Christmas is Played Out

This Christmas is shaping up to be a Christmas that looks like all the others-- and I'm here to say it: Christmas is played out. I don't just mean that Christmas has become overwrought with consumerism. That message is definitely played out- and we all know it's true anyway- it's not a new message. I don't just mean that we hear far too often "Jesus is the reason for the season"-- 'cuz that's played out too-- and from my perspective, the people who say "Jesus is the reason for the season" (in that annoying rhyme), are usually saying it as they swipe their credit card for that $400 game system their kid has *always* wanted. In fact, even this post feels played out. Because at Christmastime-- you feel like you can't talk about anything else but Christmas.

Being in seminary kind of kills Christmas too. I can't read the Christmas story and not think about textual criticism and interpretation. Hell, I can't even hear a Christmas carol like "In the Bleak Midwinter" and not think "People- it was the desert- it WASN'T SNOWING". I feel like Christmas has reached a new low when even a seminarian wishes it would just go away.

I've tried to reframe Christmas. I've tried to think of Christmas differently this year. Instead of Christmas being about the season of giving, the season of cocoa and cookies... I've tried to frame Christmas as radical presence. Radical presence of God. If God is in the mess and muck and brings life out of chaos (like in Genesis)-- then Christmas seems like the perfect environment for God to be present. So, do I mean that God is with us as we swipe our credit card? Do I mean that God is with us when we scramble to get the Ipod? Do I mean that God is with us when we skip church to go Christmas shopping? Quite simply: yes. I feel like we need to stop framing God as only being with us when we are doing "good things". God being "with" us does not mean God is applauding us as we swipe our credit card or feed more consumerism. But I think it's inaccurate to say that God somehow steps away from us when we aren't living up to our potential. God is with us when we are at our best... and when we're not.

I believe that God is in all of us. I believe that we sometimes ignore the presence of God to make our lives easier... we don't want our conscience to be awakened-- and THIS is where I feel like Christmas has lost its meaning. Our conscience is awakened in that we are giving to others... but it is also shut down in that we've made Christmas such an event as to see giving as a "once a year" type of endeavor. I recently learned that a local non-profit receives the vast majority of their donations during the Christmas season. This certainly suggests a good trend-- a trend that people are seeing outside of themselves for the benefit of others. But to truly claim the radical presence of God, is to practice this more than during the Christmas season.

The birth of Jesus is an event-- an important one-- but it was only the first event in a life that would later change the course of history. To truly grasp Christmas is to recognize that it is about beginnings- about presence- about relationship. To truly grasp the Christian message-- is to recognize that beginnings are just that-- the start of something that has the potential to be great. So my message this hackneyed Christmas-- is to say-- let it be the beginning of something great. Let the presents you give, and the presence you give speak to the faith you live and the God you claim to know.