A few years ago I was speaking at an Anglican School assembly, and said,  "you all know the Easter story". After the event a number of students came up and protested: "no we don't!" I realised that the day of assuming people knew even basics of the life of Jesus and the Christian faith were over. Since then I have been seeking ways to help people come to know the "Jesus story".

I was watching the Football grand final, the New Year's Eve, the Australia Day, the World Cup celebrations and realised Australians love nothing better than to celebrate, and celebrate anything! So why not find ways the church can celebrate Jesus with society?

To my horror I then began thinking about using the church calendar as the basis for celebration. My horror stemmed from the times I had seen the calendar badly used. Each year we would go through the cycle of the death of Jesus on Good Friday so we were meant to feel bad, and then the resurrection on Easter Day, so all the darkness was turned to happiness and light" but this annual cycle kept obscuring the fact that we live in the resurrection day where death has been defeated and it is the year of the Lord. I lived through the emphasis on the season and the appropriate colours for the communion table that seemed to be only understood by people my parents’ age. But need this be the case?

Earlier this year I spoke for four weeks at the Randwick Deanery Lenten Series where, over a whole month leading up to Easter, we had the chance to gather from various congregations to consider the significance of the atoning death of Jesus. Here was an occasion where the calendar worked. Then, a couple of weeks ago a friend told me that he sent birthday invitations to his whole parish and had a birthday cake, complete with candles at church on Pentecost Sunday to celebrate the birth of the church. That's not a bad way to introduce people to Jesus and the reality of the coming of the Spirit.

I then started asking myself what celebrations our society shares with the church? My answer is that it is only Christmas - and even then, we get surprised that the average person cannot make sense of why the birth of the child in outback Bethlehem makes any difference, and that the idea of an end to warfare and aggression seems much more valuable than a child in a manger, whatever a manger is…

So why not start the celebration of the life of the man who changed not just the world, nor even the universe, but the very future of every human being? Maybe through our celebrations we can help them to see just how significant Jesus is.

I guess what I am calling for in our mission thinking is putting an end to the assumption that our society knows anything about Jesus that they can connect together. It is up to us to help them with that. And if what He has done is so significant and good, let's celebrate that with our community.