Lord, please don't forsake me - in my Mercedes Benz

Tonight, I fell in love with the city of Hamilton. I got to go to the ministry centre and then to Bayfront park with my friends Jaden and Scott. I've never been a city oriented person before, but driving from there to my school, in Ancaster, really made me understand why cities are beautiful.

Outside the ministry centre, people that would generally be classified as "bums" talked about Bible study: "I'm beginning to do Bible study more often at home, and it's beautiful!" "Yes, the LORD is pushing me to start doing Bible study at home. Well, actually He's not pushing me, He's being very gentle..."

The drive through the city is filled with people, lights, restaurants, and general beauty. I don't normally place much stock in feelings, but in the city I simply feel good.

In school, students who would generally be classified as "normal" complain about class. " It makes me sick. No, seriously, I just want to throw up when I think about it. Seriously, it makes me nauseous." (Another annoying thing about people who have too much stuff is that they say the same thing over and over, in an effort to appear superior. Just read any of my papers.)

Ancaster, at least the part where my school is, is ice cold. Houses are hidden and lights are turned off. There are no people in sight. Highway overpasses are concrete tunnels, cold and hard. Students jut out their chests to let the world know that they have enough money to buy Hollister and Abercrombie. No one talks about God on the mountain. Why talk about the One who fills your needs if you have no needs to be filled?

I'm moving downtown. Soon.

Stuff.

Stuff. We all have it, and Christmas in our culture is about it. Everyone reading this probably knows that we need to remember the real reason for Christmas - the coming of Jesus Christ to earth. This event is key for everything. In Him we live and move and have our being. Without the incarnation of Christ, all the promises of God have yet to be fulfilled. Even our history is based around the coming of Christ (B.C., A.D., and even B.C.E. and C.E. refer to the approximate date of His arrival.) However, the fact that Christmas is about Jesus Christ coming to earth does not mean that it's not also about family, gifts, Santa Claus, celebrating material blessings in a way that shows we're thankful, and nephews and nieces that are stoked.

Call me a materialist, it's true.

I'm going to propose that the Christmas season as we know it today reflects the incarnation of our Saviour (Much of this is inspired by Sufjan Stevens' writing in the liner notes of "Songs for Christmas Singalong.") You see, the incarnation was a beautiful thing. It was God reaching down to us on earth to touch us, feel our pain, live under the effects of sin, and to free us! This is truly beautiful for us. But it was not beautiful for Christ. He put His Glory away, wrapped Himself in human skin and human sin, and got dirty. He was a carpenter, with rough hands and tough skin. He was a cat, hanging out with everyone who needed it and knowing what was going on. He didn't mess around though, He could kick the ass of a temple full of greedy merchants who probably did not stand idly by when He started chucking their money around. He also cried, bled, and got scared. He struggled to come to terms with God's will for His life, and in every way He shared our nature. God and man were contained fully, completely, beautifully, and with great ugliness in one entity - the body, soul, and Spirit of Jesus Christ, the God-man. The incarnation at Christmas was bittersweet, something Sufjan describes as "That Creepy Christmas Feeling."

Christmas in our society is also bittersweet. The Christmas season is the setting for more suicides than any other time of the year. Our culture's Christmas, with its box store catalogues, screaming children, annoying music, fake Christmas cheer, rampant materialism, and excessive consumption of alcohol can only be described with one adjective - it sucks. The real reason for Christmas does not suck, but the season itself does suck. The real reason for the incarnation does not suck, but the incarnation did suck.

In our failure to "purify" and "redeem" the Christmas season, I see a beautiful symbol, a description of reality. I am all for remembering the real "reason for the season," but I am opposed to the willful ignorance of the symbol God has created in our culture, the symbol of the combination of beauty and ugliness, perfection and imperfect appearance. This symbol helps me to understand, in however foggy a way, the mystery of the incarnation.


What should we do? What are the real implications of this philosophy of Christmas in our lives?
Earn much
Consume little
Hoard nothing
Give generously
Celebrate life.
(Viv Grigg Companion to the Poor Pg. 95)

The key is the term 'Bittersweet.' Like a stiff rum and eggnog with nutmeg. That's Christmas. I think that it's beautiful, just the way it is.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I'm thankful for Christ, who brings us all together and accepts our praise and our shortcomings, our joy and pain, our beauty and ugliness, our warm fuzzies and our frustation as we follow Him.

With all of my love, Ben