St John the Apostle Anglican Church

THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS HAS A NAME

Matthew West, in his song, The Heart of Christmas, says: 

“Come back to the heart of Christmas … 

In the shadow of a steeple

In a star that lights the way

You will find him in a manger

The heart of Christmas has a name.”

 

As I stood in a store the other day, looking at the huge variety of Christmas movies for sale, it occurred to me that in our world, it has become a case of: tell the Christmas story every way you can without mentioning Jesus.  If you were an alien arriving from another planet, or even from another culture, you would quickly conclude that the true meaning of Christmas has something to do with Santa and turkey and shopping and tinsel, in no particular order, and nothing to do with Christ.

 It’s not that I resent the secular version of Christmas – virtually all of it, lights, tree and all, has secular rather than religious origins.  But it vexes me that the cultural arbiters of our time no longer even reference the Christian story – it’s not even off in the background somewhere. The “real” Christmas now is just Santa, Rudolph and a tree, lots of the latest computers and coffee makers, and maybe a new car in the garage to mollify the wife and impress the neighbours.   Christmas, for all intents and purposes, is centered on the shopping mall. 

No less a figure than the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, said recently: “The Christian faith is in danger of being stealthily and subtly brushed aside,” he said. “This attempt to air-brush the Christian faith out of the picture is especially obvious as Christmas approaches.”  What bothers me is not so much that other characters like Frosty and Rudolph have come into prominence, competing for people’s minds and hearts.  It’s the meanness of those who are determined to make sure nothing of Christianity is allowed to be expressed. 

Indeed, it is not uncommon to hear of schools finishing off the fall term in December with a winter or solstice festival, replete with expressions of every religion except Christianity. Pretty unfair when you consider how important December has been to Christians through many centuries. 

Several years ago, an elementary school in Wisconsin re-wrote the Christmas carol “Silent Night” so it fit into their secularized “winter program” at the school.  The ethics of re-writing someone’s composition aside, the beloved carol was renamed “Cold in the Night” and the words were changed in order to remove any reference to Mary or Jesus. The sterilized version now began: “Cold in the night, no one in sight, winter winds whirl and bite, how I wish I were happy and warm, safe with my family out of the storm.”  Bland and banal beyond belief!  But it’s obvious that they understand the power of the songs they are stealing, otherwise why not write their own insipid drivel rather than bastardize music and lyrics that have a sacred and particular meaning for so many? 

Schools and businesses not allowing their people to say Merry Christmas, and forcing them to say Happy Holidays instead, and generally changing the entire vocabulary around this season, smacks not just of political correctness but of tyranny.  

Christians are just expected to smile and go along with the flow, and not cause any fuss, because if we don’t, ironically, we get characterized as the Grinch or Scrooge.  Meanwhile, the real grinches continue to work hard to make sure that we don’t have any public displays of the nativity scene, or Christmas music in schools, and, again, no mention of Jesus in polite company, especially at the time of his birthday.  Christmas is for sharing, unless you’re talking about the Christian traditions which have defined the season.  

Another writer observed, “the celebrations that come with Christmas are not bad, but over time they have become increasingly materialistic to the point where we are no longer celebrating the event (Christ’s birth), but are instead celebrating the celebration.” 

To even suggest a parallel with the Incarnation risks irreverence, but it would be something like celebrating Martin Luther King Day with no mention of Dr. King allowed, and changing the focus of the day from civil rights, equality and justice to something like clowning or stand-up comedy.  To add to the confusion, another character might be introduced to the celebration to replace Dr. King – maybe Don Rickles or Slappy White.  Perhaps some cute animal, like a squirrel, might become the mascot for the festival.  Initially, people would be outraged, but over time most people would get used to it. 

A huge mountain of mythology has piled up around the celebration of the Nativity, in much the same way that the monuments of huge corporations have piled up around our churches and cathedrals, obscuring them, overshadowing them, and making them seem small and irrelevant.  We used to build monuments to God; now we build them to Mammon, and they are not places where people can gather to celebrate what is important to them.  Today’s first reading reminds us that King David knew how important it was to have a living symbol of God’s presence (the Temple) in our midst – it seems that we have forgotten, and as a result our celebrations and holy days are now largely about money and the marketplace. 

