Stealing Christmas?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
(Originally published December 18, 2005)
For many of us, it's de rigeur to decry the overbearing materialism that characterizes much of the secular celebration of the Christmas season. As Lucy knowingly informs us in A Charlie Brown Christmas, "Christmas is really a big commercial racket" -- and like Charlie Brown, we try to reclaim the spiritual amidst a culture of conspicuous consumption. Yet some conservative religious groups have given this crusade a bit of a different twist this year, as they pressure retailers to "commercialize" Christmas by using the phrase "Merry Christmas" in their advertising. In this week's installment of The Immediate Word, team member Carlos Wilton discusses some of the mixed messages inherent in this approach. He also examines the lectionary's Old Testament and Gospel passages and provides some helpful ideas for clarifying the season's often-confusing combination of the sacred and secular. Team member Carter Shelley offers another perspective, and several illustrations and a children's sermon round out the installment.
You will notice that beginning with this installment, we are discontinuing the worship resources that have been a standard part of each week's material. This is part of a larger effort to refocus The Immediate Word and beef up its sermon preparation components. We have also developed a standard format designed to make it easier for you to work with each week's installment. The Immediate Word will now consist of the following six segments:
* The World - A story from the news media this week that has an impact on preaching.
* The Word - An angle for approaching a scripture passage, typically one of the week's Revised Common Lectionary texts, that addresses the contemporary situation.
* Crafting The Sermon - Preacher to preacher, a member of The Immediate Word team shares some ideas for developing this text into a sermon.
* Another View - Another member of The Immediate Word team responds with additional commentary.
* Illustrations - Quotations and illustrations that further develop the sermon theme.
* Children's Sermon - Bringing the World and the Word together for the young.
We believe these changes will improve The Immediate Word and make it more valuable to you and your preaching ministry. We would appreciate hearing your views on the new format. If you have any questions or feedback regarding the new format of The Immediate Word, please do not hesitate to contact us via e-mail at pr1@csspub.com.
Stealing Christmas?
by Carlos Wilton
2 Samuel 7:1-11; Luke 1:26-38
THE WORLD
Dr. Seuss's whimsical How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a perennial favorite of children and adults alike. This year, some Christians are claiming there's another Grinch abroad in the land: certain retail businesses that are avoiding the word "Christmas" in their store displays and advertising.
Television preacher Jerry Falwell is promoting a "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign," encouraging his supporters to protest "the grinches who are trying to steal Christmas" (this in a November 28 telephone interview with the Associated Press).
http://www.lc.org/libertyalert/2005/la110305.htm
The first salvo in this campaign took place in Boston, where a public furor arose over the city's decision to display a "holiday tree" rather than a Christmas tree. (Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino swiftly capitulated, declaring that the tree on Boston Common was never meant to be anything other than a Christmas tree.)
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/11/25/out_on_a_limb_menino_to_light_christmas_tree/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today's+paper+A+to+Z
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=114565
It's curious that Falwell should allude to the story of the Grinch, because Seuss's fable ends with the Grinch discovering that stealing Christmas is simply impossible -- for himself or anyone else. The citizens of Whoville, suddenly bereft of gifts, wreaths, trees, and candy, join hands in a circle and sing for the sheer joy of it. This, in fact, seems to be Falwell's problem: he confuses the secular Christmas with the sacred holiday. Is a retail chain's decision to say "Season's Greetings" rather than "Merry Christmas" in its ads worthy of a boycott? Is the secularization of commercial advertising truly equivalent -- as Falwell and his supporters have vociferously claimed -- to persecution of the church? (I can think of some Christians in the southern Sudan who would have a hard time with the claim that such an experience is persecution.)
In 2 Samuel 7, David is rebuffed in his bid to build the Lord "a house" -- a lavish temple in Jerusalem. The secular Christmas house -- one of those quaint, Ye Olde English miniature-village houses, no doubt -- is just such a dwelling for the Christ child. He will not inhabit such a place. He is born not in a deluxe room at the inn, but in a stable out back. He comes first to the meek and lowly. In Luke 1:33, the angel says of Mary's child: "of his kingdom there will be no end." That kingdom is of a very different order than the one envisioned by those who yearn for a "Christian America."
THE WORD
2 Samuel 7:1-11
It has been but a short time since David slew Goliath and began his remarkable political career. In a few brief years, David has gone from shepherd to general to king. As today's passage opens, his armies have swept into Jerusalem, and David -- already king of Judah -- has been named king of Israel as well. For perhaps the first time in his life, David has leisure to sit back and celebrate his success.
As he looks around his richly decorated palace, smelling the sweet aroma of the fresh-cut cedar wood that covers the walls, David realizes he's forgotten something. In the midst of the celebrations, the banquets, and the construction of monumental public buildings, the ark of the Lord still rests in a tent. David has been lounging in the palace of an oriental potentate, while the Lord lives under goatskin.
David calls his trusted adviser Nathan and tells him this will not do. Nathan tells the king to "do what is in his heart" -- to build a magnificent temple for the Lord.
That night the word of the Lord comes to the prophet Nathan, with a very different message for the king. "Would you build me a house to dwell in?" God asks. "I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought the people out of Egypt, but have been moving about in a tent. No, David, I will build you a house -- the house that is your dynasty as king of Israel. And that house will stand forever."
David wants to build God a house -- but it is not to be. God is not willing to live in the most magnificent temple. A tent is God's proper home. A tent reminds the people of Israel that God is on the move, even when they aren't.
Luke 1:26-38
Artists throughout history have depicted this scene of the Annunciation to Mary. For a page of links to such images, visit:
http://www.joyfulheart.com/christmas/artwork_angels.htm
This modern treatment by John Collier is particularly arresting:
http://www.hillstream.com/annunciation.html
Incorporating iconography from many of the classic portrayals of the Annunciation, Collier communicates the discontinuity between God's heavenly mission and Mary's earthly reality. His painting also communicates in a very powerful way how young Mary was. She was only a girl, after all -- terribly young to be entrusted with such a divine task.
Yet Mary rises to the occasion. Having heard the angel predict that her child's kingdom will have "no end," she immediately offers the classic prophetic response: "Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word." Not long after that, Mary breaks forth into song, singing the words of the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-56). This is truly a song of reversal: of God breaking into the socioeconomic order and turning everything upside-down, for the sake of justice.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Our two texts today provide two possible avenues for addressing the allegations that contemporary secular society is somehow trying to steal Christmas. The 2 Samuel passage drives home the truth that God cannot be confined in any structure of human manufacture -- certainly not the retail economy! The stark contrast between the reign of God and the reign of human political powers in Luke's Gospel reminds us, once again, that God is sovereign and free -- utterly unable to be confined by human means.
It is probably best to focus on one text or the other, and to bring in the secondary text (if we use it at all) as a sort of illustration. Two-text sermons are difficult to preach, because by the time we're done explicating both texts, there's little time for practical application.
There has been a lot of buzz in the newspapers recently about Jerry Falwell's "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign," and about incidents like the "holiday tree" flap in Boston. There have even been anecdotes of irate Christian extremists harassing store clerks who have failed to close the sale with the obligatory "Merry Christmas" -- substituting the generic "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" instead.
The Immediate Word team member George Reed shares the following email account of one of these incidents: "A friend of mine's daughter just got out of college and is working as the manager of a retail store. Her clerks were wishing people 'Happy Holidays,' but some 'Christians' were so offended that the clerk did not wish them 'Merry Christmas' that they tore into the clerks and left several of them on the verge of tears. The clerks have now been instructed to politely thank the customer and make absolutely no reference to the holiday season whatever." (And this is supposed to be Christian witness?)
The reality is, Christmas has always embodied both sacred and secular aspects. The early Presbyterians in Scotland, led by John Knox, thought Christmas was entirely too frivolous. Knox put an end to the holiday in 1562. In England eight decades later, the observance of Christmas was actually forbidden by act of Parliament. A leading Puritan declared Christmas was "an extraeme forgetfulnesse of Christ, by giving liberty to carnall and sensual delights." Oliver Cromwell sent his sheriffs out into the streets on Christmas Day to make sure the merchants' shops were all open for business. Riots ensued between pro- and anti-Christmas factions. Cromwell would have had no problem with store clerks wishing shoppers "Season's Greetings." In fact, he would have insisted on it, in the name of Christ. The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony felt much the same way. They avoided Christmas altogether, making a point of working on that day -- treating it the same as any other.
