|PIC1|The seasonal gingerbread lattes and stollen cake have returned to our coffee shops and high street stores are dressed up with tinsel and hydraulic reindeers. Christmas is well and truly upon us.

Yet the uber-commercialised Christmas cheer which we all secretly love belies a seed of anxiety in the hearts of many at what lies ahead in 2009. The nation may be dashing en masse to its favourite shops in the sale time frenzy, but the weekly cull of thousands of jobs continues and research suggests many will be relying on their plastic to cover the costs of Christmas.

Not surprisingly, there has been some anecdotal evidence of an increase in weekly church attendance. There’s nothing quite like a crisis on a global scale to awaken us to our vulnerability in a world that feels beyond our own control, and prompt us to seek help from a higher being.

Luckily for the ones turning to church, they are turning to the right place. Where else can they find a ready-made family, prepared to step in with free bags of food, Christmas presents, and that all-important sympathetic ear?

And where else can they find that mysteriously divine quietude that seems to come only from sitting in a half-lit church and soaking in the sight of the cross, the musky scent of incense, and the quiet murmur of others seeking the same rest.

It’s a blissful rest that the Lord wishes will remain with us even after we have passed back through the doors of the sanctuary and out into the cold, busy world again.
After all, more than the crises in our lives – financial or otherwise - Jesus would be worried about us worrying about them! He would want to take those worries from us and give us the true rest in Him that comes with the assurance that God knows what we need and is working everything out according to His great plan.

In a bid to restore the true value and meaning of Christmas, the Archbishop of Canterbury is challenging people to slow down and use the period of Advent to allow Christ into their lives more radically. Trust the church to be the soothing voice of reason in the midst of the Christmas festivities that have sadly little to do with celebrating the birth of our Saviour and much more to do with materialistic gorging.

“It is rather a pity that for the few weeks before Christmas we are saturated with Christmas carols,” he says. “We don’t have quite the sort of quiet we need to think, well, what would it be if Jesus really came as if for the first time in my life? What would it be for the Good News really to change me? Because for that to happen I need some reflective time, I need some peace, I need to slow down, I need to take my time about things.”

Echoing his call is the Bishop of Reading, the Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, who is encouraging people to think about what they really want this Christmas.

“I love singing Christmas carols but it feels like we start singing them in October and a bit of ancient Christian wisdom would be the balance between the feast and the fast,” he says. “The season of Advent is [about] heightening expectation and preparing, not just for welcoming Christ at Christmas but for that day when we will see Him face to face. When we start rushing over that and singing the carols too quickly we miss all that and what it can bring.”

What better way to spend Christmas than remembering our Lord Jesus and receiving afresh the lasting love and peace He brings to each and every one of us. We may have to rein in on what we give each other this year but there is only one thing the Lord is asking for and it doesn’t cost a penny.

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

Wouldn’t Christmas be truly joyful if the whole world learned to do just this?