Doing, uh, Christmas 2018

In the past, I've explained the many reasons I'm not a big fan of Christmas.

For example:

Early disciples understood the significance of the incarnation, as is clear from the, apparent, early hymn quoted by Paul in Philippians 2 but, other than noting it in early chapters of Matthew and Luke, showing that the Christ entered the world in fulfillment of prophecy, early believers didn't celebrate the nativity. There were no Christmas Eve services in the Book of Acts.

Reform and revival movements have never made a big deal of Christmas. They were characterized by hunger and thirst for righteousness, as they understood Jesus' definition of it.

I'm concerned that today's celebrations of the nativity, in the ubiquitous Advent and Christmas Eve services, are sentimental and schmaltzy and don't provoke, as Hebrews 10 implores, disciples to "love and good works," i.e., they don't produce, as John the Baptist commanded the Scribes and Pharisees of his own day, "fruit in keeping with righteousness."

And, the whole Christmas shtick creates a Jesus who may be cuddled and sentimentalized,  but not followed as Lord.

We also do the fun part of the season as others do, but we keep Jesus out of that part of it.

For me, at least, that holiday is Xmas. I'm pretty big into Xmas.

But, we do, along side of the frivolity, evoke the power that the incarnation has over our lives. But, I don't call that Christmas.

Along with my brother and his wife, we adopted several needy, down-on-their-luck, families from trustworthy local organizations as we've done in recent years.

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And, last night, Christmas Eve, due almost entirely, to efforts and planning of Evie, we hosted a family of, technically, homeless people.

They are related to us. The parents are an unmarried couple with three kids, ages 9, 7 and 6.

He's employed but they've made a long string of foolish and irresponsible decisions with their money and have had other problems. As a result, their credit rating is terrible. They've been evicted from several apartments and, now, no one will rent to them.

They've ended up, I've learned because I now live among people like this, where people like this do. Not on the street yet, but living in a cheap hotel room, paying weekly. As such, the school district classifies the kids as homeless and provides them with special services.

Evie's a very good cook and she did herself proud. It was a very nice, yet simple, Christmassy dinner. The 7 year old said, "This is the best meal I've ever had." And, it was good but she's accustomed to McDonald's and what her mom can heat up in the nuker in their hotel room.

The 7 year old and the 9 year old vaguely remember us from the past. If fact, when there were just two kids, the family lived with us for a while.

The 7 year old asked Evie if she could come here for a sleepover. Needless to say, that's now in the works.

The family's too broke for the parents to buy gifts for the kids this year, so Evie bought gifts for the parents to give them.

We also gave each of the kids one gift from us.

After dinner, dad and the three kids took our dog, Laddie, for a walk and the mom hid the gifts in the trunk of their car.

It was a nice evening.

The kids are surprisingly polite and well-behaved. And, for all of their other troubles, the parents keep them well-dressed and nicely groomed.

The whole event strikes me as fruit that has developed organically from what Evie and I have come to believe in.

We connected with people, especially the kids, who are worthy of acts of mercy. We did it incarnationally. Face to face.

While you, very likely, were at a Christmas Eve service, celebrating the nativity, we were practicing the incarnation.

As a matter of principle and conscience, I couldn't go to a Christmas Eve service right now. Perhaps next year, if Evie and I have a next year.

This was Evie's idea and her planning and her doing.

And, it fit.

As Charles Wesley wrote in the second stanza of Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, "Mild, he lays his glory by."

A nice way, for us in 2018, to celebrate His incarnation.