Context
- November – and for retailers the countdown to Christmas is now at full pelt. The Christmas jumpers and decorations are in the stores; London’s Oxford Street switched on its Christmas lights on Tuesday; and over the past week the Christmas ads have started their run on our television screens. Among the advertisers, both Lidl and Currys PC World are urging us to dig into our wallets and ‘upgrade’ our Christmas giving and celebrations with their products.
- By contrast, this week also saw the arrival of Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, in the UK, to begin a two-week investigation into why ‘many people are really struggling to make ends meet’ here in ‘one of the richest countries of the world’. He will be exploring topics from austerity measures to the rollout of Universal Credit.
- This PostScript focuses on the topics above, but on Sunday it will also be the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when we remember the end of the First World War, 100 years ago. Many of us will be marking this 100th Armistice Day within our Sunday worship. In the ROOTS magazine and on the website (subscribers only) you will find a wide range of resources to help you with this, including a new litany for this centenary year.
Reflection
It seems it’s no longer enough just to celebrate Christmas with friends, family and good food. This year’s crop of Christmas ads want us to take it further. In Lidl’s series of ads, members of the public ‘upgrade’ their Christmas with Lidl’s seasonal produce – and some comically outrageous attempts at one-upmanship: a 16-piece orchestra; a 75-foot Canadian fir tree; snow from the North Pole. Those extras don’t work out too well: the container full of snow makes the wrong kind of splash, arriving as little more than a puddle. So yes, Lidl are ridiculing the excess that we sometimes go to in an effort to impress. But in the Currys PC World ad, ‘The magic of Christmas upgraded’, there’s no satirical bite. A Dickensian street scene, straight out of A Christmas Carol, is ‘upgraded’ with the addition of modern technology – headphones, drones, a massive flatscreen television. These gadgets, we’re asked to believe, are what it’s all about this year. These are the gifts to give, or better yet, receive – this is how to upgrade Christmas!
Both ads in their own ways play on our desire not just to celebrate or to give gifts, but to do it better; better than before, better than others. To be seen to be the best, upgraded, ahead of the rest.
In Mark 12.38-40 Jesus warns us to be wary of this lust for status, and of those who give in to it. If we do things – especially, perhaps, the things of faith, like prayer and worship – only ‘for the sake of appearance’ or the reward we might gain, then we, like the hypocritical scribes, deserve condemnation, not respect.
So, if not their example, whose should we follow?
At the temple, Jesus draws his disciples’ attention to the rich making make large payments into the treasury ‘out of their abundance’, at little real cost to themselves. After them, a widow brings her offering, small in comparison, yet so much more costly and committed in real terms: ‘everything she had, all she had to live on’. The generosity and sincerity of her sacrificial giving made her contribution worth so much ‘more than those’ (Mark 12.41-44).
The attitudes of the rich men and the widow to their duty to give are in sharp contrast. The widow’s giving is sacrificial but (as ROOTS Bible notes suggest), the rich seem not even to be paying their fair share. Were their contributions being made with the same generosity as the widow’s, perhaps the burden might not fall so hard on those like her, who started out with less. The lesson it seems, is that we should all give generously and freely from what we have, rather than keeping the best for ourselves, so that all benefit.
Surprisingly, there is a whisper of this even in the Currys PC World ad. In the soundtrack, fleshing out the festive feels, a choir sings the Victorian carol, ‘Good King Wenceslas’. As the ad is short, they only just make it to the end of the first verse, and the lyrics are almost drowned out by a snoring woman and a buzzing drone. But you can still just hear the start of the story told in the song: ‘When a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel…’
There’s no poor man in sight in the ad, of course, but in our real high streets and real world it is hard to remain completely blind to the existence of poverty. Anyone spending time in larger towns and cities will have seen the signs that begging and rough sleeping are increasing. News headlines on Universal Credit and benefit sanctions highlight the difficulties faced by some of the most vulnerable in society. Against this backdrop, the Trussell Trust this week reported a 13 per cent annual increase in demand for emergency supplies at the 428 food banks in its network. There is – as the UN special rapporteur has noted – real hardship around us, even in a rich country like ours. For those worried about getting a decent meal at all this Christmas, an upgraded experience will be far from their minds.
