(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for A Counter-Cultural Christmas, originally shared on January 4, 2021. It was the seventy-eighth video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
We are still celebrating Christmas (we’re on day 10 out of 12 today), and we hope you
leave your lights on and your decorations up. If you do, you are being
counter-cultural. On several levels! Today, we’re going to talk about why
Christmas sets us apart from our culture, our churches and ourselves, and why
that is a good thing.
“Well, so that is that.” Begins the narrator
in a section of poet W.H. Auden’s fantastic “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio”:
“Well, so that is
that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes --
Some have got broken -- and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week --
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted -- quite unsuccessfully --
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,
Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,”
When does that happen for you? December 26th,
January 1st, or the end of the Christmas season, on January 5th?
I’m guessing that if most people outside the church say, January 5th,
it’s an accident.
Christians,
at least the vast majority of Christians alive today and, especially,
throughout history, celebrate Christmas as a season, not as a day.
Though, many of us have long abandoned the season, many more of us still
celebrate it.
One
of the advantages of celebrating Christmas as a season is that we get to
celebrate it as a religious holiday for 12 day, once the commercial and
cultural celebration has ended. The 12-days of Christmas. You know, “On the
first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree.
We
are counter-cultural to the larger, non-Christian, culture around us, what the New
Testament in the Bible calls, “the world”?
What
would Christmas look like if the world celebrated it as a religious holiday? Is
that so far-fetched? Why has the world not been called out for “cultural
appropriation”, the inappropriate adoption of cultural practices by one segment
of society by another, usually the dominant one.
Wouldn’t the use of Santa Clause quality. Santa Clause has many names in
many cultures, but his historical basis comes from St. Nicholas of Myra, a
bishop. Why does Santa wear a red suit? Bishop’s robes. In addition to his
vigorous resistance to heresy infecting the Church of the 3rd and 4th
centuries, he was know for secret gift giving. He once gave sacks of gold so
that a father would have doweries for his three daughters and saved them from
being forced into prostitution.
Or, the 12 days. I’ve seen the use of 12 days counting down the days
before Christmas to sell all kinds of things this season, from toothpaste to
automobiles.
Or,
Christmas trees. Christmas trees, evergreen, were brought into homes by German
Christians, starting in the 16th century.
Martin Luther, the reformer, is credited with being the first to put
lights, candles, on them. We put light’s on our Christmas trees, to remember
the starry night in which Christ was born, and the result that the light of
Christ casts out darkness.
Our
decorations are designed to point to the Christmas story. We often put-up extra
lights and a creche, a nativity scene, a scene depicting baby Jesus with his
earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the angels. Some leave baby
Jesus out of the scene until Christmas-eve. We read the Christmas story from
Luke, Chapter 2
Some homes get an early start on the spirit of Christmas by celebrating
Nicholas of Myra on his day, December 6th. We assemble calendars and
wreaths to count down the days and weeks until Christmas.
Every single one of those things is now counter cultural. They are an
affront to a culture that celebrates a secular version of Christmas that
includes neither Christ nor Worship. Christmas, instead, is celebration of a culture
that’s focus is on the commercial holiday, the excesses of food and drink, the
receiving of gifts, a culture that resents the obligations it thinks that the past
puts upon them.
But,
we have two more days of celebrations. Keep your Christmas tree lights and
decorations up until this Wednesday, Jan. 6th, keep the 12 days of
Christmas.
Who
cares if you’re neighbors think you’re lazy. You know you’re not. Who knows? It
might be a way to share the message of Christmas with people who might not
otherwise hear it.
Look
for people who keep their lights up in your neighborhood and start a
conversation, thank them, and encourage them.
One of the good things about being a minority in a secular culture is
that it is easier to know who we are by contrast. But, if we are no different
than our culture, if we just use religions language, how can we make a
difference?
Being counter-cultural during Christmas isn’t necessarily confined to
our larger culture. It might include resisting our church culture, as well.
What is the focus of our church culture at Christmas, and the Advent
season that leads up to it?
In many cases, it’s on doing good works for the community without any
reference to why. The tail wags the dog. We say that “Jesus is the reason for
the season”, but our actions often say differently. Any number of organizations
can be generous to others at Christmas, and are. We are the only one that shares
the gospel of Jesus Christ in a rooted, meaningful way. If we don’t do it, no
one else will.
Paul writes:
*Mathew 5:13-16
What if worship was the focus of our Christmas season and the works
flowed from our faith, not to advertise it. What if every Christmas service
contained a clear statement of the “Why” of the Christmas story, not just the “What”.
What if every Christmas service contained a clear proclamation of the gospel
and an compelling invitation to receive the gift of faith in Jesus Christ, the
gift that is the point of Jesus’ birth.
Our
churches are usually full at Christmas. Hopefully, your Zoom worship service was
larger than normal. What message did those who come twice a year as a tradition
hear? How were they challenged to give up their tradition and receive the gift
of a living faith?
Finally,
being counter cultural might also mean transforming ourselves at Christmas
time.
Christmas is an excellent time examine
your beliefs and your behavior at Christmas. How can we do better both next
Christmas, and in the time in 2021 until then.
Here are some possibilities for these last two days of Christmas and for
our celebration next December:
1. Read the Christmas story as if you haven’t heard it a hundred
times. Read it several times. Have adults read it so as not to reinforce the view
that Christmas, like church, is for the children.
2. Spend some time in growing in your own understanding of the
meaning of Christmas; read a book (!) Martin Luther’s Christmas Book is brief
and inspiring.
3. Think about Christmas every day during the 12 days make your
own ways to reinforce and celebrate its message every day.
4. Help those who you are able to help, give to those in need
with whatever you have, after the Christmas season has started and find a way
to let those you help know why.
5. Invite people to worship with you. We couldn’t literally do
that this year. The pandemic was surging and now we are witnessing surge upon
surge. There were 85 coronavirus deaths yesterday in LA County, and one person
is infected every six-seconds. ICU’s are full, oxygen is in short supply,
funeral homes are storing bodies in coolers. Your church’s services were
probably on Zoom and are still available on YouTube, or some other digital
media. And, one of the nice things about that is that you can still invite
friends and family anywhere in the world to view it. Christmas and Easter are
the two times non-Christians are most curious and open to accepting an
invitation to worship;
a. make sure they know it isn’t always like that.
b. If they are doubters, encourage them to doubt their doubts,
c. ask about their understanding of faith and explain faith as
it is.
d. Be natural, not scripted; people can smell phoniness or
obligation a mile away and it sounds forced.
e. Look for a natural opening in everyday life.
f. Keep in contact with friends and family members who are
non-believers always, but especially during this pandemic.
g. And focus on the strengths of your Christian community
throughout the year, things like the ordering of time to something greater than
itself, promoting a deeper purpose and meaning of life,
h. A life of faith,
i. Real community in Christ,
j. And, service as a natural outcome of an expressed faith, etc.
We only have two days left of Christmas. But, we have almost a year to plan how we celebrate and reach-out next December. Let’s make the most of the time and find joy in it to God’s glory. Merry Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment