To those who read my blog,
So, I have a few ideas of what I want to write about in the next week or so, but the one main thing I want to talk about requires me to finish a book before actually talking about it (so that I can be sure I am not misquoting someone).
The thing I want to talk about right now is the importance of the meaning of words, specifically the word 'Christmas'.
Last year, I read a note posted on facebook from one of my friends. Here is the note:
* 'Twas the month before Christmas*
*When all through our land,*
*Not a Christian was praying*
*Nor taking a stand.*
*See the PC Police had taken away,*
*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*
*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*
*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*
*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*
* December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.*
*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*
*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*
*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*
*Something was changing, something quite odd! *
*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*
*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*
*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*
* At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.*
*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*
*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*
*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*
*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*
*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*
*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*
*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*
*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*
*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*
* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*
*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*
*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*
*So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'*
*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*
*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*
*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,
not Happy Holiday !*
*I do not in anyway wish to force people into what to believe, I've reached a point where I'll settle with just equal rights! I want the right to say *Merry Christmas* just like those who say *happy Ramadan* or *Happy Quanza! Happy Halloween! Happy Hannakuh! Celebrate the Festival of Lights!* and more. Let's admit it. This note isn't gonna turn the heads of millions, nor will saying *Merry Christmas* shock someone beyond recovery scarring them for the rest of their lives. So let's just stop with the news articals, the school/workplace rules, and whatever else may be out there. Afterall, how are we promoting diversity by banning a holiday or belief? Merry Christmas all!*
Now what is wrong with this note? I mean, what’s wrong with wanting to say ‘Merry Christmas’ instead of ‘Happy Holiday’? Nothing. But here is where I get a little worried. The third and fourth line in read, “Not a Christian was praying, nor taking a stand”? That’s kind of arrogant, don’t you think? I mean, I’m praying. I pray every day! Also, what do we need to take a stand for? What is happening to us that we need to take a stand?
The note ends off with talking about equal treatment, and although I agree with equal treatment... shouldn’t we ask for that when it really matters? I mean, not being allowed to say ‘Merry Christmas’ is kind of lame (though in a few moments, I will argue that it’s not lame at all, and actually should be practiced more often) but shouldn’t equal rights be saved for when I am applying for a job and I don’t get one because I’m a Christian? I have no idea when that will ever come about and I doubt Canada will ever get to that point, but shouldn’t that be the point where I say, “Alright, I need to be treated like everyone else. Please don’t just not hire me because I am a Christian”. Why do we need to say these words to others around us?
Now here is my main problem with Christians wanting to say ‘Merry Christmas’. Even going to the extent to say that they need to say those words: in North America WE DON’T CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS! I mean, sure, we celebrate a holiday on the 25th of December, and some people call it Christmas, but North America on a whole does not celebrate the holiday known as Christmas.
Here is what Christmas is. It is the mass of Christ. A mass is a type of service held within the Church. So the Christ-mass is a service celebrating Christ, and more specifically, the birth of Christ.
I know, I know. Most of us Christians did in fact go to a Christmas service of some sort that celebrated the birth of Christ. That wasn’t the focal point though of the holidays. No the focus is gift giving. I use the word ‘gift’ loosely, because it’s not really ‘gift giving’. A gift is something you give without expecting any return. No, what we really did was do some fancy trading. Everyone made sure to give gifts to all their friends and in return, from all our friends we received gifts usually of equal value. In fact, sometimes we put a price cap on these gifts. “Ok, guys, we can only spend fifty dollars on one another. Nothing more, nothing less”. Why don’t both of us keep the fifty dollars and go get something we really want/need?
In our society, we spend a lot of energy trying to get the right gifts. Christmas is focussed then not around Christ’s birth, but fancy trading. Now I seem to remember that the Bible speaks out against materialism, and putting things before God. Well, when we take the focus off of Christ, and put it on gift-giving, then all of a sudden we are putting material objects before Christ.
