I know.  Including a song by an atheist in my Advent list is a bit left field.  It could even be annoying.  But this is my list so it’s in.  The song is Tim Minhin’s ‘White Wine in the Sun’.

I like it for two reasons. 

First, it’s honest.  And that’s a trait I find increasingly attractive.  After the week I’ve had, I reckon some honest disbelief outshines a pile of religious posturing, point scoring and bigotry any day.  But that’s another matter.  Really though, I reckon Minchin’s words probably tap into what lots of people feel this time of year, not just card-carrying non-believers.  While there’s something about the Christmas story that resonates, even touches the heart, the institutional and commercial trappings that surround it create more scepticism than belief.

Second, Minchin’s song celebrates something about the Christmas story that’s well worth a song or two: family, identity, belonging.  Sure, it’s not the whole truth, but it’s truth no less.  And it’s evidence too of the spirituality—the deeper longings and values—that inhabits the average religious/agnostic/atheist heart.  That’s good, isn’t it? 

I’m really not up for telling the world how vacuous and empty its celebration of Christmas is.  Sure, it might be shallow and poorly informed—just like my own—but that doesn’t render it illegitimate.  I reckon what people find in the Christmas season—the affirmation of life, the celebration of community and good will—is worth cheering for.  Otherwise we become like religious Scrooges who do nothing but turn the lip at the tinsel and good cheer.  And what good does that do anyone?  I’d rather sit in the sun with white wine, my family and my neighbours, and be quietly grateful for the life that is ours through God’s grace ... that grace expressed so magnificently and openly in Jesus.   

So here it is: