Fears of Christmas being hijacked by football are understandable in light of the World Cup being played in Qatar.

But there is no chance of the greatest story ever told being trumped by ultimately unfulfilling diversions.

Just as the Advent season (celebrating the coming of Christ) got underway, news came of the Church of England advising parishes to consider rescheduling carol services in order to avoid a clash, as someone put it, between the Three Lions and the Three Kings – assuming England will get that far.

The final is slated for December 18th, the Sunday before Christmas which is traditionally used for special outreach services proclaiming the wonder of it all.

Has the C of E scored an own goal by raising the issue with such blundering ineptitude? What could possibly be more important, thrilling and life-changing than the monumental truth of how God himself took on human flesh and came to live among us – or, as the Message translation of the Bible so wonderfully puts it – “moved into the neighbourhood” (John 1:14)?

Holding the World Cup in a Muslim country at this time of year was always going to be seen as a potential hijacking of hearts that might otherwise have been warmed by the Christmas message. But I am encouraged by the advice of the Bishop of Burnley, Philip North, to “stick to Christmas” rather than engage with the tournament. And this from an avid football fan who is refusing to follow the event because of the host country’s human rights record.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, the Palestinian leadership has also been trying to hijack Christmas by moving the launch of seasonal festivities from Bethlehem to Ramallah. Thankfully, opposition from their own people forced a climbdown. Jesus was, of course, born in Bethlehem where Christmas is still celebrated despite ongoing persecution of Christians from Muslim authorities.

As my wife and I listened on her phone to a live concert from the Garden Tomb (where some believe Jesus was buried and raised), we heard Joshua Aaron singing How Great is our God (in Hebrew, Polish and English) written by Chris Tomlin. The paean of praise rising from the heart of Jerusalem – only six miles from Bethlehem – somehow swept us into the Christmas spirit.

So we pulled out an old DVD of Louis Giglio (accompanied, would you believe, by Chris Tomlin) giving his amazing talk on The Twelve Words of Christmas spoken to lowly shepherds by an angel sent from God:

“This day, in the city of David, a Saviour has been born.” (Luke 2:11)

A baby’s cry had broken the silence of 400 years without a word from God’s prophets.

The angel said it was “good news that will cause great joy for all the people” (verse 10). At a time when terror stalks the streets of Jerusalem, Judea and all Israel, joy is surely what her people need.

Giglio, in his talk, tells how the first-ever radio broadcast, on Christmas Eve 1906, focused on this same passage from Luke’s gospel and was followed by a rendition on the violin of the hauntingly beautiful carol Holy Night. And so the Christmas story once again broke the silence of the airwaves.

Many believers link Christmas, when we celebrate God coming to dwell among us, with the Feast of Tabernacles, which recalls the divine presence with the Israelites in the Wilderness, a festival that will continue to be marked in the millennial reign of Christ (Zechariah 14:16).

Christmas, it is true, is a special time for children, but we all need child-like faith in God’s eyes. For Jesus said:

“Truly, I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

My wife Linda is employed by the churches to teach Christianity and the Jewish feasts to primary schoolchildren. One series she teaches, known as Bible Explorer, gives pupils an overall perspective of the Bible – five lessons from the Old Testament and five on the New.

Linda was very much encouraged, just before the pandemic broke, when one young girl, with eyes and mouth wide open with the excitement of sudden discovery, asked her with a degree of incredulity: “Mrs Gardner, do you mean to say that the baby born in a manger after 400 years of silence from the prophets was actually God come to earth as one of us?”

Against that, football doesn’t stand a chance.

Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon; Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com; To the Jew First, A Nation Reborn, and King of the Jews, all available from Christian Publications International.