Grace and peace to you on this Christmas Eve.
Throughout the season, I have occasionally tuned in to the 24/7 Christmas music on the local Christian radio station here in Atlanta. Between renditions of the "12 Days of Christmas" by the Muppets and "O Holy Night" by Amy Grant, the announcer's voice breaks in -- "104.7 - The Fish -- helping your family keep Christ in Christmas."
Besides the irony of the fact that immediately after that announcement, completely secular Christmas tunes like "Deck the Halls" often start to play, hearing that announcement over and over has gotten me thinking -- what exactly does it mean to "keep Christ in Christmas"?
We hear this catch-phrase often this time of year, often by disgruntled Christians who feel that Christmas has been too "secularized" in the mainstream, and are upset about Christmas pageants no longer being a part of public school celebrations. But I would argue that "keeping Christ in Christmas" is not a matter of forcing our particular religious symbols into the public square that we share with our Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh brothers and sisters (and those of others or no faith). Rather, we keep Christ in Christmas by how we LIVE, regardless of whether there is a crèche on the town hall lawn or not.
"Keeping Christ in Christmas" is a personal spiritual discipline, not something that can be mandated by the outside culture. And for those of us who recognize in Jesus of Nazareth the Christ and the incarnation of God, this most holy night when we celebrate his birth as an infant child in a manger is an occasion to reflect on what this teaches us about the nature of God.
Centuries of Christian theology have covered and buried the infant Jesus amidst a slew of heavy accolades -- Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. "Glory to the newborn King!" we sing triumphantly on Christmas Eve. But the birth of Jesus was anything BUT stately and powerful. It bears repeating year after year because human beings have such a need for pomp and circumstance that over the years Christians have ascribed to Jesus the image and role of an earthly ruler. But in actuality, Jesus was born a helpless baby, to a poor peasant family, in a dirty animal stable. This was certainly not in keeping with first-century Jewish expectations of a Messiah who would come to liberate the Israelite people from their political bondage to the imperialist Roman powers of the day. And, two thousand years later, it is still not in keeping with how we human beings like to think of God -- as mighty and powerful. Jesus in the manger is not "crowned with many crowns;" he lies helpless, utterly dependent on the care of his all-too-human parents.
"So what are you saying?" someone might ask. "That God in Jesus was NOT all-mighty and all-powerful?" Most certainly not... but herein lies the paradox of the Christian faith. Yes, the God of the Universe most definitely reigns supreme over the universe. But the birth of Christ shows us that the WAYS that this God of the Universe exercises power is NOT in mighty armies, NOT in the upper eschelons of wealth and power in society. Rather, God's power is made manifest in a child -- a poor, infant child -- the single most vulnerable state of humanity that we know.
What does it mean to "keep Christ in Christmas"? What does Christmas -- God as a baby -- teach us about the nature of God? Perhaps it shows us that the places that need the most care, the most attention, the most love - the places that are the most helpless and the most vulnerable... there we find God. The God we know in Christ is Emmanuel - "God with us." Not God "over" us or God "of" us, but God WITH us -- in all the celebration and joy, and in all the pain and sorrow, of the human experience.
Our secular Christmas frenzy tells us that those with more have the better Christmases; those with the most expensive material gifts, with the best family situations, and with the best-decorated homes have the most blessed Christmases, the ones that look most like the syrupy-sweet Christmas specials playing incessantly on T.V. But the Christmas of the Bible is anything BUT these things. It is full of the fear, pain, and need that so many of us find our lives filled with during this holiday season. And although Paul tells us in the book of Acts that the adult Jesus once said that "it is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35), William Willimon, Methodist bishop of Alabama, writes that it is actually more difficult this time of year for us to own our identity as RECEIVERS:
"I suggest we are better givers than getters, not because we are generous people but because we are proud, arrogant people. The Christmas story -- the one according to Luke not [Charles] Dickens - is not about how blessed it is to be givers but how essential it is to see ourselves as receivers... The first word of the church, a people born out of so odd a nativity, is that we are receivers before we are givers. Discipleship teaches us the art of seeing our lives as gifts. That's tough, because I would rather see myself as a giver. I want power -- to stand on my own, take charge, set things to rights, perhaps to help those who have nothing. I don't like picturing myself as dependent, needy, empty-handed."**
And yet, it is true -- and it is actually comforting to me to realize -- that we are, ALL of us -- from the neediest man standing in line at a soup kitchen tonight in search of a hot meal, to the most wealthy among us who will mark Christmas Eve with a five-course catered meal in a multi-million dollar home -- utterly dependent on God for our very life and breath. The Christmas story brings this out in full force to us. We all find it difficult to give gifts to that relative who seems to have everything - how much less do we have anything to give to the very Creator of the Universe! The English carol "In the bleak midwinter" says it best in its final verse:
What can I give him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give him —
Give him my heart.
Acknowledging that all we have is a gift from God, we can only humbly give thanks and try, however brokenly, to model God's generosity towards us in how we live our lives in relationship with others. I am reminded of the General Thanksgiving, used in the Episcopal liturgies of morning and evening prayer. After giving thanks to God for our creation and preservation in this life, the prayer goes on to say,
"...And, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts, we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service..."
What does it mean to keep Christ in Christmas? I can't think of a better definition than that.
I would like to leave you with a poem by Oscar Romero that reminds the broken and hurting among us -- which is ALL of us, in some way -- that Christmas comes for US.
No one can celebrate
a genuine Christmas
without being truly poor.
The self-sufficient, the proud,
those who, because they have
everything, look down on others,
those who have no need
even of God -- for them there
will be no Christmas.
Only the poor, the hungry,
those who need someone
to come on their behalf,
will have that someone.
That someone is God.
Emmanuel. God-with-us.
Without poverty of spirit
there can be no abundance of God.
It is my prayer that we might all know the power of Emmanuel, "God-with-us," this Christmas. Peace be to you and yours this most blessed night.
** William Willimon, "The God We Hardly Knew," in Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas. (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2001).
