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.
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