Shake it off!

I just heard a term that brought a laugh:  Swiftmas!  With Taylor Swift coming to Toronto, there has been a flurry of activity that included merchandise sales that have gone through the roof (a blue Taylor Swift Ares Tour t-shirt would set you back by $800!) and police activity that parallels the visit of leaders from countries across the globe.  I chanced upon a radio station that had sent reporters down to the epicentre of the action, and discovered teens (and their parents who likewise bought those very costly tickets) waiting for the arrival of Taylor Swift.  One teen said, “We all want to be like her!”  Another said, “She’s so good and so kind.  I love her so much!”  It struck me why “Swiftmas” seemed so appropriate  to this throng of adoring crowds.  I doubt, however, that the arrival of Christ to the world that He created was marked by such fanfare.  “He came to His own,” John wrote, “and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).  As I navigated away from the coverage of the hype, I came across another reporter who observed the removal of homeless encampments in the area where Swift and her fans were likely to be.   “Five individuals,” a city staff was heard to say, “were moved into housing today to make way for the crowds coming to the downtown core.”  Five?  That sounded like a drop in the bucket of the number of homeless in the dank and cold of downtown Toronto.  My heart ached when a person who had worked hard among the downtown homeless informed the reporter that the same individuals had sought assisted housing for more than two years, but had been denied until now when Taylor Swift is in town.  She wondered aloud how these spaces were suddenly available when the city chose to whisk them off the streets and away from the view of tourists.  How indeed.

My mind went once again to the arrival of the Lord Jesus when Bethlehem was burdened with crowded streets on account of the census that Caesar August required (Luke 2:1).  Shepherds who had no roof over their heads by night were treated to the concert of angelic hosts while the Creator of the Universe was given a feeding through for a bed.  It struck me that Christmas and Swiftmas are opposites.  The agonizing likelihood is that the throngs of “Swifties” holding $1000 tickets have never heard of the name of Jesus but for the occasional swearing.  The great sadness is that the same throngs have never heard of the unending love of Jesus while the top grossing song of their idol counsels them to “shake it off” when someone dumps you, breaks your heart and lied to you that they loved you.  Perhaps it is time to introduce true Christmas into Swiftmas.  As we read of the crowds that come to celebrate Taylor Swift, may it be the cry of our hearts that these same crowds will hear of Jesus who will never break their heart.

At Just Church, we seek to tell our “Swiftmas” world about the Jesus of “Christmas”.   “The vision of Just Church is to establish a church in just the way Christ called the church to be – true to His Word, loving Him, loving one another, and loving the lost.”