By Peter Hallett
Published December 11, 2001
"What do George Harrison, Australian sporting performances and a Middle-Eastern baby have in common?
Each in their own way relate to our quest for meaning and significance, for dealing with or escaping from reality, and the mystery of life and death.
Millions across the world have mourned the passing of the “quiet Beatle” and during the endless footage broadcast over the weekend, one snippet captured Harrison telling us that, “Who am I? What am I doing here? Where am I going?...” are the questions of life.
No doubt it was his more or less unconscious quest for answers to these questions that prompted the Beatles’ Harrison-led, Indian guru period, which he stayed with all his days as part of a Hindu sect.
Regardless of the conclusions Harrison reached, the questions he posed remain at the core of our existence. He challenges us to realise that material answers are insufficient and that a spiritual search is required or else we remain stubbornly unfulfilled.
Of course, for many Australians, the sporting conquests of our national teams are as close as they come to a spiritual experience which means our recent run of defeats and near-misses cannot be taken too lightly.
Losses to the Wallabies, the Socceroos, and our Davis Cup team; knockouts for two Australian boxers; and a close call with those annoying Kiwi cricketers is almost enough to cause us to don sackcloth and scatter ashes in our hair.
In terms of actual emotional, intellectual and spiritual impact, this run of events is more significant for many Australians than election results, world peace and the origin of life. And while George Harrison and friends taught a generation (briefly at least) to question and search beyond, sport teaches us of celebrating and mourning, of living and dying and that heroes rise, fall and sometimes, rise again.
Which brings me to a middle-eastern baby who encapsulates all of these thoughts.
It is amazing that even today, the birth of any middle-eastern baby - whether Arab or Jew - has its very existence completely dominated by issues of identity, spiritual truth, life and death.
It was no different 2000 years ago when a young Jewish girl gave birth to a baby in Roman-occupied Palestine. Then, as now, life was all too cheap with terror and war, revenge and rebellion, anger and violence never far away.
And while George Harrison sleeps with his answers, and our sporting heroes lick their wounds, this baby stands alive, unique and unparalleled in human history.
Named Jesus, and nick-named Emmanuel ("God with us") by friendly angels, his life teaches us profound truths about who we are, what we are doing here, and where we are going.
Jesus taught us that we are the children of a loving, personal God who values as so highly that he took on our form to share our struggle, bear our wrong and pay for our inhumanity.
He taught us that we are here to love God and love one another and this is possible only with our true image restored by his amazing grace.
He showed us that while all of us will die - generally not at a time of our own choosing - we are in fact eternal beings travelling even now towards another place. While the birth of Jesus confirms that God is keenly interested in us, his death and resurrection ask us to choose a destination. In fact, death is not so important as the choice of how we will die – embracing his love or rejecting it.
We mourn the passing of George and others like him who have dug wells in our souls which are re-opened every time we hear a song or recall a memory. We know it is right to ask deep questions. We know that there is “something” in our existence that defies description but that requires an answer.
We lament our sporting tragedies and learn that heroes can be born in a day, that they can die as quickly, but better still, they rise again.
And we celebrate the birth of a middle-eastern baby who began not unlike a lonely Afghan child in a refugee camp but somehow became the centre of history.
Now it is time bring these three strands together and see that Christmas is about questions and answers, about life and death and about one life in particular that gathers up people and carries them off to heaven.
Whatever you do this Christmas, don’t settle for the frenzy and froth of our faithless, facile celebrations.
Unwrap the thing and find the real gift - uncommon answers, unquenchable love, unending days - a unique life unconditionally offered to you.
Visit your local church to find out more. Happy Christmas and see you next year.