When I was a child, the Christ in Christmas was pretty hard to miss. We attended a denominational church and I went to a Protestant parochial school so pretty much all I had to do was wake up in the morning to be greeted from all sides by "the reason for the season."
We attended a midnight Christmas Eve service regularly. I remember that I once burned my fingers on the hot wax that dripped from the candle. We'd go home afterward and because it was now officially Christmas, I was allowed to open one present that had to be approved my mom.
Sometime in elementary school, I had to write a report about where Santa Claus came from. Looking back now and given my Christian school context, that hits me as a brilliant assignment. I was then and to some extent remain puzzled about how the giving of gifts to those we love became the central focus of Christmas. I suspect it was Charles Dickens that ratified the idea for us moderns but it had clearly been in play for centuries before.
The explanation given to me at school and home was that we give gifts to each other because of the gift God gave us of his son. I remember that connection hitting me as odd and even jarring. What possible connection was there between my Screaming Meemee rifle/grenade launcher and the 2nd chapter of Luke? What was the point?
The point was hinted at in the traditional, seasonal entertainment of the day. Movies like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street" pointed in the direction of transcendence with a quivering finger. It was as if they were more than just a little afraid to embrace the idea that a loving and just God might be more than just a deus ex machina plot device. Even the much older story of "A Christmas Carol" was oblique on the ultimate point. Still however, these stories recognized something that provided a hope for people in hurt and need. Hope and faith were somehow understood to be necessary even if their correct target was lost.
I've minimized the name of Christ in the preceding with a bit of hope that you,the reader, who I now address directly in the occasional style of Dickens, will have experienced a bit of the jangling that happens in me when I watch and read these stories of incomplete completion. The fact that George Bailey comes to recognize his value through revelation is...wonderful. Not meaning to be a Grinch but I think there's more to redemption than the restoration that happens to George. Come Monday, George Bailey will still have Potter and Uncle Billy to deal with. George has discovered that people surely love him. I hope though that doesn't represent anything like the sum of George's value. If it does, then all depends on George always being nice and doing the right thing. Not even Jimmy Stewart can pull that off.
This year I'm experiencing Advent in a form most similar to what I remember in my childhood. I've been attending morning prayer at an Anglican church as part of the fabric of Christmas observance. The season of Advent and it's core cause have supplanted morning news in my life. Tonight I will attend a service that contains only hymn singing and bible reading. I will attend Christmas Eve prayers tomorrow, anticipating a bit what the Book of Common Prayer, penned about 350 years ago has to say about that day. Much so far has been aimed in the direction of preparing myself through submission, confession and reflection for the observance of the Epiphany. This preparation is perhaps the primary point of the Advent season.
No "naughty and nice" lists have appeared and reindeer are conspicuous by their absence. This I find wildly refreshing. I also find it an invitation to smile a bit sadly as I respond to greetings of "Happy Holidays" with "Merry Christmas." At least I'm able to offer the Merry Christmas response these days without first clenching my teeth.
After a half century of life, I find less and less time for the pale substitutes that have invaded our culture, masquerading themselves as "the Christmas Spirit." They all fall short and leave me wanting for the reality of the one who gave everything imaginable each of us, yea verily, every one.
My prayer for myself this Advent is that I can be an overflowing vessel of the love of Christ and a witness to the reality of the presence of Christ in the lives of those with whom I am present. And one other thing, I hope desperately as those of us who know Christ shop, watch TV and get over tired with Christmas observances that we start to feel like something very very important might be missing. I pray that because our lives are the living Advent invitation to those who we meet. When we are present in Christ and in the season, it is Merry Christmas. When we are absent to our calling, it is only a well lit, tinsel covered happy holiday.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Friday, December 7, 2012
Santa Claus the Easter Bunny and Social Justice
Generally, the idea of Santa Claus is said to have had its origin in the life and work of St. Nicholas.
St. Nick it seems did a good many things but none of them had anything
to do with reindeer, presents and chimneys. As I write this, it is the
feast day of St. Nicholas. Probably as a result, I've heard the
following factoid regarding St. Nick about a half dozen times in the
last couple of days: "He slapped Arius." I think Arius probably
deserved it (you can Google it and discover why). In any case
though, that clearly doesn't have anything to do with him being kind to
Rudolph on Christmas Eve.
