love

 For me, one of the memorable parts of last year's Christmas was the John Lewis advert; the story of friendship and love with a boy, Sam and his best friend, Monty the penguin. As well as a great story, what made the advert so memorable was the soundtrack, 'Real Love' sung by Tom Odell.

'Real Love' was originally written by John Lennon around 1977 and recorded with overdubs by the three surviving Beatles in 1995. The song is a celebration of true and real love and also a reflection on how life can sometimes be a preparation or almost a kind of dress rehearsal for true love. The lyrics say “Just like little girls and boys, playing with their little toys. Seems like all they really were doing, was waiting for love.”

Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas in terms of getting decorations, food and plans ready but also in the deeper sense of preparing ourselves to celebrate again the great moment when God came to earth to be born as a human, Jesus Christ. One of the ways we do this is to look back at how God prepared his people, the Israelites, for it so we look into the Old Testament for the prophesies about Jesus and also at the people and events that foreshadowed what Jesus would do. For example we look Isaiah's foretelling of a virgin giving birth to a son (Isaiah 7:4), and we also think about the lamb whose blood saved the Israelites from the tenth plague God sent to Egypt at the Passover and how that prefigures Jesus' death which saves us from God's judgement. In our Advent Bible studies this year, we're looking at the Letter to the Hebrews and what it tells us about how the Old Testament prepares us for Jesus.

But God's preparation for the coming of Jesus wasn't limited to the Israelites. It is often said that Christmas and Easter have more to do with Roman or pagan festivals than they do to the story of Jesus, and it is true that the celebration of Christmas and Easter were linked with pre-existing festivals. But far from devaluing the Christian festivals this knowledge enhances them because it shows how God reveals himself through all people's attempts to understand ourselves and the world. Acts 17 recounts how St Paul in Athens used the kernel of truth in the Greek religious practices and thinking to explain the full truth revealed in Jesus.

God uses the world around us, our lives and our thinking to prepare us for understanding Jesus. The kernels of truth found in all religions and philosophies are like playing with toys while waiting for the full and real truth which is found in Jesus. And all our attempts to love other people are pale reflections of the real love that we see when God comes to earth in Jesus. So this Christmas I invite you to discover the greatest gift of all: God's love for you. “Don't need to be alone...don't need to be afraid. It's real love.”