The 12 Months of Christmas -- and other ramblings

1 - SENDING THE MESSAGE

Every so often, you come across something that "says it all" -- so brilliantly expressed, you just want to slap "forward" on it and fire it off to as many people that you know. This is one such thing, sent by a friend of mine the other day:

http://www.citizenlink.org/Stoplight/A000005834.cfm

This is truly a message one wants to spread around, and especially to let your local businesses know how you feel. So what I'm suggesting all my friends do, is circulate this link to the managers of as many malls and individual businesses as they can think of, let them know that this video expresses their views and their feelings about the de-Jesusization* of Christmas, and that they intend to "vote with their dollars" if the businesses don't smarten up.

BUT ... rather than send it now, when it's too late and could be easily dismissed as a bunch of religious reactionaries caught up in the emotion of the season, I say we bookmark the link and sit on it until October 1, 2008. Then we pounce. That gives them enough time to re-think their plans for the Christmas shopping season.

Mind you, we first need to contact the people at Citizen Link to ask them to keep the link active until then. We can email them at citizenlink@family.0rg.

For Canadians, by the way, 22.3 million of us (according to the 2001 Census) are Christians who are likely to celebrate Christmas (I left the Jehovah's Witnesses out of my calculations). There are 29.5 million Canadians. That's 76%.

Funny, how the fear of offending less than a quarter of the population is driving so many business decisions.

Incidentally, CNN this morning had a live report from Macy's in Herald Square, New York (the same Macy's where "Miracle on 34th Street" was set), about the number of retail businesses that are staying open 24 hours, because sales during the Christmas season are running 4% below expectations.

Am I the only one who sees a connection between the attempt to deny Jesus in Christmas and this lack of blessing on the businesses?

====

2 - MORE GRINCH - LESS RUDOPLH (PLEASE)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is regarded as one of those "Christmas Classic" TV shows, and indeed, it is. It used to be one of those "staples" in my TV-watching at Christmastime, along with Alistair Sim's "Scrooge" and Charlie Brown. But you'll notice it's not on my Top 10 list over there on the left, and one of the reasons for that is the bizarre premise that, because of the heavy fog and bad weather, they would have to "cancel Christmas". Why Dasher didn't gore Santa right away and say, "no, it means we get to spend Christmas with our families, fatso!", is beyond me. One would hope that parents would have carefully explained to their children that Christmas goes ahead, with or without Santa Claus, but that message is still getting out there, without contradiction. Am I over-reacting? Probably.

Dr Seuss got it right: the whole idea of How The Grinch Stole Christmas was that removing the festival accoutrements of Christmas did not end the season, itself ... and that the spirit is much greater than any evil. We need more Grinch and less Rudolph.

====

3 - GETTING DAVE'S GOAT

Since I tantalized you with the reference in my Christmas Favourites list on the left there, I'd wanted to include at least a link to Dave Barry's column about The Christmas Goat. But try as I might, I can't find it online, except through a website that uses it as a hook, then requires you to sign up for a 7-day free trial which makes you charge $29.95 to your credit card before you can actually read it. (The charge, they promise, is wiped off the credit card if you cancel your order before the 7-day trial period is over, but I have a deep distrust for credit cards on the Internet at present.) So if anyone finds it, please let me know. It's killingly funny, and all I can tell you it's from December 1991, and is not his more recent writings about the Julebykk in Gavle, Sweden (which is what you'll often find if you Google "Dave Barry Christmas Goat").

====

4 - CHRISTMAS DINNER(S)

Those of us at Carrall Street Church (aka Gospel Mission) are holding our Christmas dinner today (Dec. 24). We'll probably get 40 people for turkey and ham and such, and the funny thing is, there are so many special dinners on the Downtown East Side at this time of year, it's possible for someone to have three or four turkey meals in two weeks or less! I think it's wonderful, especially considering the way these guys get kicked in the teeth by society the rest of the year!