To go further with this, what is the big event? Christmas dinner. We look forward to it. The fat bird, the amazing stuffing, the cranberry sauce, I love every moment of that food on my tongue. We eat until we are filled beyond our capacity and then we eat some more. Would you care to know what this is? I’s called gluttony! It is one of the biggest sins everyone (Christian and non-Christian alike) partake in here in North America.
So here it is. This is what Christmas has become. It is now a materialistic focussed holiday that concludes with gluttony. Is that really how Christ wants us to honour His birth? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy all of those parts of Christmas (though the gift-giving is a bit I am not overly thrilled about) but I don’t want to call this Christmas. It’s not. It is not Christmas. Christmas is remembering that there was a time when we had to wait for the messiah, the Christ, to come down. Christmas is a time when we celebrate the fullness of God in the weakest of forms (a baby). Christmas is a time when we acknowledge that the messiah is coming back at some point. It is not a time to give into materialism and gluttony. So why do we fight so hard to say something that is incorrect to say?
Speaking of fighting, this brings up something ironic. Don’t you find it funny that one of the things Jesus did by coming into this world was bring peace, and yet we disturb the peace by raising our voices and trying to get people to say a silly little saying that has none of the original meaning anymore? Why would we go against what Christ wants by fighting for something that’s just not worth it?
I am sorry, but this is not the hill we as Christians should die on. There are way more important issues at hand.
-Joshua
6 comments:
I don't think I can deny what you're saying here. It's a tough pill to swallow, but you're quite right. I do know that so many Christian publications are dedicated to telling people the "true meaning of Christmas," and many people still keep the Christmas story as a part of their Christmas tradition. I may be a bit overjudicial by saying this (and forgive me if I am), but to me, that always seems to be something that's attached to the whole gift-giving and feast aspect, and not the central focus.
I do know that in a lot of European nations, Christmas is, like you said, the mass of Christ, and all the festive stuff is done on St. Nick's day, which happens before Christmas. So I was thinking, what would happen if we did that in North America? Probably, we would look forward to St. Nick's day and not to Christmas. We (as a culture) just don't take our religion seriously enough for it to be a reason to celebrate.
I just think that overall, Evangelical Christians are choosing the wrong hills to die on. If we are concerned about making a change in the politics of our nation at the expense of a change in peoples' hearts, that's a pretty serious sign that our priorities are messed up.
Now here's some food for thought, though. What if Jesus suddenly came to North America during Christmastime?
Hint: I seem to recall that Jesus had parties with "sinners".
Joshua, I think you and your friend had similar ideas in mind. You are both upset with the current state of Christmas, but the difference lies in what you think is the biggest problem. You think that the problem is the sinfulness of the holiday, whereas your friend might think Christmas, and what it celebrates, is being suppressed so that people might forget it amongst everything else. Both issues are idolatry. One puts food and material ahead of God; the other elevates all beliefs to equality with the true God. You are both also complaining about hypocrisy, but while notes the hypocrisy of prohibiting something to increase diversity, the other gripes about sinning as a way to "celebrate" Christ's birth.
I agree that being able to say "Merry Christmas" is the wrong hill to die on, so to speak, but I don't know if you can show me a right hill to figuratively die on.
Also, even though Jesus is the Prince of Peace, there are instances where Jesus also says he will bring division.
Finally, I don't know if you intended it this way, but to me you came across sounding rather bitter.
Andrew: Like I said in the note, I look forward to the Christmas dinner with the family as well, and I know Jesus is ok with (and probably encourages) time with the family no matter where they are at in their walk, but my issue still stands. We shouldn't be getting bent out of shape over not being allowed to say a few words that have lost thier meaning. It's no longer about celebrating Jesus, it is now about something else, and if you are celebrating Jesus, then great! If He is your focal point, then awesome! Say Merry Christmas! But to force people to say Merry Christmas and for us to have to be allowed to say Merry Christmas to people who don't even celebrate the true holiday and leave Christ out of it completely, then we have lost something. I'd rather say happy holidays to people who don't know Christ, because they are not celebrating Christmas. And if someone wants to say Merry Christmas to me, then they can go ahead. Oh, and Jesus may have ate with sinners, but I doubt He ever was gluttonous about it.
