A few different people in the UK have asked if we have a service on Christmas Day morning. If you are British, that is a perfectly normal and reasonable question to ask. If you live in Turkey, it is a question that doesn't need to be asked. Christmas Day is a normal working day here. It also falls right in the middle of one of the regular exam periods for university students - a student friend was not impressed when she realised she had three exams scheduled for Christmas Day! So a Christmas Day daytime service is not even a consideration here - 70%-80% of your congregation wouldn't be able to attend, which would be rather unfair, and because there is no concept of such a service people don't even think of it as something that they're missing out on or would like to do if they could.
There's lots of different directions this blog post could go at this point. I could talk about the impact and influence of Western Christianity here and how we have to be careful because our default position is for our culture to be mixed up with the application of truth to our lives. (And even if you're from a tradition that doesn't really celebrate Christmas and definitely doesn't want to mix symbols such as Christmas trees with any celebration of our Saviour's birth, that too is mixing a particular sub-culture with application of truth). I could talk about how the community of believers here is developing their own Christmas traditions. I could talk about how there is also the effect of Eastern Christianity here and how traditionally the 6th of January has been celebrated as Christmas in Turkey.
But actually there's something else that comes to mind. We've now lived in Turkey for not far off three years. L and I have now spent more than half of the time we've been married living in Turkey. Living in a different country and culture changes you. It exposes you to different ways of thinking and ways of life. It stretches you and shifts your perception so that you see the world through different lenses to people who have lived in one country their whole lives.
So let's make a deal. When you ask questions or make comments that I, in my default position of pride, would inwardly roll my eyes at because the answer is so blindingly obvious, I'll choose to show grace and patience to you because I live here and you don't and when I came here I didn't know the things that are now so obvious to me. And in return, when I start questioning everything that seems so clear and obvious to you and when I make comments that make you seriously wonder if we've completely gone off the rails and maybe even when I (wrongly) sometimes seem like I know better than you because I've lived in more than one country, you can choose to show grace and patience to me. And maybe we'll both grow in understanding that way.
And maybe choosing to show grace and patience is generally an especially good principle to remember at Christmas time, as most people spend time with family members who are very much loved but also can hold quite differing views on a wide variety of topics. That, and don't mention Brexit.