We got a call Saturday morning from a young lady at Costco, saying she had "some" turkeys for us, and where could she bring them. I told her I'd meet her at the Mission at 11. Pastor Barry told me she'd said she had 8 turkeys, which was cool -- even though we already had our two turkeys for the Christmas Eve dinner -- but when I met Cherelle, she brought 16 turkeys! Young ones, mind you -- "only" about 10-15 lbs each -- but a LOT of turkeys! Tom -- one of our elders -- figures this should take us through Christmas 2009, no problem!

Seriously, turkey would be a welcome change at other times of the year, and staying in the freezer should keep them for quite a while. For our Saturday services, we generally serve a sort-of hamburger stew, which Amelia has perfected -- ground beef and mixed veg and cream of mushroom soup and kidney beans, served over rice.

Scary thought: what if she'd gotten us mixed up with Union Gospel Mission? I tried to reach her to verify that, but wasn't able to, and Barry assures me that Cherelle found us on the Internet, and knew the difference. So heaps of blessing on Costco, for that!

====

5 - SCROOGE

One thing about Ebenezer Scrooge (which I'm sure Dickens meant but may have escaped the notice of his readers): he was no hypocrite, even in his pre-visitation days. There was a column in the Toronto Sun in which the writer described his encounter with a homeless man and how he bought the guy food and pitied him at this time of the year.

I couldn't help thinking: Where are you the other 364 days of the year (365 in 2008)? One volunteer at Union Gospel summed it up in an article over the weekend, by saying how important it is to hang in throughout the year, and not just show up at Christmastime. Right on.

Early in "A Christmas Carol", two businessmen come to Scrooge's office and try to get him to contribute to a Christmas charity, "because it is at this time of year that the need is most acutely felt". In a 1990s treatment, Scrooge would probably have feigned sticking two fingers down his throat: instead, he asks why the need would be more acutely felt at this time of year than at any other time.

Scrooge's point, as I see it, is that he won't be bullied or guilt-tripped into contributing to the needy simply because it's Christmastime. In the end, his epiphany is glorious because, in a way, he still doesn't treat Christmastime as different from any other time of year, but that's because he keeps Christmas all year 'round!

====

6 - THE BEST RE-GIFT

Re-gifting is almost a joke now -- you know, passing along what someone's given to you to somebody else. The joke is based on the idea that the gift is fairly useless and it's getting passed along because the recipient is in a position where he/she has to give something to someone and either (a) doesn't have the time or (b) doesn't have the inclination to find something in particular for that third party.

In some ways, that's pretty cruel, but I can see where it isn't, too: if you're passing it along to someone who doesn't have anything; or if it occurs to you that the gift is much better suited to them, it's not a bad thing.

But now is a good time to remember the best re-gifting of all. Jesus was and is God's gift to us, from the very first day He drew breath on this planet. The Great Commission is that we are supposed to spread the Gospel -- the Good News of God -- and pass along the other blessings, like healing, cleansing, and telling people they're forgiven. In other words, re-gifting isn't just expected, it's REQUIRED.

O Christmas Tree

I put up my Christmas tree the other night. It's the first tree I've had since 2002, and I wasted no time in getting the lights on and the decorations up. If you check out the posting below about the "Musical Rebels", you'll know there's been an estrangement with my kids over the past few years, so that's made Christmas a bit difficult. But thanks to the events of that weekend, I'm in the mood to celebrate, so the tree symbolizes that.

The Christmas tree symbolizes a lot of things, actually, and it's one of a number of symbols Satan has been trying to pervert in our celebration of the birth of our Lord.

Take Santa Claus. With the Christmercialization going on in our world today, you'd think Santa had supplanted Jesus as the reason for the season. In fact, some people take a cue from Dana Carvey's "Church Lady", who noted that "SANTA" and "SATAN" are anagrams. But I don't buy into that. After all, the true spirit that Santa Claus represents cannot exist satanically. When my children would ask, "Is Santa Claus real?", we’d always tell them, "The spirit he represents is real". It’s a spirit of selfless giving, of caring for children, and of believing for miracles.

