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
4 comments:
ben, it is nearly TWO MONTHS before christmas. are you insane? will you have any christmas spirit left in you by the time DECEMBER comes around? :P
Dear Ben:
Thank you for that post. And sharing your thoughts. I really love what you said about God reaching/coming down to share in the ugliness of human sin/skin.
I think I need to get me those Sufjan Christmas CD's. Enough of hearing about them and wondering what is so great.
And thanks for being there. And sharing God's love.
Love, Carol-Lee Joy
hey ben, it was great to meet you. even though we didn't get to say more than hi and bye. :P and as carol-lee says the post is really thought-provoking, even if it's super early - i never thought of it quite like that. thanks.
My dear brother Ben,
With some reading and thinking and praying, I understnad now why God has made us in this culture so blessed with riches and why other cultures are so not. And even why we as individuals are blessed so greatly by His Great Hand. I have stumbled upon, dare I say it, the "reason for the season" and directly when I found it I thought of you and our plight with the materialist screamers. The apostle Paul writes:
"You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
"This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people bus is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"
(2 Corinthians 9:11-15)
We are given much to give much, we are loved greatly so that we will love greatly. Indeed, thanks be to God for that Indescribable Gift.
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