A long time ago in a little town far, far, away….

Last night at our last ‘Redefine‘ of 2017, we held our amazing leaders Nativity. It was again our take on the Christmas nativity story; titled ‘Hobbit Wars‘.

We did a mash up of characters from the Lord of the Rings & Star Wars stories and had them as the characters from the nativity story.

Joseph was Bilbo Baggins, Mary was Princess Leia, the Angel Gabriel was Gandalf the Grey, The 3 Wise Men (I know the Bible doesn’t directly state there were only 3) were Han Solo, Chewbacca & BB8, The Shepherds were Dwarves from the Lonely Mountain and King Herod was Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Herod’s soldiers were Imperial Stormtroopers, plus we threw Gollum into the mix so that he could have fight with Darth Vader.

It was hilarious and a lot of fun to do. We will be posting the segments that we had pre-recorded on video to our Facebook page.

We are not the only people who have ever done alternative versions of the Nativity. Here are some examples of other versions of the Nativity.

Christmas According to Kids

Bethlehemian Rhapsody

As you can see there are many different ways that people have creatively retold the Christmas story; with 2 of them being winning entries from the Nativity Factor: A competition that ran from 2011 to 2014 for people to create videos that re-tell the Christmas story in engaging and relevant visual ways that help people to refocuss on the real meaning of Christmas – “We believe the birth of Jesus needs to be re-told in a way that engages our generation and the one to come. The Nativity Factor offers the opportunity to communicate it in a fresh way.”

The same motivation is behind the ‘Redefine‘ leaders’ Nativity. We are not trying to be irreverent, but by putting the Christmas story into a different setting, we are aiming at highlighting the amazing truth that God came to earth as a baby to live as one of us and to die for all of us. This is the amazing wonder and truth of Christmas – Emmanuel – God with us!

We also do it to have fun together as we celebrate the message of Christmas. The message of the Good News of Jesus.

“And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” – Luke 2:9-12

So this Christmas as you celebrate with friends and family, think about the amazing truth of Jesus, come as a baby to die for all of us. This truly is good news.

Have a blessed Christmas!