But all of that exists not because Santa Claus – or the original Saint Nicholas – is a "good guy". Unless giving, is motivated by Christ – the anointing – it's invariably dictated by convenience. We’ll give so long as it’s convenient – or makes us look good. True selflessness in giving is motivated by "Christ in us": the same motivation which drags us out of bed at an unseemly hour to see someone, take someone someplace, or help in a disaster.

That motivation necessarily drives out Satan, and Satan cannot cast out Satan. So if Santa has been given a position in which he is the object of worship at this time of year, that’s our problem – not Santa’s. Same with the part of this legend that encourages parents to lie to their kids: how many children have had the trust they had in their parents shattered when they found out that all those cookie crumbs, footprints in ash in the carpet by the fireplace and "if you don't go to bed, Santa won't come", were all part of an elaborate lie?

Of course, we can change that. Santa Claus, indeed, should symbolize a mortal man whose life and deeds exemplify "Christ in us". That, I think, is really where Christian parents should go when their kids ask that inevitable question.

Another Christmas symbol under attack is the practice of saying "Merry Christmas". Some people take offense -- and get downright rude -- if someone tells them, "Merry Christmas". It’s deemed to be "exclusive" and therefore offensive to people who may not believe in Jesus. Instead, we’re encouraged to say, "Season’s Greetings" and "Happy Holidays", even though (a) aside from being the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus, there’s nothing particularly special about this season over others that would require "greetings", and (b) what other "holiday", exactly, would there be which one would wish to be "happy"? So for the "inclusionists" out there, even saying those two alternatives is self-defeating.

(Some "official" functions are now referred to as "Winter Festivals", to eliminate Christian references. But the only religion I can think of which has a "Winter Festival" is paganism, so that name actually excludes a whole lot more faiths than just Christianity, thereby making it even more "exclusionary".)

But "Merry Christmas" should be for everybody, because Jesus came for everybody. If everyone were believers, He wouldn’t have needed to come to earth, right? So by saying "Merry Christmas", we’re actually wishing the blessing of the knowledge and salvation of Christ on everyone we meet, regardless – as it was with Jesus – of the current state of their faith or beliefs. (There was a time when I wasn’t really a Christian, and if it wasn’t for people wishing me "Merry Christmas", reminding me what the season was about, who’s to say whether I would have come around, myself?)

So let’s not allow our concern for other people’s opinions (John 12:42-43) to affect whether we say "Merry Christmas" as often as we want: it’s a blessing, not a secret-society password.

And then there’s the Christmas tree.

Some people sanctimoniously remind us that the tree was originally a pagan symbol, and co-opted by Christians to attract pagans to the faith. Some feel it, like Santa, has become an idol, supplanting God as an object of worship. But regardless of its origins, a symbol is what we make it and to me, the Christmas tree symbolizes what God did on that day, just over 2005 years ago.

Indeed, the Christmas tree is hardly alone as an "adopted" symbol. It's similar to St Patrick, using the shamrock to illustrate the Trinity. And the very first Canadian Christmas Carol, the hauntingly beautiful "Huron Carol", sings of the "Mighty Gitchi Manitou" sending angel choirs during the "moon of wintertime". (Or, for that matter, Larry Norman using rock 'n' roll to reach young people with the message of Jesus.)

Here's what the Christmas tree means to me. It's an evergreen: its colour never changes – just as God’s Word is eternal. (Isaiah used the image of a cedar -- an evergreen -- in Chapter 5 to describe the coming of the Messiah.) It stands, rooted to the spot, immobile, just as God Word stays planted and firm. We’re the ones who go traipsing off in all directions, following our whims and lusts of the world, and it's up to us to come back to the tree. In fact, in Ezekiel, the cedar tree is described as a place of protection (Eze. 17:23), just as we can take refuge in God’s love.

