So there I was eating lunch in front
of the TV – a few days after Halloween – trying to come up with worship themes
for Advent/Christmas – when what to my wondering ears should appear??? An expression – a campaign – a mindset – that
raises my blood pressure to dangerous levels each year at this time. The presentation of the thesis that nearly
had me throw what was left of my Subway sandwich at the screen went like this:
“If
you check out of a store and the clerk wishes you ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry
Christmas,’ refuse to pay them until they say, ‘Merry Christmas!’ Don’t let them steal your Christmas!”
Yikes. Really???
Someone can ‘steal’ your Christmas by NOT saying “Merry Christmas” to
you? If so, that seems to say volumes
more about your superficial understanding of the mystery of the divine
incarnation in human history than it does that clerk’s personal piety or the
impious state of society as a whole.
The
fact that the phrase “Merry Christmas” as a popular/appropriate greeting dates
only back to the 1843 publication of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol notwithstanding, the phrase, in the minds of
some, has become a litmus test for a genuinely meaningful Christmas. Whether or not the greeting is made by a
person who is a Christian seems irrelevant.
This campaign seems to operate on the a priori assumption that it is everyone else’s responsibility to
greet me in a way that doesn’t either “steal” or somehow “declare war” on my
understanding of Christmas.
It’s
not that I don’t care that Christians have lost control of their own story at
Christmas by allowing it to be overtaken by crass commercialism and
over-the-top gift-giving. I do. But, When an
economist explains that the size of the Christmas season shopping blitz
directly determines the financial health of the retail industry, and, by
extension, our whole economy, we Christians have willingly allowed the story to function as an
economic insurance policy.
As a follower of Jesus Christ myself, I am saddened
that the Body of Christ in the U.S. has, by and large, stood by idly while this
has happened. This sadness moves to a
combination of fear and anger when parts of the Body of Christ seem to imply
that the real meaning of Christmas is whether the cashiers – employees on the
lowest rung of the retail industrial ladder – can adequately verbalize the
appropriate greeting while the same believer is worshiping at the altar of
commercialism.
As one who
has studied, taught and preached upon the Biblical Christmas narratives for
three decades, I can state with no reservation that the phrase “Merry Christmas”
cannot begin to carry the height and depth of that story. These two words cannot begin to carry the
theological freight found in the Biblical narrative. When you hear someone say, “Merry Christmas,”
are you immediately calling to mind some of these radical elements of the
Nativity?
·
the Incarnation – the Divine
becoming human – was itself an expectation that exilic and post-exilic prophets
foretold several centuries before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth;
·
the call for a young woman to fully
surrender her expectations of how her marriage and life would unfold; and her
response of an unconditional YES;
·
the use of unlikely persons to
whom the message of the Divine Incarnation are entrusted: shepherds are given
the task of telling the world of the Nativity at a time/place in history when
that entire profession was not allowed to testify in court because they were
known to be such unrepentant liars; wise men/star gazers from Gentile lands
bring gifts recognizing a kingship Jesus’ own people eventually rejected.
There are more, but I pray you get my
point. I further pray that no one “steals
YOUR Christmas” or, worse, declares war on it.
If, however, you do feel your Christmas was stolen by a misplaced, though well intentioned “Happy
Holidays,” may I suggest you no longer carry your Christmas with such nonchalance that it may be picked from
your pocket so easily. If your Christmas
is under a war-like attack, fear not, this story has survived much worse than
this.
Please allow me one more suggestion to
those whose Christmas is being victimized.
Try getting to a church on Christmas Eve. Sing the old carols. Gather around the table for Communion, if
that be your tradition. Watch the Light
of the World spread through the darkened room with the candle lighting. See
your neighbors faces lit by the Light of Christ. See the wonder in a child’s
eyes. Note the tear of a widow experiencing
her first Christmas Eve without a spouse. Greet the ill-dressed family that didn’t have
the opportunity to be offended by a cashier this Christmas because there are no
gifts – and little food – in their home. Watch the young couple struggling to care for
their first baby while attempting to be attentive and worshipful…maybe even
offer to help. And then, on Christmas
Day, take an hour to wander the halls of a care facility, a dementia unit or a
pediatric floor in a hospital and find someone who just wants to talk about
Christmas. I guarantee any feelings victimhood
will evaporate.
May the One born in Bethlehem so long
ago, be born again in you this Christmas.
Peace, Jon