Christmas Armistice
It is the end of November and we all know what that means: it is time
for War.
Yes, every year at
this time of year we are reminded that we are supposed to be at war. It is
called the War on Christmas and we are apparently all conscripted as foot
soldiers.
The first shots of
this year’s battle have already been fired. The skirmish was fought over the
holiday season cups at Starbucks. A few Christians took offence because the
plain red and green cups being filled by the iconic café this year don’t have
any explicit Christmasy words or symbols on them. But we all recognize that
that is only the beginning and there will be many more fights to come. What
will be next? Will we have to take offence at someone who says Happy Holidays?
Will we need to be appalled by a lack of mangers in public squares? Where will
it end?
I’ve got to say
that in this particular war, I am pretty much ready to declare myself a
conscientious objector. I’m not sure I want to fight it anymore – at least, not
if it is a battle between the Christian idea of Christmas and our secular
society’s idea of Christmas.
The fact of the
matter is that I love both Christmases. I love the church’s Christmas with our
focus of the story of the birth of the messiah, the candles, the sacred carols
and prayers for peace on earth and good will to all. But I also love the
secular Christmas that surrounds us with its lights and colourful decorations,
the Christmas songs and the hustle and bustle of the malls. I will admit that I
do get very tired of the materialism that seems evident everywhere you look,
but I am not entirely certain whether the extreme consumerism belongs to the
sacred or secular side of Christmas. After all, so many of the battles seem to
be fought over what greetings are given to shoppers in stores.
I also happen to
love the fact that I live in a multicultural society where people celebrate
both Christmas and other religious and cultural festivals at this time of the
year. There is a wonderful richness amid such diversity.
And so I really
don’t want to think about what happens at this time of year as a war. I’d like
to call for an armistice from our point of view at least.
And so this is what
I’m going to do. Rather than going to the Bible first, this year I’m going to
start my Advent sermons with the sacred texts of the secular Christmas.
When I was growing up, there were four canonical Christmas stories that we had
to hear every year. They were: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty
the Snowman, A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch stole
Christmas. When I was growing up at least, Christmas just wasn’t Christmas unless
you gathered together with your family and tuned your television to the CBC for
every single one of these classic stories. So I am going to explore the meaning
behind these classic stories.
This is not
something that I would normally do. I have not been trained to seek inspiration
in the secular stories of society but exclusively in the scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments. I have long found that they are all I need. But somehow I
am not too worried. Yes, there are perhaps some stories that are told by the
world around us that we need to be wary of – that might lead us down a wrong
path. But my sense is that we may just discover that, even if the people who
wrote these great Christmas stories set out to be completely secular and to
avoid all mention of the gospel Christmas story, there is something that would
not allow them to stray too far from the ultimate Christmas message. My
expectation is that there is a lot of truth—gospel truth—in these stories and I
am going to find that they lead me back to Bible before I’m done.
And, perhaps by
finding the gospel truth in these secular Christmas stories, we might find a
way to bring peace between warring factions at this most blessed time of the
year.
Wishing you:
Peace on Earth, Good Will to All!
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