Dear Trekker,
Sitting in my man cave, pen in hand, I reflect on what we call Christmas, a few days away, and the end of another calendar year, only a few more days away. How subtle, this time of year! So difficult to grasp!
Whether Christmas could ever be “merry” certainly depends on one’s perspective. Our perception of Christmas surely may not be reality, but it does control how we think. And how we view Christmas is a window on how we view life. It can be “stay tuned, the best is yet to come” or “bah humbug”. How we respond to the Christmas story, actually is as important as the story itself.
The Christmas story, macro view, is quite straightforward… yet the meaning so subtle. According to St. John’s good news rendering: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And then low and behold… “the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” He entered “our” world from the outside, the world He had created. I like C.S. Lewis’s commentary here, excerpted from his work, The Problem of Pain, “… to make things which are not Itself, and then to become, in a sense, capable of being resisted by its own handiwork, is the most astonishing and unimaginable of all the feats we attribute to the Deity.” So, He enters our world, and yet we have the ability to “not believe He did”. To many, the First and Last Word (not the spoken Word, nor the written Word, or even the Word made flesh) can be no word at all, so subtle is this time of year. One thing God cannot do… He cannot make us believe. We are created beings; to live is to choose.
Strange isn’t it… someone “who believes” says “Merry Christmas” and skeptics say “Happy Holidays”. Oh, the inconsistency. The irony! God speaks, and the echoes of His spoken and written Word resound throughout history, and yet some cannot or choose not to hear, let alone celebrate.
Since the beginning of time, trekker, be assured Christmas has been celebrated or panned, believed or banned, accepted or re-shaped. What we observe today… the trappings of parties, cards, presents, Christmas trees and Santa, my research tells me is only a few hundred years old. Christmas is a holiday festival, a blending and weaving of the actual story of the God of the universe entering our world through the womb of a young girl, and then all the popular cultural baggage, we add on.
How do we separate the historical fact from the manner in which we celebrate it? How do we ingest the true “Christmas Spirit”? Is the Christian cycle of time truly “reborn” each December 25th for 2,000+ years? The subtlety of this sacred, earth-changing event is lost on a society that manufactures tinsel, snow and gaudy decorations and passes them off as the “real thing”! God help us!
Trekker, true believers in our day (and I trust you are with me in that group) are always in danger of losing sight of the complete meaning of Christmas, which though subtle, is life-changing when grasped. The subtlety, mystery and wonder of Christmas is God and man working together… a young woman (barely a teenager and most assuredly a virgin) responded to an angel, may it happen to me just as you have said, (Luke 1:26-38) and it did! A simple yes by a young Jewish girl opened the windows of heaven. And the deep trust of her boyfriend to-be-husband, who knew he was not the father, “allowed” the Word to become flesh, as the baby in a manger and enter our world. And the world has never been the same since. Sadly, the gravitational pull of the Spirit into “thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” is not experienced by all. The ultimate, true meaning of Christmas, so simple, yet profound, and not accepted by so many… yes, it is sad indeed.
The Word, Jesus, by whom the world was made (Paul’s letter to Colossae, Chapter 1:15-20; read it now) came to redeem the world and return it to Himself. Man, not a puppet, could accept God’s gift of Himself, or reject it. Man could continue to go his own way, i.e., be his own God or accept God’s love for His creation, shown in the violent and brutal death He suffered when a man. Surely Christmas is as much about the paschal mystery of Easter, and all the subtleties attached thereto, as it is about new birth, the entrance of the baby Jesus into time. Irenaeus, second century early church father and apologist for the faith, sums it up well: “We celebrate the mystery of a God who took on our human frailty so that we could become (like) God.”
This time of year announces new beginnings if we can receive them. The birth leads to the death of Christ for us all. The resurrection of Christ and His ascension back to the father (where else could He go) permits the same Christ to pour out His Holy Spirit upon us that we might be called the sons and daughters of God, impregnated by the Holy Spirit to live Christ-like lives, not by power or might, but by His Spirit. All because God came near! All because God desired us for Himself. All because He so loved us, He gave us His Son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish (in this world or the next), but have everlasting life… here and now.
Trekker, don’t let the subtlety of how God reveals His love to us escape your grasp this Christmas. Let the true dimensions of Christmas be the lodestar of your faith. Let your positive hope and faith define who you are. Be upbeat, not downcast. Have a smile for everyone you meet during this season. Give to others as you’ve been given. Enjoy life; you have it abundantly in Christ. Christmas IS, in all its glory; it should be merry by God’s grace alone. Without Christmas there most certainly are no happy holidays. So don’t get uptight about how you are greeted… just spread the Word, the good news!
Your friend,
Jim Meredith
