You see Christmas best when the lights go out!
It was October 1987. The Sri Lankan civil war had reached a decisive moment. The 120,000-strong Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) had entered the fray, ostensibly to de-escalate the conflict between the Sri Lankan military and the militants. For a brief moment it felt like all would be well, but then the tide turned. Unmitigated violence erupted and the civilians in the north and east were caught in the crossfire of three fully armed, independent actors in the theatre of war. Many died, thousands were injured, and over half-a-million people were displaced from their homes and sheltered in makeshift camps, facing severe shortages and starvation.
Christmas was around the corner, and churches and Christian families elsewhere in the country were busy getting ready for traditional festivities. There was so much to do: carol services to organise, trees and decor and presents to get, cards to send, and parties and menus to plan. Everything was being done with religious zeal; it was religion after all.
And then it came. A brief, blunt pamphlet with a ridiculous-sounding caption: Why Not Abolish Christmas This Year? Signed by a band of a dozen young people calling themselves, rather amateurishly, A Group of Concerned Christians, the letter had been sent to denominational leaders and local church pastors, asking if the circumstances of our fellow citizens in the north and east ought not force the Church to seriously reexamine her memorial to the coming of God’s messiah? Did Jesus not have to condescend to become human? Did he not refuse to grasp his legitimate rights in order to save those in helpless straits? Was he not the one who, “though he was rich yet became poor so that through his poverty many might become rich”? Should the Church not do the same in the particular context of a country ravaged by war?
Not everyone was convinced, but some took it to heart. They changed their plans abruptly. Instead of investing their spending money on more things for themselves they pooled it into refugee-relief funds. They became more interested in the plight of the displaced-thousands and began to advocate for their welfare. Others formed teams that dedicated themselves to fasting and prayer. Still others volunteered their time to sort and pack the first trucks of supplies that the government would permit to dispatch to the north.
As they re-read the biblical account of the first Christmas in the light of their lived reality, their understanding deepened and the real meaning of the coming of Jesus transformed the way they thought about life and people and purpose.
It’s another time and another generation now. A few days ago, Cyclone Ditwah unleashed the most complete devastation by flooding and landslides in memory. Hundreds have died, thousands are injured, and more than a million have been displaced and are sheltering in makeshift refugee camps in every district in the country. Roads and bridges have washed away, whole towns submerged, factories and businesses destroyed by the sludge and debris. And, it’s not provincial this time; it’s a national emergency.
Once again, old familiar Christmas is around the corner. It beckons. At times with the authority of tradition, at times with the allure of jollity, but most times with both. But, shift your gaze beyond the tinsel and the toys and you may glimpse the lesser-known real Christmas; the one with the incarnate Jesus at the centre, radiating his love for the weak, the displaced, and the ones facing destitution. And, should you choose to abolish the former to embrace the latter, your Christmases will never be the same. I know this for sure, as do the others from that Group of Concerned Christians.
Ivor Poobalan, PhD
December 2025
The writer is the Principal of CTS. He is the author of ‘Who is the God of This Age?’: Paul and the Sovereignty of God in 2 Corinthians 4:4, and, Everything Has Become New! Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. He serves as Chairperson of Sri Lanka’s first world-missions initiative, Global Impact. Ivor’s international ministry includes serving as the Co-Chair of the Theology Working Group of the Lausanne Movement.
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