We've come full circle since those days, it seems. Now we're hearing certain preachers insist that the secular extravagance and revelry the Puritans so deplored is essential to a true observance of Christmas. Is Christ truly honored by our culture's annual buying binge?
New York Times op-ed columnist John Tierney had this to say on the subject, tongue-in-cheek:
Why do some Christians object to the term "holiday tree"?
Because it hides the ancient link between the tree and Christianity, found in an original Christmas gospel:
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon shepherds abiding in the field, and the angel said unto them: "I bring you tidings of great joy. On this Christmas go forth and smite a mighty tree, a Norway spruce with pleasing boughs, and place it in your home, and adorn it with candles and red balls and strands of silver."
And the shepherds were sore afraid and said unto the angel: "What is this spruce you speak of? What is Norway? Wouldst thou allow a small palm tree?"
And the angel said: "Whatever. Only place on its highest point a star of gold, or, better yet, an angel."
Please note, the angel did not call it a holiday tree. ["O Fight, All Ye Faithful," New York Times, December 10, 2005]
It is our task this Christmas -- and an important one -- to call Christians back to a true observance of Christmas. The place to which we need to call them, however, is not the shopping mall, but the church; not the palace of Herod, but the manger. There will always be a secular celebration of Christmas: one whose most extravagant aspects are best avoided by those who worship the Christ child. If we attempt to approach that commercial beast and collar it, as Mr. Falwell and his followers are evidently doing, we risk being devoured by it instead.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Carter Shelley
Well, Carlos, my first response to this week's reflections is "Amen, Brother!" But with our new format, my task is to challenge or offer another perspective on the texts' possibilities.
First of all, Oliver Cromwell was almost no one's idea of a good-time guy, much less a gracious Christian. Both he and Parliament were extreme in their desire to keep Christ far away from drunken healths sung to a babe in a manger. Yet their righteous sobriety lacked the depth of emotion and beauty someone like John Donne offered when he preached a Christmas sermon. (See related illustration.)
Second, I can't help but think of those families in or on the edges of the American welfare system who would be entirely bereft of Christmas cheer were it not for the gift-giving and financial donations Secret Santas provide through church congregations and organized nonprofit agencies like the Salvation Army and Yokefellows. Thanks to them, many Americans made sure these children received clothes, food, bikes, and toys not considered or proffered the other eleven months of the year.
If the majority of us were not so zealous in our Christian shopping for friends and family, I doubt we'd be so inclined to recognize the contrast and need between what we have and what others do not, and thereby try somewhat to redress the situation.
Third, if one takes the president's view of how we all should "spend, spend, spend" for the good of our national economy and retail profits, it's our national duty to buy now, consume now, and leave thrift and conservation to future generations and other nations. Thus Christmas shopping is not only a patriotic act; it is a noble one.
Fourth, if it weren't for the commercialization of Christmas there are kids who would get absolutely nothing, and not all of them would be poor. Once upon a time in a former pastorate I had a church member more joyless than Oliver Cromwell. Although this individual made a salary well above the national median, he refused to have air conditioning in his home. This decision did not so much affect him as it did his wife and two young children, one of whom suffered from serious asthma. While the man worked in an air-conditioned building all day, they suffered the extreme heat and humidity of summer in the urban South. He also disliked birthdays and presents and he genuinely despised Christmas. "I hate Christmas, because it is Christ's birthday and no one thinks about Christ." He stated this position while standing in the church narthex sipping holiday punch and eating Christmas cookies after the children's Christmas pageant. It was as though the special services, special offerings, and stacks of boxes of food, warm winter clothes, children's toys, and church member checks to be delivered to poor families of the community did not exist. His wife each year pleaded with him to let the bicycle their son wanted or the Barbie house their daughter had seen at a friend's house be designated as Christmas presents, since they would have been bought anyway; yet it was clear he made everyone in the family feel bad about their neglect of the Christ child and the true meaning of Christmas. A seven-year-old and a five-year-old shouldn't have to feel guilty about receiving Christmas presents.
