It seems like the annual tradition of Christian snarkiness gets earlier every year. First it starts with e-mails which follow the general theme of, “Make sure you say ‘Merry Christmas’ this year and let people know the real reason for the season!” I usually get upwards of ten of these e-mails, eventually I’ll get a list of retailers who are on “our side” and told to shop at them. Eventually I’ll be commanded (again via a massively forwarded e-mail) about the horrors of “X-mas.” I am still waiting on this one.
I don’t wish to belittle anyone. The people who send me these messages mean well, they really do, but getting them year after year after year is a bit wearying, especially since the fight is fought at least a month early. It’s not Christmas right now. I don’t care what the malls say, or your shopping flyers advertise, or your radio station is playing. Christmas begins on December 25 and continues for twelve days. .The season we are currently in, is Advent.
Advent, a season of expectant hope and inward reflection, a time to look forward to the celebration of our Lord’s incarnation and look forward to the consummation of his Kingdom with the New Creation. It’s a time for hopeful prayer and worship, reclaiming eschatology for its roots in the act of worship. It’s a time for renewed strength for the journey and confidence that the LORD keeps His promises. It’s a time to declare, “Our story isn’t done, it’s secure in Christ.” This is the season I try and encourage Believers to celebrate every year, sadly with little effect. The corporate machine which insists that Christmas is simply part of their shopping calendar is very powerful. People also don’t easily give up what they “know” – even when their premise happens to be wrong.
I often wonder, “What if?”
- What if Christians decorated their houses with Rose and Purple (Advent’s actually colors) rather than red and green (which date back to the 1800’s and has to do with the appeal poinsettias had for certain US Army soldiers during their time fighting Mexico)
- What if Christians waited to decorate until Christmas day, adding new lights to neighborhoods which might already be considering the need to take them down “after Christmas?”
- What if Christians spent December committed to prayer, worship, and service rather than stressing out over things that “need to be done?”
- What if, instead of taking our holy-day cues from a shopping catalogue, we took them from the body of Christ?
- What of we waited to say, “Merry Christmas” until it was actually Christmas?
How would we look different? How might we act different? The only way to find out is to try.
Happy Festivus. Why not watch the video below?
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This is fantastic. I am a good friend of Lillian Anderson, and I believe we have had some Facebook contact before. Lillian was in our Youth Ministry program and our Youth Choir when I was Youth Minister in the early nineties at our Catholic church here in Flordia. May I have your permission to post this on my FB page and also send it out to some of the members of our church? I am going to order a few of the Advent calendars. I only wish I had gotten this a couple of weeks ago, but there’s still time to start the calendar. Great work. I love your writings. Thank you for sharing.
Of course you may share it, and thank you for your kind words.