Pastor’s Perspective – December 2024
Christmas is indeed “the most wonderful time of the year.” The nation takes time out of our normally drab and billboard heavy cultural backdrop to erect and decorate mammoth Christmas trees and festively adorn the streets of small towns and large metropolitan areas with tinsel and lights.
While many in the Church take time out of their busy schedules to attack the commercialization of Christmas or otherwise pop a vein over retail stories greeting customers with “happy holidays,” those who waste their time on such activities are squandering the seasonal high ground for pyrrhic victories.
The Church’s scornful response to the most festive time of the year has not played well with many of our fellow citizens. While the entire nation is busily giving gifts to poor children, exchanging gifts with loved ones, and otherwise taking advantage of the moment to increase exposure to their causes, a Church that goes negative by complaining to the world that they don’t REALLY get it, is from a marketing perspective a big swing and miss.
Our nation generally thinks of the Church as a group of half empty, angry, and confrontational blow-hards. We do not poll well amongst those who are seeking friendly and loving neighbors, primarily because of the residual effect of critics who seasonally ring the bells of doom.
I understand the complaint. What used to be a celebration of Jesus has been taken over by Mattel, Best Buy, and Amazon. Shining lights in Times Square are not the same things as a star in Bethlehem. Santa was not the object of debate at Chalcedon. While I philosophically agree with all these concerns, those who view Christmas through this lens, reject the wonder and majesty of God’s Incarnation into this messy, conflicted, and mercantile world.
Christmas is not a celebration of creedal statements and historical affirmations, it is about the wonder of God’s invitation to discover God’s glory in the mundane. It is about hidden blessings, and historical opportunities. It is about common people following the light and noise, and encountering not an answer to their prayers, but a wondrous promise of God’s miraculous and strange presence in dark and unexplored places. Finding a baby in a manger is not a promise fulfilled as much as a blessing offered.
In our urge to reveal the story of Jesus, we remove the majesty and mystery from a truly romantic story. The Church that rushes to the explanation without the adorning of the gift, is akin to the man who, on Christmas morning, hands his wife a photograph of a crock pot and tells her that it will be delivered on January 2. In our stoic communication of the incarnation, we remove the wonder, joy and suspense from the story and turn it into a transactional exchange that sucks the 33 years of life and ministry from Jesus and makes every Christmas a story of our response to God’s presence. Christmas is not about our work, but about God’s great gift to us. Birthed into the world, unfolding in our lives, revealed slowly but decisively to those who watch and wait.
In a world that sees Christians as stiff and judgmental, take the time to bring some joy into your world. Wear an ugly Christmas sweater and give your waitress a grand tip in a wrapped box. Sing the 12 Days of Christmas with vigor and leave an invitation to a Christmas service placed in a Christmas card that also includes a gift card to a nice restaurant. Pay attention to your co-workers and classmates and find a way to bless them as a statement of God’s great love.
It is not our job to control how people celebrate the season. It is our job to reveal the love of God incarnationally in our everyday lives. Christmas is a time that allows us to plant seeds of love that don’t bear fruit until Easter or beyond. So don’t worry about who says Merry Christmas, just make sure you live a joyful Christ-like life, and you will show the reason for the season to everyone whom you encounter.
Merry Christmas
Pastor Dan
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