Embracing Xmas

I suspect that this thread may offend even the readers of this blog who, otherwise, are inclined to be sympathetic to everything I write here.

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I think the, "Put Christ back into Christmas," sentiment that floats around at this time of year is, very simply, tomfoolery. In truth, Christ never has been in Christmas, at least since the first moments Christmas became a big deal.

Until recently in the context of the 2,000 years of Christian history, Christmas either didn't exist or it was a minor part of the liturgical calendar. (I imagine that you've heard this from other bah humbuggers.)

December 25 meant so little at the beginning of of the history of the American republic that, when American Methodists decided to meet to organize after the Revolutionary War, they picked a date when the people prominent in the movement could conveniently travel and meet and they chose December 24 in 1784 to begin their Conference.

The truth is that Christmas became a big deal only after retailers developed a marketing scheme around it in the last century and Christmas took off as a scheme intended to induce people to spend money they wouldn't normally spend.

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But, I don't denounce Christmas simply because I abhor the materialism that is at its core. I abhor for, well, and I hate using this word, for theological reasons.

The biblical truth that there is no evidence that early disciples thought much about the birth of Jesus, let alone celebrate it.  When early disciples thought about the coming of Jesus into the world their focus was on the incarnation, or on the reality that God took on human flesh:

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness..."

Early disciples considered the powerful image of the creator of all things becoming human as the inspiration for how they themselves should think about living in the world.

These days, as we focus more on the story of the birth of Jesus, we think of Jesus, not as the inspiration for a life of servanthood lived in humility, but as a cute little thing we want to take in our arms and cuddle.

And, that is how most churchgoers live these days--as believers in a little, helpless Jesus, One who needs us and not as the eternal, holy, righteous Lord Who came into the world not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

As the institutional church makes more of the nativity of its Lord, its Lord becomes smaller and weaker and His church, inept.

The biblical truth is that only two of the Gospels even mention the birth of Jesus and those two accounts do so only to prove the power of the Word in predicting the coming of the Anointed One, proving that Jesus is the Anointed One. There is no suggestion that Jesus should be worshiped as a baby, nor Mary as the Blessed Virgin.

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Having said that about Christmas as a holy day, I can tell you that as soon as I tossed out the Christ in Christmas foolishness, I was able to embrace the sweet, silly, secular Xmas season without guilt and with spectacular pleasure.

And, I do.

I'm not into the gift giving and receiving thing but my brother's family and we adopt a needy family every year and investigate what would make a groovy Xmas for it and buy oodles of stuff to empower that, though much more of what we give is designed to meet geniuine needs, not material wants.

And, I especially love the seasonal music. It's the only music I listen to on the radio. It's with the music I become sentimental, and amused as well.

Some of the music is about Christmas, more of it is about Xmas but a lot of it is merely an attempt to romanticize and glamorize brutally cold weather.  I hate cold weather.

SLEIGH BELLS RING? (I'm listening to that one right now.) Have you noticed how much of the music is about non-church bells?

My three favorite Xmas songs are, without a doubt:

1. HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS, which was introduced in the movie, MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, and was first sung by Judy Garland. Did you know that the second line was supposed to be, "It may be your last," but Garland wouldn't sing that so it was changed to, "Let your heart be light."  This is an amazing Xmas anthem!

2. I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. I'm enough a geezer to have a father who served in World War II. The song was written in honor of the men and women in the military during that war. I can get very sentimental about that as I watch my dad leave us as he slips into dementia.

3. THE CHRISTMAS SONG. Did you know that this song was co-written by the Velvet Fog? I'm not crazy about chestnuts but I could listen to Nat King Cole all day long.

(I also get a special hoot out of the Porky Pig version of BLUE CHRISTMAS, which you almost never hear on the radio. I understand for the politically correct reason that it might offend s-s-s-stutterers.)

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I  encourage you to join me.  Become sentimental about cold weather and the silly little secular Xmas season.

Don't sentimentalize Jesus. Lift Him up, don't make Him little.