Fifth, as the New York Times op-ed you cite, Carlos, points out, many Christian customs have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus' birth. We don't know the actual date that Jesus was born. We do know the current date was a compromise to make it easier for former pagans who had a celebration around December 25 to adapt to their new religion. We also know that the words Luke gives to Mary in the Magnificat originated in the Anawin community who sought God's intervention on behalf of the subjugated Jewish community. If the world were upended in the way proclaimed by Mary in the Magnificat and by a God who won't be "fenced in" by David's plan to build God a temple or by sending a Messiah who is simply another warrior-king; were our world the one God calls all of us to create, based on justice, compassion, and reversals of power and wealth -- many of us who have the cash and sentiment to demand a "Merry Christmas" at Wal-Mart or Target would be empty-handed or on the receiving end of other people's generosity. May God instill in us this Christmas a better sense of how each one of us may more fully embody the Divine reasons for the Season.
ILLUSTRATIONS
The whole life of Christ was a continual Passion; others die martyrs but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha (where he was crucified) even in Bethlehem where he was born; for to his tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as his cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day. And as even his birth is his death, so every action and passage that manifest Christ to us is his birth, for Epiphany is manifestation. And therefore, though the Church do now call Twelfth-day Epiphany, because upon that day Christ was manifested to the Gentiles in those Wise Men who came then to worship him, yet the ancient Church called this day (the day of Christ's birth) the Epiphany, because this day Christ was manifested to the world by being born this day. Every manifestation of Christ to the world, to the Church, to a particular soul, is an Epiphany, a Christmas day.
-- John Donne, from "The Showing Forth of Christ; a Christmas Sermon"
***
Whose Birthday Is It Anyway?
Once in a very strange neighborhood, there lived an eight-year-old boy named Jason. Now in this neighborhood where Jason lived, the unexpected always happened. Instead of playing football, they would play kneeball. Instead of children going to school, teachers were busy going to homes. In the summertime, it was not unusual to see water freeze, and in the winter flowers bloomed in the gardens. It was a funny, strange place.
One of the strangest events happened on Jason's ninth birthday. Jason's grandparents came from their home across the country to help celebrate, but of course when they got to Jason's neighborhood, they went to the Brown's house down the street and visited and stayed there. When Jason's mother baked a birthday cake, she gave it to the mailman to eat. When all the neighborhood kids heard it was Jason's birthday, they gave gifts to one another and Jason didn't get any.
There was a flood of birthday cards. The post office had to hire extra workers and work long hours to deliver the cards. Of course, in this strange neighborhood everybody except Jason got cards. It was even reported that a couple of dogs and a parakeet got cards, but Jason got none.
Finally about nine o'clock, in a fit of frustration and anger, Jason went out of his house, borrowed the school cheerleaders' megaphone, rode up and down the street on his unicycle, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "WHOSE BIRTHDAY IS IT ANYWAY?" And the night was so silent that all night long echoes bounced off the mountainsides: "Whose birthday is it anyway? Whose birthday is it anyway?"
That question still echoes down through time every December.
***
Losing Our Souls
In The Sinner of Saint Ambrose, Robert Reynolds described ancient Rome in this way: "Our whole Roman world had gone dead in its heart because it feared tragedy, took flight from suffering, and abhorred failure. In fear of tragedy, we worshiped power. In fear of suffering, we worshiped security. During the rising splendor of our thousand years, we had grown cruel, practical, and sterile. We did win the whole world, but in the process, we lost our souls."
***
It's the People that Make the Difference
A young boy came to his father and said, "Dad, let's play ball."
"Not now, son, I have work to do."
A few minutes later, the boy returned: "Want to play ball now, Dad?"
"No, son, I still have work to do."
Twenty minutes later, the boy had returned again: "How about playing ball now, Dad?"
The father reached over, picked up a magazine, and flipped through it until he found a full picture of earth spinning in space. He pulled the picture out and showed it to his son. Then he tore it into many small pieces. He gave the pieces to the boy along with a roll of scotch tape and said, "When you've put that picture together, you bring it back, and then we'll play ball."
