“Let’s put Christ back in X-mas” “Remember the ‘Reason for the Season’”

Two of the more common statements heard in various locations, various homes, radio, restaurant, church social halls. The sentiment behind these two particular affirmations definitely hold some validity. What with the commercial nature (the huge explosive commercialized nature) of this particular holiday season, it’s easy to see how folks who have not grown up in the church could get the wrong idea about what this Christmas is really about.

I’m not one to typically hop on the bandwagon with rhetorical slogans and such, but I will agree that seemingly over these past few, several, many years, the truer meaning of the birth of a Savior has been buried in all the sales and gift receipts, lost amongst the parties and family gatherings, calendared over with the busyness of the seasons. I’d like to ponder what it might mean to have a nice Christmas celebration.

But I have to admit, when I think of a ‘nice Christmas’ what immediately comes to mind is a tree trimmed with 20+ years of ornaments, lights and candy-canes, an angel on the tip-top, with the base engulfed in brightly wrapped packages, presents, and gifts. Then as the individual presents are distributed, I become a miniature of that tree with my feet ensconced in my gifts. Then, one by one, we open a gift, hoping to be the last person with gifts left to open. Somehow, I’m thinking this image of a ‘nice Christmas’ (the current economic crisis not withstanding) misses the truer meaning that seems to have been set aside some time past.

IN search of a deeper, truer meaning of the incarnation of our God, I’m not even going to address the lists I make of what I’d like – just not going there. So let's start with the gift-lists we compose for those people we’d like to bless; it is the season of giving, after all. We make lists of what to give, what we need to buy, and count the cost to see if we can afford what it is we want to give. The gift list becomes a symbol of what we can afford to give, rather than what we'd like to give. (Maybe this happens simultaneously with the listing process).

But here’s a real necessity for amending process; who wants to wake up in January with a financial hangover from overindulging at the checkout counters (or online carts) leading up to December 25^th. Who wants to wake up in the New Year realizing that one can no longer afford food, rent, or utilities (let alone the credit card payments) for all the indulgent gift giving. Sticking within a budget is the most prudent and safest way of making it through the holiday shopping without buyer’s remorse, come January 2.

But this safe/prudent mentality fails to capture the fuller nature and truth inherent within God’s incarnation in human flesh. It was not safe.; the incarnation was risky; the end result, if not the cross was certainly death by some means. The Incarnation is an all-in, no holds barred gambit on God’s part. In Christ, God stepped into human history, into the flesh and blood and all the messiness associated with the human condition (temptation and all – with the exception of sin). In Christ, in the giving of God’s own self, the barriers separating God from humanity were removed, the chasm of ‘otherness’ that humanity could not traverse was bridged, and God and humanity were able, once again, to walk together – almost like it had been in the Garden.

The gift God gives in the Incarnation of the Christ Child, is far deeper and more foundational than peace, hope, love, and joy; the gift God gives is being fully present to the needs of a people walking in darkness, fully open to the hurts and frustrations of a people who are feeling the weight of oppression; package God delivers in this season is one that is not wrapped up, but one that is open, fully visible, fully available –in the Christ Child.

This Christmas holiday season, rather than focusing on what presents we’re going to give (more to the point, how much we’re going to spend) I invite us all to imagine what it would be like for us to embody the gift of the presence our God (Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer) – what would it mean for us to give ourselves fully, intentionally, without barrier to our friends and family around us, to the world in which we reside, to the stranger flying a sign by the freeway onramp, to the mindset walking in darkness in search of a little Good News.

I wish you a truly merry and fully present Christmas this year.

Rev. Mike