A Christmas worth keeping
The First Day of Christmas Wednesday, December 25, 2024
Scriptural Text: John 1:1-18 “…made Him known”
Merry Christmas. Or should I say happy holidays? There are those, I know, who view the public uttering of the word “Christmas” to be antithetical to the inclusive sensitivities of our secular society. I’m not one of them, however, so at the risk of giving offense to some, I’ll stick with Christmas, unashamedly and without apology. However, I fully realize that that label in no way ensures that any sacred import somehow cuts through the culture-affirming tone in which the birth of Jesus Christ is now celebrated. Why, even merry connotes anything but spiritual reflection. While "Christmas” still has near universal recognition and relevancy, as this festal day is commonly observed it seems to have very little to do with the birth of a Jewish boy in 1st-century Roman controlled Judea.
I guess we can credit or blame a great many for transforming this once obscure and even outlawed holy day into the commercial bonanza it has now become. Charles Dickens, Thomas Nast, Coca Cola marketers and Macy’s promoters, Dr. Seuss, Frank Capra, television holiday specials from Amahl to Rudolph to Frosty to Charlie Brown—all have added memorable and evocative images of what Christmas, the real Christmas, should be all about. And that is before we turn to such inspiring presentations of the sacred as The Grinch, A Christmas Story, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Home Alone, Polar Express, and this year’s holiday release, Red One. Living in such a cultural milieu, should we ever be surprised that people actually debate whether Die Hard is really a Christmas movie, or wonder how Hallmark can keep turning out so many versions of the same happily-ever-after Christmas romances?
I guess it all comes back to how we choose to keep Christmas, as Scrooge finally comes to realize. What once was a humbug turns into the source of great merriment when he gets that rare opportunity to see beyond what he has become to discover what he once was, and what he might yet be? Dickens chose to steer clear of the Christian nativity story in favor of the festive elements of parties, games, and feasts that marked the England of his era. Oh there is the underlying specter of eternal damnation to those who are selfish, cruel and lacking in compassion for those in lesser estate. But Jesus, like us who watch A Christmas Carol today, remains a bystander to this most beloved story of the celebration of his birth.
Even if we attended a candlelight service of song and sacred text last night, the day belongs to opening presents and overeating, which now likely will be shared with a generous helping of our most treasured pastime: watching and betting on professional sports on TV. How far we have come from dinner at Bob Cratchett’s house, or huddled with migrants in a cave outside of Bethlehem. Those of us who are luckiest, I guess, will be spending at least part of this day with our families, bringing us a measure of that most needed and often neglected aspect of modern life: the love we may share with those who mean the most to us.
This year my wife and I will be keeping Christmas much as we have over the five plus decades of our married life. Church will be part of it, for sure, as will listening to that playlist of Advent and Christmas tunes and carols that never fail to transport us to memorable times we are happy to relive. We will also enjoy the company of those family members who live close by, while expressing our love for each other in the giving and receiving of gifts. It will be a most comfortable and heart-warming way to spend this day of days.
How we keep Christmas, if we keep it at all, says a lot about who we are and what we have become in this age of plenty. It is easy to keep it as an obligation to our jobs, our families and—in the way we choose to decorate our homes—to our neighbors. Most of us certainly will wear the appearance of being merry while attending parties and giving gifts, whether as a reflection of our love and affection or in compliance to the expectations of family and work. How Merry any of this makes us feel will depend on what brings us happiness and satisfaction, at least in the moment in which such emotions seem to be appropriate.
I would offer the suggestion, even the hope, that Christmas, while it contain a measure of merriment, will hold for us something more, something different this year. What if, instead of, or in addition to a Merry Christmas, we find it in ourselves to perceive and receive the blessings that the birth of Jesus has added to our lives. That shouldn’t be too hard for us to do, our entire lives playing out in the A.D. side of history’s christocentric time line. For in truth we have never spent a day on this earth without Christ exerting some influence or impact on us. Our beliefs in and about God, our valuation of love and forgiveness, charity and kindness as the noblest of human sentiments, and our hope that life is a gift that neither tyranny nor suffering nor death can ultimately destroy: all trace back to the faith in God in which Jesus, that grown up babe of Bethlehem, bore witness.
Considering all this, it seems to me that keeping Christmas without Jesus may be merry, but it will soon pass into that oblivion of discarded gifts and dismantled decorations. Keeping Christmas with Jesus in mind opens for us that door in which the yearnings of our spirit may and will be renewed in love and restored in hope. “No one has ever seen God,” John reminds us in the opening chapter of his Gospel, but in Jesus, the one we accept as God’s son, “He has been made known.” And that revelation, on this day and every day, is worth keeping.
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“FOR CHRISTIANS, hope is ultimately hope in Christ. The hope that he really is what for centuries we have been claiming he is. The hope that despite the fact that sin and death still rule the world, he somehow conquered them. The hope that in him and through him all of us stand a chance of somehow conquering them too. The hope that at some unforeseeable time and in some unimaginable way he will return with healing in his wings.”
Frederick Buechner Quote of the Day for November 16, 2024, originally published in Wishful Thinking and Beyond Words