The boy took the pieces to his room and in about ten minutes he was back with the picture all taped together. The father was amazed. "How did you do that so fast?" he asked.
"Well," said the boy, "at first it was really difficult, but then I discovered that there were people on the back, and when you put the people together, the world fell into place."
***
Years ago I heard a rather emotional sermon from a seminary student who was assisting in our congregation. It was on a theme that you often hear during this season: "the real meaning of Christmas." Part of the sermon was a denunciation of the practice of referring to the holiday as "Xmas." In algebra, "x" often stands for an unknown quantity. People who call it "Xmas," the seminarian told us, are taking Christ out of Christmas. But it's still Christmas -- not, he said with a derisive tone in his voice, Xmas.
It was a well-meaning attempt to keep Christ in Christmas, but it ran afoul of one fact: The "X" in Christmas doesn't stand for an unknown but for the name "Christ." It's the Greek letter chi, the first letter of Christ in that language. And Xmas is simply an old abbreviation for Christmas, just as the chi-rho symbol (the first two letters of the name) stands for Christ himself.
I suppose some people may use Xmas to avoid the name of Christ. But it's not as easy to take Christ out of Christmas as you might think. And it's true that "holidays" is a pretty generic term -- but its root meaning is "holy day." Maybe that could provide an opportunity to talk with people about what it is that makes observance of the particular day December 25th "holy."
***
It's fascinating that with all the talk of a struggle by conservative Christians to save Christmas from the grinches who are trying to steal it, many prominent evangelical churches, including some of the largest, are not having services on December 25th -- in spite of the fact that it falls on a Sunday this year. See, e.g., http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/13323398.htm. (In fact, many congregations never have a Christmas Day service.) Supposedly this is so people can have more time with their families, but isn't this just a polite way of saying that the church is capitulating to secular standards? Or is that all right as long as we call the day Christmas, whether we worship then or not?
***
To avoid offending anybody, the school dropped religion altogether and started singing about the weather. At my son's school, they now hold the winter program in February and sing increasingly non-memorable songs such as "Winter Wonderland," "Frosty the Snowman," and -- this is a real song -- "Suzy Snowflake," all of which is pretty funny because we live in Miami. A visitor from another planet would assume that the children belonged to the Church of Meteorology.
-- Dave Barry, in his "Notes on Western Civilization," Chicago Tribune Magazine, July 28, 1991
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Gabriel -- God's messenger
Object: A Christmas tree angel or nativity set angel
Based on Luke 1:26-38
Good morning! I brought an angel with me this morning to tell a wonderful story about God. God doesn't work the way we work. We often see people based on their importance. We think some people are very important and we treat them special. Can you tell me about some people we consider very important? (give the children an opportunity to tell about important people) We treat kings and presidents in special ways that we don't treat others.
Sometimes when a person is very poor or doesn't have a really good job, people are tempted to treat them as if they are not as important as others. That's the way many people are. It was true a long time ago as well.
Many years ago in a little town -- which itself was not important -- there lived a young woman. Many would say she was not important at all. She was poor and she had no important job. She did not have a high position, such as being a princess or queen. Many people probably thought this poor woman was not at all important. Does anybody know this woman's name? (let them answer) Her name was Mary and she lived in Nazareth.
Others didn't think much of Mary from the unimportant town of Nazareth, but God thought she was very important. God sent a messenger to this woman. The messenger's name was Gabriel. Gabriel was one of these -- an angel. Does anyone know what God wanted Gabriel to say to Mary? (let them answer)
God told Mary she was to have the baby Jesus. That was important. That was the most important thing anyone could ever do.
One thing I think this story tells us is that every person is precious to God. God could have chosen anyone to have Jesus, but God chose a person everyone else thought not important. Now we consider Mary very important, but she was important to God long before anyone else thought she was important.
Do you know what? YOU also are important to God.