As a society, we've removed a lot of the reason and much of the heart and depth of Christmas. We've made it about shopping, presents, the "right" gift and of course Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The Christians among us (me for example) still observe the holiday as the observed birthday of Christ and perhaps even celebrate Advent. There is an ongoing, much ballyhooed "culture war" that involves whether we as a society will continue to remember the reason we celebrate Christmas or whether we will find the observance (now more than 2000 years old) so offensive that we must avoid mentioning the word Christmas because it contains the religious word Christ. Although I hate to admit it, this is likely a case where if you have to have the debate, you've already lost the point.
This only applies to the public forum of course. What we do personally we are free to hold. This is true even when holding to that which is unpopular costs us and even costs us dearly.
The clearer vision of what's going on with St. Nick and Christmas is found in the Easter Bunny. In this case, the Christian church deliberately co-opted a long standing pagan tradition. The problem with the Easter Bunny as opposed to St. Nick is that the "co-opting" had nothing discernible to do with the death and resurrection of Christ. Thus, once the reason for the holiday is forgotten as a matter of societal practice, the Easter Bunny continues without even an echo of its intent to reinforce the life and work of Christ. Even the faint echo of the original cause is lost, to society at least.
I've saved the most egregious example of this kind of distortion of purpose and intent for last. The greatest heathen in the pantheon of linguistic blasphemy is this: social justice.
Note that Christianity survived approximately 1,807 years without benefit of that phrase but somehow during that time, managed to far surpass anything the concept could hope to express. It was cooked up by the Jesuits sometime around 1840. During the years before we were all saved by the shiny new word, missionaries carrying the truth and love of Christ, healing and economic aid and every manner of good and sacrifice (sometimes unto death) were sent out. It was (and always has been - even absent special new words) a holistic Gospel that encompassed both the physical and spiritual well being; exactly as it was when Christ taught and lived it. And even as it still most often is now in the post social justice revelation era in which we find ourselves.
I've known a Jesuit or two and I suspect that if those boys had kept the phrase to themselves, we'd all still be OK. By OK, I mean we'd have a common understanding of what the goal of a social mission is...And we'd have that sort of clarity of mission because we'd recognize the love of Christ in those that sent us, those that traveled with as and those we eventually served.
Of course, this being a broken world, there have been many failures and abuses in the carrying forward of Christ's mission, regardless of the language used to describe it. However, any complete tally of virtue vs. trespass in this regard will result in only one conclusion. Namely, Christians have been stumbling along in their brokenness for 2000 years trying to live out the love and and care of their namesake. In that time, God has worked miracles large and small to bring the love of Christ to all mankind in both physical and spiritual realities.
It's not enough to address physical need but not embrace the broken in your best imitation of Christ's love. Both are necessary. Mother Teresa said this: “Today it is fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately, it is not fashionable to talk with them.” On that path lies the point. Social justice is a legal and moral concept. It is fine as such. However, person to person, man to God and God to man it ignores the fundamental reason for any virtue of service. Namely, it ignores the healing, love and wonder of Jesus Christ. It ignores the reality and hope of redemption and completion implicit in the gift. The thing is, that kind of giving has to include an element of the self of the giver.
When I raise this point, I usually get a few different things played back to me: "Well it's just a word and we all know what it means." Actually we don't. It's been co-opted by everyone from Protestants to the Libertarians to the Green Party and virtually every other assembly of humanity that might ever have interest in helping someone else.
Another playback is: "It's just good to do something regardless of the reason." The problem here is that where the presence of man is, there also is his heart. When the heart of man is involved you don't just do something. You do it for a reason. In the kingdom of God, the heart of the individual always trumps the shadows dancing in front of us.
When I told my wife what I was going to write about today she said something to the effect of, "Oh, that's very efficient. You'll make everyone mad all at once and then you can just have one big apology for everyone." I have to say, that right there is a wise woman. You don't need to be afraid if you run into me when you're on a social justice mission or errand though. I don't correct grammar or spelling either any more unless asked and then I try to let it be a gentle thing.
Still though, my aspiration for this Christmas and Easter and always is that the great body of Christ can carry forward the present reality of his love and Spirit. My prayer is that we can communicate the reality that man doesn't live just by bread, but by the breath, will and love of the God that spoke us. I pray that I can carry that message in the warp and woof of my soul and my deepest inner being. And finally I pray that the love and nature of Christ so consumes me that its presence in me is unmistakable, even for those closest to me.
