Birthdays are big time in our culture.  They are particularly important to little children.  On their birthdays  they are the centre of attention, (and don’t we all love to be the centre of attention?); frequently they receive a whole lot of presents; people gather for parties and sing Happy Birthday and the day is just so memorable.

 

I often think, if the original authors of the ditty “Happy Birthday” were able to receive royalties for all the times it is sung, they would be multi-billionaires.

 

But birthdays are not just celebrations of our birth.  They are anniversaries of our birth and celebrations of our growing up.  It’s a great day when our age reaches double figures.  It’s a big celebration when we reach the age of 18 and become recognized as adults - in my day that was celebrated on our 21st birthday.  

 

Then as we get older, we begin to forget the added years.  People are much happier recognizing they are 29 than 30, or 39 rather than 40.  But then still later we begin to be proud of our age and celebrate the birthdays of the big 0-70, 80, 90; and for some few people the double 0-100.  In all these, we celebrate our age, not our birth.

 

Early one Christmas morning, a man heard his little boy singing while still in bed.  He listened carefully and heard the well-known tune: “Happy Birthday to you.”  He thought the little chap was a bit mixed up until he heard the words: “Happy birthday, dear Jesus, Happy birthday to you.”

 

So we remember: Christmas is a birthday.  I sometimes think it a little odd that at Christmas we continue to celebrate a nativity - a birth.  Always Jesus is in the manger in a cattle stall, with adoring shepherds and wise men standing around, so much so that one little child once asked: “Did Jesus ever grow up?” 

 

 Perhaps we should remember that Jesus actually grew up.  But perhaps it would be strange to celebrate that this year Jesus would have turned 2019 assuming he was born is BCE 4.

 

Some, perhaps rather cynically, say it is much safer to keep Jesus in a cradle; - if we remember him as an adult, we might remember some of the things he asked of us, and he was far too confronting.  Keeping him in a cradle means we don’t have to face up to his demands - his commandment to love everyone, even our enemies; to forgive those who offend us not once, not seven times but seventy times seven; his demand that we share our prosperity with the poor; that we defend the widow and the orphan.

 

If it were not for his life and teaching, which has influenced the world, probably more than that of any other human being, living or dead, we would not be celebrating his birth.  So in your Christmas, remember Jesus as a little baby, one who was one of us, beside us in our joys and in our pains, and then perhaps, later in the year, there will be opportunities to celebrate his life and teaching.

 

So Happy Christmas to all the staff and readers of the Australian East Asia Daily News.

Rev. Alan Stuart Ex missionary to Korea, Retired Minister, UCA