Dearest God: Thank you for making us important people. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 18, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
For many of us, it's de rigeur to decry the overbearing materialism that characterizes much of the secular celebration of the Christmas season. As Lucy knowingly informs us in A Charlie Brown Christmas, "Christmas is really a big commercial racket" -- and like Charlie Brown, we try to reclaim the spiritual amidst a culture of conspicuous consumption. Yet some conservative religious groups have given this crusade a bit of a different twist this year, as they pressure retailers to "commercialize" Christmas by using the phrase "Merry Christmas" in their advertising. In this week's installment of The Immediate Word, team member Carlos Wilton discusses some of the mixed messages inherent in this approach. He also examines the lectionary's Old Testament and Gospel passages and provides some helpful ideas for clarifying the season's often-confusing combination of the sacred and secular. Team member Carter Shelley offers another perspective, and several illustrations and a children's sermon round out the installment.
You will notice that beginning with this installment, we are discontinuing the worship resources that have been a standard part of each week's material. This is part of a larger effort to refocus The Immediate Word and beef up its sermon preparation components. We have also developed a standard format designed to make it easier for you to work with each week's installment. The Immediate Word will now consist of the following six segments:
* The World - A story from the news media this week that has an impact on preaching.
* The Word - An angle for approaching a scripture passage, typically one of the week's Revised Common Lectionary texts, that addresses the contemporary situation.
* Crafting The Sermon - Preacher to preacher, a member of The Immediate Word team shares some ideas for developing this text into a sermon.
* Another View - Another member of The Immediate Word team responds with additional commentary.
* Illustrations - Quotations and illustrations that further develop the sermon theme.
* Children's Sermon - Bringing the World and the Word together for the young.
We believe these changes will improve The Immediate Word and make it more valuable to you and your preaching ministry. We would appreciate hearing your views on the new format. If you have any questions or feedback regarding the new format of The Immediate Word, please do not hesitate to contact us via e-mail at pr1@csspub.com.
Stealing Christmas?
by Carlos Wilton
2 Samuel 7:1-11; Luke 1:26-38
THE WORLD
Dr. Seuss's whimsical How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a perennial favorite of children and adults alike. This year, some Christians are claiming there's another Grinch abroad in the land: certain retail businesses that are avoiding the word "Christmas" in their store displays and advertising.
Television preacher Jerry Falwell is promoting a "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign," encouraging his supporters to protest "the grinches who are trying to steal Christmas" (this in a November 28 telephone interview with the Associated Press).
http://www.lc.org/libertyalert/2005/la110305.htm
The first salvo in this campaign took place in Boston, where a public furor arose over the city's decision to display a "holiday tree" rather than a Christmas tree. (Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino swiftly capitulated, declaring that the tree on Boston Common was never meant to be anything other than a Christmas tree.)
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/11/25/out_on_a_limb_menino_to_light_christmas_tree/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today's+paper+A+to+Z
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=114565
It's curious that Falwell should allude to the story of the Grinch, because Seuss's fable ends with the Grinch discovering that stealing Christmas is simply impossible -- for himself or anyone else. The citizens of Whoville, suddenly bereft of gifts, wreaths, trees, and candy, join hands in a circle and sing for the sheer joy of it. This, in fact, seems to be Falwell's problem: he confuses the secular Christmas with the sacred holiday. Is a retail chain's decision to say "Season's Greetings" rather than "Merry Christmas" in its ads worthy of a boycott? Is the secularization of commercial advertising truly equivalent -- as Falwell and his supporters have vociferously claimed -- to persecution of the church? (I can think of some Christians in the southern Sudan who would have a hard time with the claim that such an experience is persecution.)
In 2 Samuel 7, David is rebuffed in his bid to build the Lord "a house" -- a lavish temple in Jerusalem. The secular Christmas house -- one of those quaint, Ye Olde English miniature-village houses, no doubt -- is just such a dwelling for the Christ child. He will not inhabit such a place. He is born not in a deluxe room at the inn, but in a stable out back. He comes first to the meek and lowly. In Luke 1:33, the angel says of Mary's child: "of his kingdom there will be no end." That kingdom is of a very different order than the one envisioned by those who yearn for a "Christian America."
THE WORD
2 Samuel 7:1-11
It has been but a short time since David slew Goliath and began his remarkable political career. In a few brief years, David has gone from shepherd to general to king. As today's passage opens, his armies have swept into Jerusalem, and David -- already king of Judah -- has been named king of Israel as well. For perhaps the first time in his life, David has leisure to sit back and celebrate his success.
