the German Market

Yesterday was St Andrew's Day.

A day of celebration. And therefore a public holiday.

But since it was a holiday anyway, the people who take to do with these things made today the public holiday instead.

I did wonder why there were quite so many people out wandering the streets and touring round the German Market which there always is at Christmas time up town.

But after I'd bumped into a number of different folk up there, sometimes literally, sometimes in the metaphorical sense, it dawned on me just why it was they weren't at work.

There were loads of folk all milling around. And there's something strangely appropriate about the whole scenario.

The fresh and freezing air (it was bitterly cold again, really raw). The wooden huts from which the goods are sold. The huge array of colours. The multitude of people. The wonderful mix of smells (warm, mulled wine: all the German suasages: hot soup: and who knows just what else).

Evocative. That's the word, I suppose.

Something which stirs all sorts of emotions and memories deep within our spirits. Evoking the sense of the wonder and goodness of Christmas.

And it's all at the level of experience.

It was really very striking for a guy like me to catch this glimpse again of how communication works. All five senses were clearly and fully involved.

There was music being played. Music evoking memories of childhood days, music recalling so many different Christmases now past. Music which somehow breathes a sense of hopefulness.

There were the smells as well. Warms smells, homely smells. 'Christmas' smells. The smell of the warm mulled wine. The smell of the food being cooked. The smell of the fires being burned. The smell of the wood of the trees.

There were, as I say, all sorts of colours as well. All sorts of colourful clothes that the crowd of people had on. The colours in all of the stands. The colour of blue in the sky, with the low winter sun a yellowy orange and casting those shadows all over the place.

The feel of the cold as hands were exposed to the rawness of freezing air. The feel of the warmth as cups of hot soup were being held. The feel of the wood in the stands that the vendors use.

The taste of the wine, the taste of the soup, the taste of the meat being served. (Not that I had all these, I hastetn to add! I was just observing, I promise)

I was glad that I'd happened to chance on the market today. I hadn't been planning on going at all.

But I found it very instructive. How evocative the whole thing was. And how these very different senses were together being invoked.

It made me realise again how very, very narrow is the line the church has often had on how best to communicate the message that we have.

Most of the time it's really almost wholly 'cerebral'.

Heavily intellectual, geared to the head, and relying on reason. Words. And reasoned argument.

When by and large that isn't really how communication works.

Most communication is 'relational' at heart. It takes place in the context of relationship. If we want to get our message across, we have to foster relationships. No two ways about it.

And most communication is 'experiential' too. The sort of thing I saw first hand today. Powerfully evocative. Touching the spirit by engaging those five main senses that we have.

It's one of the biggest shifts that there has to be in how our life and worship is expressed.

And it goes against the grain of maybe four or five whole centuries of practice which has focussed on the 'cerebral', engaging people's minds.

That's not really how communication works. Not at all.

A trip to the German Market would make that pretty clear to anyone.