Village Shepherd

Now that we're well into December, you need to leave home at daybreak if you want to spot a parking slot in Norwich. By ten o'clock all car parks seem to be full and you find yourself waiting in a long queue, hoping that one of the early shoppers has finished and will soon be leaving, so that another spare parking space appears.

People stagger back to their cars with carrier bags full of Christmas parcels as we all race against time to get everything finished. The supermarkets are already getting crammed, and woe betide anyone who hasn't completed all their shopping by Christmas Eve, for the shops will probably be heaving with people but the shelves virtually empty.

It's all part of the fun of Christmas, as long as you have the stomach and the stamina for such frenetic activity. Sadly, for some people the run-up to Christmas is so exhausting and so worrying that they're unable to really enjoy the holiday when it comes. After Christmas we're told by the media that millions of us will be in debt to our credit card companies, because we've all overspent in trying to buy people the presents that they want.

Life today is very fast and perhaps that tends to make us impatient for instant results. We live in an age of instant gratification which is encouraged and manipulated by the advertising industry. Our TV screens are constantly exhorting us to buy more and offering us all manner of inducements to do so. Endless loan companies offer us as much money as we want and other companies offer us ways out of our subsequent debt.

We're offered two for the price of one whether we want it or not. We're more or less told that we can have anything we want and we're not encouraged to think much about the cost. We're no longer used to waiting for what we want or saving up for it; we expect it instantly. So much so that young couples now get the house exactly as they want it and fully furnished before their thoughts turn to marriage. When you're trying to figure out what to buy for a wedding present, it's much more difficult now than it was thirty years ago. The young couple already have everything they need.

This culture of instant gratification militates against Christianity, for God doesn't provide insatnt gratification so it's difficult for people to persevere long enough to discover for themselves that God is real and relates to human beings. God's timing is not the same as our timing and we often have to wait for what we want from God. We often have to wait for answers to prayer and sometimes God is so slow about responding that we conclude God doesn't hear us. When we look back we usually discover that God had it right all along, but at the time the waiting can be very hard for Christians to understand and to endure, and probably well nigh impossible for non-Christians to comprehend.

Life hasn't always been thus. Before the days of fast travel, people were more patient and expected to wait for most things, including God's responses to prayer. Some were prepared to wait much longer than others.

The prophet Zephaniah lived about six centuries before Jesus, during the reign of King Josiah, one of the better kings of Judah (640-609 BC). But Josiah became king while he was still a young boy, so regents ruled in his place. This was a time of religious degradation when people worshipped not the true God, but the sun, the moon, the stars and anything else they fancied. Zephaniah spoke out against the corruption which was found especially in Jerusalem, and warned of impending judgment which he called "the day of the Lord". This would be a time of terrible doom and overwhelming disaster.

This disaster didn't occur instantly, but some twenty or so years later Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians, and the intelligentsia and skilled craftsmen were dragged off into exile in Babylon.

But Zephaniah (or possibly a later editor) also prophesied that despite the disaster, things would improve. God would spare a holy remnant who would finally enjoy peace. This too eventually took place, as a couple of generations later the remaining exiles were allowed to return to their homes. But by then a great deal of damage had already been done. During the years in exile, the Israelites took on the culture of their captors so that the worship of foreign gods was rife and intermarriage became the norm rather than the exception. The Jewish culture was thus weakened and diluted with a subsequent alienation from God, so even though the exiles were home, things were still not good.

"The Day of the Lord" became synonymous with the prophesy of a Messiah, someone in David's line who would save the people by a great, triumphant sweeping away of all evil and who would restore peace. Christians believe that time to have been recognised in Jesus, but the coming of Jesus was quite unlike anything foretold by the prophets. No wonder many Jews were unable to identify a baby born in a stable as the great Messiah prophesied centuries earlier.

But that birth was worth waiting for. God's promises did come true, even though God's method was surprising and different and didn't fit common expectations. It wasn't instant gratification solving all Israel's problems in one stroke, but it was a huge potential which was realised in the life and death of Jesus Christ. And that potential has gone on serving humanity ever since.

Christianity has too much depth for instant gratification. To hear a response, we have to learn to tune into God and persevere with prayer. But once we do that, the best bits of Christmas never cease. Like God's love for human beings, they go on forever!