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas didn’t steal Christmas at all.  He stole the community Christmas tree and everyone’s presents.  And Dr Seuss’s story has the good grace to make that point, as the community of Whoville, led by a child, rediscovered that it’s the spirit of Christmas that counts.  The irony of the story is that the Grinch actually did them a favour by taking all the trappings away.  But more recent versions of “Christmas” seem to have no spiritual subtext at all, and the heroes of Christmas are those who make sure the Christmas gravy train can get through, or who protect us from the bad guys who want to take away all our stuff – which would, I suppose, include people like John the Baptist, and Jesus himself, who advised one man looking for the brass ring to begin by giving away everything he owned.  Now there’s irony for you! 

The essence of the Christian celebration of Christmas is found in the simple story of a child born in obscurity, a child born under oppression and threat of violence, who identified with the poor and humble, and who by the grace and guidance of God came to be the model of what it means to live a fully human life.  His life was so radiant and good that he was being called the Light of the World by his contemporaries, and his life continues to open the way to the Divine.  

In our society, which is increasingly consumed by anxiety and suspicion and alienation from others, there is a desperate need for the message that Jesus brought to the world – the message about the goodness and grace of God; the message about God’s love for all people, including the poor and the downtrodden; the message about redemption and hope and unity and peace.  It seems perverse that many in our society are so keen to exclude Jesus, especially at this time of year, when the disparities and false promises of our culture become so painfully and depressingly obvious.  

What meaning does Christmas have apart from that original story, to which the story of Saint Nicholas is merely a footnote?  Indeed, there’s an analogy right there!  It would be like trying to read a book by the footnotes rather than reading the book itself.  Actually, it would be like trying to get a sense of a great book by having it rendered to you by someone who heard something about the footnotes, from someone else who heard about them, who heard them from someone else. 

But in our world most people don’t know that, and so they don’t see the discrepancy between the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of obsessive/compulsive materialism that defines the secular version of Christmas.  And so they don’t understand the frustration of Christians, who resent seeing what they cherish and believe distorted to a point where it is no longer recognizable. 

However, in the face of the secularizing of Christmas, Fr. Andrew Greeley challenged Christians to think more deeply about the meaning of the Incarnation. He said: “It might be easy to run away to a monastery, away from the commercialization, the hectic hustle, the demanding family responsibilities of Christmas-time. Then we would have a holy Christmas. But we would forget the lesson of the Incarnation, of the enfleshing of God—the lesson that we who are followers of Jesus do not run from the secular; rather we try to transform it. It is our mission to make holy the secular aspects of Christmas just as the early Christians baptized the Christmas tree. And we do this by being holy people—kind, patient, generous, loving, laughing people—no matter how maddening is the Christmas rush…” 

Do I think it’s up to Walmart to tell the Christmas story?   Am I looking to see a Virgin Mary line of underwear at La Senza?  Would I be happy to see Jesus as an X-Box video game character, fighting against Herod or other evil figures?   Of course not. 

Telling the Christmas story is the proper role of the Church, and we need to find new and creative ways of telling that story so it becomes relevant and compelling for each new generation.  The Christian message of Advent and Christmas would actually be quite liberating for the many who have come to hate and resent all the hype and envy and addiction of the secular version of Christmas.     

We can’t expect people who aren’t Christians to start acting like Christians just because December has rolled around.  If the life and mission of Jesus have no bearing on their life the rest of the year, then it’s not suddenly going to change because we put up a Christmas tree and declare open season at the malls. 

But neither should Christians turn their backs on the way Christmas is celebrated by others, because Christmas doesn’t belong to us.  In fact, sometimes the stories that people tell, though not overtly Christian, reveal that there is still a sense of the deeper and Christian meaning of the season, as Dr Seuss shows: 

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” 

Because we believe in the God who came to humankind in Bethlehem, and who continues to come to us, there is always hope, and reason to celebrate the Good News of Christ.  Even the Scrooges of the world can have a change of heart. And in Charles Dickins’ story, it’s worth noting that the first thing Ebenezer Scrooge did after his reformation was to go to church.  And so, undaunted by the withering cynicism and negativity of the many Scrooges of the world, I will say “Merry Christmas!” and hope you know what I mean!

The Rev. Grant Rodgers

 RCL appointed readings 

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16;  Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26;  Romans 16:25-27  

 Luke 1:26-38  In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.  The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”   Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”  The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.  And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.  For nothing will be impossible with God.”  Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.