Christmas By-Products
When I grow up I will likely develop a sardonic attitude toward the celebration of Christmas in the post-modern era. Until that occurs I plan on enjoying all of it. For all the complaining about added expense and effort there don’t seem to be many people opting out. In my experience we don’t do many things we don’t want to do. I like Christmas, all of it. There I’ve said it, I’m a Santa loving tinsel head.
Lewis was a grown up so he put it this way in his essay God in the Dock:
"Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn’t go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business to have a ‘view’ on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone’s business. I mean of course the commercial racket.“
No, it’s not about the kids, or family, or gifts, or peace on earth, or any of the other by-products that people are fond of electing as the meaning of Christmas. It is about God gifting us with his son. It celebrates the solution to the ultimate problem, and access to the ultimate relationship. That’s a weighty meaning and one that would drastically reduce the number of people celebrating Jesus birthday.
I agree with Lewis, if Christmas were just a religious holiday it would have no more effect on winter than does Hanukkah. The people for whom it holds meaning continue to celebrate the holiday without causing many ripples in the community around them. Christmas, for all the hype, does get the word out that God in the flesh came to visit. Even with the infusion of winter festival traditions from around the world and home grown capitalism the message cannot be missed.
Christmas is like a gateway drug of faith. For many it is recreational and the effects are temporary. For many others it is the beginning of a deep and pervasive life change. The by-products of Christmas are powerful. Countries at war have invoked cease-fire orders as they would for no other holiday. The warm feelings, nurturance, and generosity that are fostered during this time often lead to a craving for more. Certainly the emptiness and loneliness experienced by numerous people intensifies a longing for meaning, or connection, or completion. For all who have a Christmas by-product at the center of the celebration there is an aftermath of emptiness, or depression. A longing for something more.
Those who find the gateway drug analogy unpalatable may appreciate this observation. In the general festivities of Christmas God is wooing us with the things we value now. Wooing is thoughtful and personal and gradual. Even those in the happiest and most committed lifelong relationships would agree that wooing is required. I can state with confidence that my wife would have responded poorly to a proposal of marriage on our first date. First I had to ply her with the by-products of love (flowers, chocolate, jewelry, and pork). I think it is the same with the by-products of Christmas. God uses them to help us see our need, and to see him as the answer to it.
That something more we desire is the answer to the ultimate problem of separation. Jesus made a decision before leaving eternity to become a defenseless baby human; “..being in very nature God, (he) did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in the appearance of man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.” Jesus’ gift of grace that paid for our sin solved the ultimate problem of separation. He also gave us access to the ultimate relationship. We pay too little attention to this major aspect of the gospel. When Jesus said the Kingdom of God was close he was talking about access. Before that time sin had separated people from God, the Jewish law only made that separation more obvious. Jesus’ gift was much more than a get-out-of-hell-free card. In a kingdom the king rules directly, not through judges, prophets, or priests. We have direct access to the rule of God in our lives today. That is the gift that keeps on giving, forever.