The tree reaches up to Heaven, and its branches reach out – which is what God did when He sent His son to be with us.

God couldn’t come to earth Himself. That would have done us no good: He had to take the form of a man, and stay on His own throne at the same time. And so with Jesus, He stretched forth His hand, reaching out to us. Throughout the Bible, the hand is a symbol of power, and when God stretches for His hand, you better hope it's for blessing. In the Old Testament, when God stretched for His hand, it was usually in anger. In Isaiah 5, the prophet spells out the things God intends to do to those who disobey Him, and four times (at least) he uses the sentence, "His hand is stretched out still".

But when He sent Jesus, God stretched forth His hand to bless us and empower us. And where does Jesus sit? On God's right hand. So in sending Jesus, God stretched for His right hand -- and that's as powerful as it gets.

Why do you suppose the first Apostles Jesus called were fishermen? "Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men," He told them. Simple: they understood the concept of what God was doing. Just as they stand in their own element – on land or in their boat, which represents their element – and cast their lines or their nets into another element, so, too, did God cast His net into our element (the world) while staying put in His (Heaven).

Jesus is the bait: He came to earth and showed us things that we could do with the power He brought us; we wanted that same power, and are drawn to Him, because He was and is the only way to achieve that power.
So in casting His net, God was stretching forth His hand.

Isaiah also prophesies, "The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: that I will break the Assyrian in My land, and upon My mountains tread him underfoot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" (Is. 14:24-27).

That passage is not only refers to the destruction of the Assyrians, but foretells the Messiah’s coming, where Isaiah writes that the purpose of lifting the yoke of the enemy and the enemy’s burden departing from the shoulders of God’s people is His purpose for the whole earth. Once again, there’s that hand, stretched out: a prophecy that God’s hand won’t always be stretched forth in wrath.

Interestingly, the expression, "stretching forth (the) hand" also turns up when God mocks mankind. As God tosses Adam and Eve out of Eden, He says, "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken." (Gen. 3:22-23). God could stretch forth His hand, but Adam couldn’t.

But while the stretching out of the hand was invariably done in anger through the Old Testament, with the arrival of Jesus, it became a whole new ballgame. God stretched out His hand, but it was in love, and the same power God used to destroy in the Old Testament was now to be passed on to us in Christ.

The Greeks have a word for it: dunamis. It’s the same word which gives us "dynamite", "dynamic", "dynamo" and so forth, and it signifies an explosive power, a burst of energy with the force to change things, to alter situations, to turn whole lives around on a dime. That power brings miraculous healing, both physically and spiritually, and with that power, things that seem impossible to us become not just possible but probable with God (Matt. 19:26).

That power is only available to us through Jesus Christ. There are counterfeits, and plenty of belief systems which deny its very existence, but ask anyone who’s experienced the awesome "turnaround" which happens when they receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and when they put their lives into His hands.

Scientists say that we humans use only about 10% of our brain-power, and many muse about what we could do if we were able to unlock the other 90%. We actually use only a tiny fraction of the spiritual power God has given us in Christ, and are only starting to awaken to the possibility that we have phenomenally more power available to us. The enemy would prefer we didn’t know about that. That’s why he connived to steal the power God had initially given Adam. Adam didn’t understand what he had: the enemy did.

That power that Adam craved – the power from the fruit of the tree of life, including eternal life (Adam would probably have denied it to the hilt, but God knows all, and if He said the tree of life would have been the next thing Adam and Eve would have reached for, you could take that to the bank) – is back within our reach. But it’s not completely ours for the taking. We can only get it through Jesus – the result of God’s stretching forth His hand in a new attitude of love and reconciliation.

And that is what the Christmas tree symbolizes to me: God stretching forth His mighty hand in love and reconciliation and giving us the power to be what He wants us to be.