I have always enjoyed pantomimes as part of our Christmas tradition.

Many theatres rely on the revenue from pantomime season to remain profitable, Oh yes they do!

The pantomime is a very British art form, which isn’t part of the cultural landscape in other parts of the world.

The formula for pantomimes is to tell a familiar story with a local twist. The cast normally includes a dame (a man dressed as a woman), a hero (a young woman dressed as a boy), lots of audience participation, corny jokes and slapstick humour. What’s not to like?

The genius of pantomime is that it can appeal to audiences of all ages. The kids, might not get all the innuendo and double entendre but there is plenty for them too.

Unlike crime in a multi-storey car park, which is wrong on so many levels, pantomime is right on so many levels! It is pure escapism and who doesn’t need that from time to time?

The other characteristic of pantomimes is moral clarity. It is easy to see who the goodies and the baddies are. There are even audio queues in the music, boos and hisses when the baddie enters the stage.

Real life isn’t quite so simple. We watch with horror stories on the news of wars, migration, climate crisis, polarised political positions, there are clearly rights and wrongs, but it is so much harder to see it clearly. Real life is messy and complicated and it isn’t always easy to discern who is right and where the truth lies.

Jesus was born into a difficult situation where there was oppression, a despotic king on the throne, routine violence, extortion, betrayal, exploitation and hardship.

His family were forced to flee the country because their lives were in danger. It was no fairytale; it was a messy, complicated world, where right and wrong were often blurred and the truth was not always clear.

The gospel describes Jesus as the Light of the World.

We understand that to mean that he helps us to see more clearly, both to show us our own faults so that we can address them, but also to navigate the moral rights and wrongs of our messy and complicated world.

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