As a society, we've removed a lot of the reason and much of the heart and depth of Christmas. We've made it about shopping, presents, the "right" gift and of course Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The Christians among us (me for example) still observe the holiday as the observed birthday of Christ and perhaps even celebrate Advent. There is an ongoing, much ballyhooed "culture war" that involves whether we as a society will continue to remember the reason we celebrate Christmas or whether we will find the observance (now more than 2000 years old) so offensive that we must avoid mentioning the word Christmas because it contains the religious word Christ. Although I hate to admit it, this is likely a case where if you have to have the debate, you've already lost the point.
This only applies to the public forum of course. What we do personally we are free to hold. This is true even when holding to that which is unpopular costs us and even costs us dearly.
The clearer vision of what's going on with St. Nick and Christmas is found in the Easter Bunny. In this case, the Christian church deliberately co-opted a long standing pagan tradition. The problem with the Easter Bunny as opposed to St. Nick is that the "co-opting" had nothing discernible to do with the death and resurrection of Christ. Thus, once the reason for the holiday is forgotten as a matter of societal practice, the Easter Bunny continues without even an echo of its intent to reinforce the life and work of Christ. Even the faint echo of the original cause is lost, to society at least.
I've saved the most egregious example of this kind of distortion of purpose and intent for last. The greatest heathen in the pantheon of linguistic blasphemy is this: social justice.
Note that Christianity survived approximately 1,807 years without benefit of that phrase but somehow during that time, managed to far surpass anything the concept could hope to express. It was cooked up by the Jesuits sometime around 1840. During the years before we were all saved by the shiny new word, missionaries carrying the truth and love of Christ, healing and economic aid and every manner of good and sacrifice (sometimes unto death) were sent out. It was (and always has been - even absent special new words) a holistic Gospel that encompassed both the physical and spiritual well being; exactly as it was when Christ taught and lived it. And even as it still most often is now in the post social justice revelation era in which we find ourselves.
I've known a Jesuit or two and I suspect that if those boys had kept the phrase to themselves, we'd all still be OK. By OK, I mean we'd have a common understanding of what the goal of a social mission is...And we'd have that sort of clarity of mission because we'd recognize the love of Christ in those that sent us, those that traveled with as and those we eventually served.
Of course, this being a broken world, there have been many failures and abuses in the carrying forward of Christ's mission, regardless of the language used to describe it. However, any complete tally of virtue vs. trespass in this regard will result in only one conclusion. Namely, Christians have been stumbling along in their brokenness for 2000 years trying to live out the love and and care of their namesake. In that time, God has worked miracles large and small to bring the love of Christ to all mankind in both physical and spiritual realities.
It's not enough to address physical need but not embrace the broken in your best imitation of Christ's love. Both are necessary. Mother Teresa said this: “Today it is fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately, it is not fashionable to talk with them.” On that path lies the point. Social justice is a legal and moral concept. It is fine as such. However, person to person, man to God and God to man it ignores the fundamental reason for any virtue of service. Namely, it ignores the healing, love and wonder of Jesus Christ. It ignores the reality and hope of redemption and completion implicit in the gift. The thing is, that kind of giving has to include an element of the self of the giver.
When I raise this point, I usually get a few different things played back to me: "Well it's just a word and we all know what it means." Actually we don't. It's been co-opted by everyone from Protestants to the Libertarians to the Green Party and virtually every other assembly of humanity that might ever have interest in helping someone else.
Another playback is: "It's just good to do something regardless of the reason." The problem here is that where the presence of man is, there also is his heart. When the heart of man is involved you don't just do something. You do it for a reason. In the kingdom of God, the heart of the individual always trumps the shadows dancing in front of us.
When I told my wife what I was going to write about today she said something to the effect of, "Oh, that's very efficient. You'll make everyone mad all at once and then you can just have one big apology for everyone." I have to say, that right there is a wise woman. You don't need to be afraid if you run into me when you're on a social justice mission or errand though. I don't correct grammar or spelling either any more unless asked and then I try to let it be a gentle thing.
Still though, my aspiration for this Christmas and Easter and always is that the great body of Christ can carry forward the present reality of his love and Spirit. My prayer is that we can communicate the reality that man doesn't live just by bread, but by the breath, will and love of the God that spoke us. I pray that I can carry that message in the warp and woof of my soul and my deepest inner being. And finally I pray that the love and nature of Christ so consumes me that its presence in me is unmistakable, even for those closest to me.
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