In the carol, Wenceslas and his servant respond to their encounter with the man by going to fetch him food, drink and fuel. They don’t do it for show – it’s dark and no one is around. And they don’t do it because it’s easy for them; the ‘bitter weather’ and ‘rude wind’ make it a costly endeavour. But they do it all the same, giving generously, like the widow; doing their duty with everything they have. The servant even reaches the point of collapse as a result of the effort but is saved by being invited to walk in the warmth of ‘his master’s steps’. The song finally ends, in a not very advertising-friendly fashion, with a moral message: ‘Ye who now will bless the poor / shall yourselves find blessing’.
This then, is Christmas upgraded, kingdom-style. Not to chase after wealth and rank, status and show, or the latest must-haves; but to recognise our duty to follow in the footsteps of our master, giving to others generously, simply and sincerely, even when it costs us dearly.
Prayers
Asking for the courage to give
Generous, abundant God,
help each one of us to feel secure in your love,
so that we might be courageous enough to use what we have in your service,
– whether we have a little, or a lot –
giving boldly and freely, even when it costs us dear.
When we feel we have little,
help us not to undervalue our resources and abilities,
but instead to give freely, without fear or shame.
When we feel we have much,
help us not to become proud, greedy, or complacent,
but instead to give freely, not for praise or reward.
God who gives us life,
help us to see that whatever we have
– time, money, talent, love –
comes from you.
Give us the courage to hold it lightly,
and the wisdom to use it well for your Kingdom.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
A prayer of thanksgiving
O Lord, our God and king,
thank you for inviting us all into your Kingdom.
thank you that when we take up that offer,
we are all deemed worthy of an upgrade.
not because of how much we’ve paid,
or how long we’ve been with you;
not because of what we have done,
or who’s seen us do it;
but just because of who we are in you:
princes and princesses, the precious children of God.
Amen.
Questions
Duty
- Do we sometimes feel cross that we haven’t received praise or reward for things we’ve done; even if they were actually our duty? How can we move on from this?
- Does our society do its duty to the vulnerable today? This is a politically sensitive issue, particularly given the current debate around Universal Credit in the UK, but it doesn’t mean it’s one to ignore altogether.
- Should the church go further than the government? Already around 8,000 Church of England churches, 60% of the total number, work with food banks in some way, and other denominations are obviously also involved. It has been suggested that food banks have become the biggest area of churches’ work. (The i newspaper, Tuesday 6 November, p. 7)
- What examples can we think of people who have gone ‘beyond the call of duty’ for us or others we know?
Upgrades
- Invite people to discuss upgrades. Have you ever been upgraded on a flight? How did it make you feel? Why do you think it happened? An upgrade is generally something more or better than we expect or deserve to receive. Does it make any sense to think of what Christ has done for us in these terms, as an upgrade freely given?
Giving
- What are some of the things that stop us from giving as generously as we could?
- What are some of the things that have helped us to give generously in the past?
- Have we ever found that we have been blessed as a result of giving?
All-age activity
If you would like to explore the theme of upgrades you could find your way into it by exploring your group’s own suggestions for how to upgrade Christmas, taking a lead from the Lidl ad. Either show or describe one of the ads and then ask for further ideas. Perhaps you’d like to ride into school on the last day on a reindeer? Maybe you’ll cook up whole cabbages instead of sprouts? Or build a chimney onto your home if you don’t have one already, just so Santa can climb down it… Or if it’s too early to talk about Christmas, how could you upgrade daily life instead? Travel to work in a golden horse-drawn carriage? Have a uniformed butler carry your books to class? Be as silly and outrageous as you like, it’s just a bit of fun.
Then move on to think about how we might upgrade Christmas or daily life in a Kingdom way. Brainstorm suggestions together. Could you buy something for the local food bank when you do your Christmas or weekly shop? Add an extra gift to your Christmas list to be donated to someone who might not receive many presents, perhaps via a care home or children’s centre? Could you pause to hold the doors open with a smile in the corridor at work, or give up part of your lunch break to sit in private and pray for someone in need?
Young people
The Guardian this week reported on an unusual restaurant in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Refettorio Gastromotiva reuses food that would otherwise be thrown away to provide meals to people in need. But it’s an upgrade on an ordinary soup-kitchen, serving up ‘social gastronomy’ – fine dining designed by professional chefs, and cooked by trainees who are themselves among the less privileged in society, as an opportunity to learn skills that may help them get work. Look at the photos and read about the work the project is doing to help the poor. What do you think about this work? What other kinds of social enterprise have the young people in your group heard about – or what can they dream up?
Rebecca Froley was the web editor of ROOTS when it first launched and now works in business publishing, for a website serving the retail industry. This means that once a year she gets to watch all the Christmas ads and call it work. She attends her local Baptist church.
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