Thought for the Week: Aim to have a truly joyous celebration of the Birth of Christ

In the last few days I have had emails from some very big commercial companies encouraging me to share some joy. One major supermarket told me: "Spread a little joy. Browse online and shop any three for two".

And a big seller of home and kitchen items mused on "the joy of home made… shop Christmas baking’".

The common thread in each email was of course that Christmas joy will come my way if I increase my spending with these companies. This, of course, is complete nonsense, but they would not be spending time and effort contacting me and many thousands of others with this promise if it wasn’t going to help their balance sheet.

Needless to say, the Bible sees Christmas joy in very different terms St Luke tells us that the angel said to the terrified shepherds: "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people". And he recounts how Mary "treasured all that was happening and pondered over it." And the wise men were ‘"overjoyed" when they found out where Jesus had been born.

Let’s not be taken in this Christmas by anything that dilutes or twists what the joy of the coming of Christ really is or how that comes to us. It is stating the obvious, but in the face of sophisticated advertising, it needs to be said time and time again, the joy of Christmas is the gift of salvation in Christ and through Christ to ordinary people like you and me. This joy cannot be earned nor bought.

The right perspective is beautifully captured in one of our Christmas carols: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come; Let Earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room - and Heaven and nature sing!"