12-26-16<\/p>\n
One of the things a lot of us like about Christmas is the comforting security and tradition of it. Right? The one time of year, we are wont to think, when conflicts and arguments are suspended; when families gather; when people go to church for time-honored services and familiar hymns bathe our souls. Even if it is the only day of the year that some people go to church.<\/p>\n
I am not going to be Scrooge here, but the Christmas we know so well would have been a mystery in many ways to history\u2019s generations of Christians.<\/p>\n
Christmas cards really commenced, in thoughts and printed versions, in the 1840s. The image of Santa Claus as we know him \u2013 know him?? \u2013 dates from about the same time. Thomas Nast depicted the basic Santa we know; illustrator Haddon Sondblom created the definitive version for Coca-Cola ads in the 1940s. Many familiar Christmas songs were written in the past few decades; and the \u201cold favorites,\u201d with only a few exceptions, were unknown before two or three centuries ago \u2013 a blip in 2000 years of Christian worship.<\/p>\n
Most of us know, even if we do not dwell on the facts, that Christmas trees, red-and-green, probably the exchange of gifts, and certainly the date of December 25, all are of pagan origins. \u201cGifts\u201d can be grafted onto God\u2019s purpose of the Incarnation; and various Christian faiths disagree on the date of the Christ\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n
But the actual observance of Jesus\u2019s birth was for centuries one of the Church\u2019s minor festivals and commemorations. Easter was, of course, a focal point of belief and believers. At one time Ascension was \u2013 I think properly \u2013 the major holy day that Christmas was not, quite. Pentecost, also. <\/p>\n
So, am I a Scrooge after all? I have no problem, at all, with observing all the \u201ctraditional\u201d cultural trappings of Christmas. Yes, I am glad that many people feel free to say \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d again. I never stopped; and I am fine with the presents and the colors and the decorations and the food. Street lightings in October, and radio marathons, annoy me.<\/p>\n
What annoys me a lot, however, is the mandatory cheer of this \u201cseason.\u201d
\nIf some people, some Christians or well-intentioned revelers, try hard to be cheery at Christmastide, it is not bad\u2026 but only to the extent that we should always be charitable and exercise good will to men.<\/p>\n
But we should all \u2013 all of us \u2013 temper our cheer. Stick with me. There are many aspects of Christmas that should turn us contemplative, not into elves with frozen smiles. The Incarnation was the most incredible miracle of God, the greatest gift to humankind. And we should be joyful. Scrooge has left the building, OK?<\/p>\n
But. God became flesh and dwelt among us\u2026 because the human race was corrupt and lost, headed for damnation, loving sin more than God. That is sobering, especially because so many of us are still lost in sin; still needing a Savior after 2000 years.<\/p>\n
Hallmark cards have sanitized the Birth story. I personally am persuaded that there was \u201cno room in the inns\u201d because inn-keepers rejected providing rooms to teenage girls who conceived before marriage. Abuse and calumny likely followed Mary and Joseph through the streets of Bethlehem. <\/p>\n
The stable was \u201chumble\u201d? Certainly, but it was less than that. The manger is where animals\u2019 food was placed, so the Baby Jesus lay amongst old food scraps and the spittle of various animals. If frankincense were needed, it was then\u2026 because that stable undoubtedly reeked of excrement.<\/p>\n
The advent of Jesus into a needy and hurting world was, sadly, akin to the birth pangs of a mother, all mothers in painful labor. Herod knew of the prophecies about a Savior (isn\u2019t it odd, by the way, that even Herod believed, in his way; yet millions of our contemporaries think that Christianity is a fairy tale?) \u2013 and Herod, fearing a rival to his authority\u2026 ordered the deaths of boys under age two, throughout his realm.<\/p>\n
That is what history came to call the Slaughter of the Innocents. One of the most beautiful-sounding Christmas tunes is the lullaby we know as the Coventry Carol. Mother sings to child, \u201cBye, bye, lully lu-lay,\u201d a transliteration of ancient French. It is sweet, certainly; but many have forgotten that the mother in this lullaby is whispering good-bye to her son, about to be slaughtered.<\/p>\n
And so forth. We dishonor God when we willfully neglect the full meaning of Christ\u2019s Mass. We are happy to assert that Jesus is the reason for the season: just so. But the ancients pondered the truth that \u201cGod, with a heavy heart, His Son did impart.\u201d Heavy heart? Yes\u2026 God was Incarnate in order to suffer and die for us.<\/p>\n
At least we humans have learned much in these two thousand years.<\/p>\n
No\u2026 we haven\u2019t. That is what I have been arguing. We have managed to sanitize, subvert, corrupt, and disguise Christmas. We make it about our<\/em> memories, not God\u2019s meaning<\/em>. The Lord made it all about His Will<\/em>; and we make it all about our wants<\/em>. Ultimately, His focus was on us, His beloved children, and our salvation; and we make it\u2026 also all about us<\/em>. Something\u2019s not right.<\/p>\n Indeed, something is not right. After two thousand years of \u201cdoing\u201d Christmas, this is still \u2013 perhaps more than ever \u2013 a needy and hurting world. More Christians were persecuted, tortured, and martyred in the last century than in all the centuries, combined, since the Holy Birth. Around us, here at home, we are beset by hate, injustice, infidelity, apostasy, self-delusion, materialism, and corruption. <\/p>\n Abroad \u2013 well, we can just look at the lands where Jesus was born, walked, preached, died, and rose. And loved. Let us just look at Aleppo, where the world has been looking\u2026 and looking away. Again, slaughter of innocents.<\/p>\n The \u201cMiddle East\u201d is comprised of countries where Christians recently have been in the minority, but sometimes in substantial numbers. Those numbers are depleted, diminished, decimated now. \u201cEthnic cleansing,\u201d refugee purges, forced conversions and rapes, beheadings and slavery. <\/p>\n Herod was an amateur. <\/p>\n After 2000 years we still await a Savior without really knowing why; or knowing He already has come. Or how to greet Him if we were to meet Him.<\/p>\n If Jesus showed up at your house for Christmas dinner, would you set Him an extra place at the feast, or would you fall at His feet? Would He have to remind you why He came to earth? Would we rethink just what it is we celebrate? Should we accept the present of His Birth\u2026 or make a gift of our<\/em> lives and hearts? And would we cover it up with wrapping paper and fancy ribbons? <\/p>\n + + + <\/p>\n This video is dedicated to all displaced children and in particular Assyrian children who have suffered the most by war and bloodshed in the Middle East. The familiar carol is sung here by people of Jesus\u2019s neighborhoods and languages, Assyrian-Aramaic. These faces like Jesus knew, loved, and was.<\/p>\n