Matthew: Yeah, I am bitter in this. It is something to be upset over. A lot of Christians are making me look bad by fighting over something that not only doesn't matter, but should have been made different a while ago. I don't want Christ to be associated with BTW, I think you should look up the word idol before using it in an argument. Just to let you know, an idol is an immage of a deity other than God. I am not beiong idolatrous. I am not saying that other traditions should be on the same level as God. If you goot that out of what I was saying, then either I need to learn how to write better or you need to learn how to understand better. My whole argument is that Christ is the point of Christmas, and when we force the word Christmas into a context that means something different (ie how Christmas is celebrated by most North Americans) then you do the holiday a diservice and you bring Christ down to our mess-ups instead of lifting Him up to His glory. I'm reading a book right now by a pastor in the states and he said to his congregation one day that if you can't be a Christian in the parking lot, don't tell anyone that you are a Christian. His point in saying that was that Christ is so much more than anything we can grasp and if we are to be His representors, we should act in righteousness. I don't want Christmas to be represented by material posessions and gluttony (and also a distinct lack of Christ) because Christ is so much more than that. These people may think they are being repressed, but welcome to Canada: a non-Christian nation! We need to understand that if this is all we have to go through for the gospel, we are pretty lucky. A lot of people can't even say the word Christian without being killed.
Also, you want to know what the right hill to die on is? It is the hill of love. If you die fighting for orphans and widows to be taken care of (a better health system) if you die because you are making sure the poor are being fed, then you have chosen the right hill to die on. We miss the point of Christmas completely when we focus our energies on the word, and not on the action. I could spend my days arguing this point, but there are people to take care of, and to me that's more iportant (and I think it's more iportant to Christ as well)!
I'll admit, my last question was a bit tangential... What I meant by "sinners" is not just people who sin, but people who are desperate for salvation, not us self-righteous middle-class church-going North Americans (I just mean this in general, I hope I'm not referring to any of us).
Also, do you want to see the word "Christmas" abused? Take a look at Japan. They do celebrate Christmas, but it's completely unrecognizable from what Christmas is intended to be. There's only the commercial aspect. It's not even a special time when families get together. It's a time when whiny kids get what they want. It's a time when shopping centers get more sales. And aside from the Christians in the nation (less than 1% of the population, by the way), no one has a clue why they're celebrating. The only reason is because Americans celebrate it.
As much of a perversion of Christmas as this is, I doubt they're the ones to blame. After all, they're just doing what the Americans are doing.
Is this the message that we're spreading to the world through Christmas?
I also appreciated how you admitted that Canada isn't a Christian nation. It's more of an issue I have with Americans, I guess. So many American Evangelicals still insist that they are a Christian nation founded on Christian values. But this brings to mind what John the Baptist said:
"And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (Matthew 3:9-10)
We can't claim to be a Christian nation just because the men that founded the nation were Christians. Does the way we live reflect Christian values? I think not. Thus neither we nor our brothers to the south can claim to be a Christian nation. I'm glad someone finally got the guts to admit it.
Sorry for going on a bit of a soap box there.
I loved your last paragraph in your comment. It reminds me of that song, "They will know we are Christians by our love." Not by our words or celebrations or political standpoint, but by our love. How many of us have forgotten that?
Andrew: thanks for getting it. Those are the things I wanted to get across. I did want people to stop abusing the word Christmas with this false definition and of course I don't blame Japan for getting it wrong, we are poor techers.
I was using idolatry to refer to the worship of anything but God, but looking back, I think I may have said some stuff that doesn't necessarily make sense.
Also, I realize that I interpreted what you said in light of my reaction to your bitterness, so I had a bias to look for criticisms. I'm sorry. I suppose I responded out of frustration, which caused me to be careless and unthoughtful, which was wrong.
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