As he looks around his richly decorated palace, smelling the sweet aroma of the fresh-cut cedar wood that covers the walls, David realizes he's forgotten something. In the midst of the celebrations, the banquets, and the construction of monumental public buildings, the ark of the Lord still rests in a tent. David has been lounging in the palace of an oriental potentate, while the Lord lives under goatskin.
David calls his trusted adviser Nathan and tells him this will not do. Nathan tells the king to "do what is in his heart" -- to build a magnificent temple for the Lord.
That night the word of the Lord comes to the prophet Nathan, with a very different message for the king. "Would you build me a house to dwell in?" God asks. "I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought the people out of Egypt, but have been moving about in a tent. No, David, I will build you a house -- the house that is your dynasty as king of Israel. And that house will stand forever."
David wants to build God a house -- but it is not to be. God is not willing to live in the most magnificent temple. A tent is God's proper home. A tent reminds the people of Israel that God is on the move, even when they aren't.
Luke 1:26-38
Artists throughout history have depicted this scene of the Annunciation to Mary. For a page of links to such images, visit:
http://www.joyfulheart.com/christmas/artwork_angels.htm
This modern treatment by John Collier is particularly arresting:
http://www.hillstream.com/annunciation.html
Incorporating iconography from many of the classic portrayals of the Annunciation, Collier communicates the discontinuity between God's heavenly mission and Mary's earthly reality. His painting also communicates in a very powerful way how young Mary was. She was only a girl, after all -- terribly young to be entrusted with such a divine task.
Yet Mary rises to the occasion. Having heard the angel predict that her child's kingdom will have "no end," she immediately offers the classic prophetic response: "Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word." Not long after that, Mary breaks forth into song, singing the words of the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-56). This is truly a song of reversal: of God breaking into the socioeconomic order and turning everything upside-down, for the sake of justice.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Our two texts today provide two possible avenues for addressing the allegations that contemporary secular society is somehow trying to steal Christmas. The 2 Samuel passage drives home the truth that God cannot be confined in any structure of human manufacture -- certainly not the retail economy! The stark contrast between the reign of God and the reign of human political powers in Luke's Gospel reminds us, once again, that God is sovereign and free -- utterly unable to be confined by human means.
It is probably best to focus on one text or the other, and to bring in the secondary text (if we use it at all) as a sort of illustration. Two-text sermons are difficult to preach, because by the time we're done explicating both texts, there's little time for practical application.
There has been a lot of buzz in the newspapers recently about Jerry Falwell's "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign," and about incidents like the "holiday tree" flap in Boston. There have even been anecdotes of irate Christian extremists harassing store clerks who have failed to close the sale with the obligatory "Merry Christmas" -- substituting the generic "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" instead.
The Immediate Word team member George Reed shares the following email account of one of these incidents: "A friend of mine's daughter just got out of college and is working as the manager of a retail store. Her clerks were wishing people 'Happy Holidays,' but some 'Christians' were so offended that the clerk did not wish them 'Merry Christmas' that they tore into the clerks and left several of them on the verge of tears. The clerks have now been instructed to politely thank the customer and make absolutely no reference to the holiday season whatever." (And this is supposed to be Christian witness?)
The reality is, Christmas has always embodied both sacred and secular aspects. The early Presbyterians in Scotland, led by John Knox, thought Christmas was entirely too frivolous. Knox put an end to the holiday in 1562. In England eight decades later, the observance of Christmas was actually forbidden by act of Parliament. A leading Puritan declared Christmas was "an extraeme forgetfulnesse of Christ, by giving liberty to carnall and sensual delights." Oliver Cromwell sent his sheriffs out into the streets on Christmas Day to make sure the merchants' shops were all open for business. Riots ensued between pro- and anti-Christmas factions. Cromwell would have had no problem with store clerks wishing shoppers "Season's Greetings." In fact, he would have insisted on it, in the name of Christ. The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony felt much the same way. They avoided Christmas altogether, making a point of working on that day -- treating it the same as any other.
We've come full circle since those days, it seems. Now we're hearing certain preachers insist that the secular extravagance and revelry the Puritans so deplored is essential to a true observance of Christmas. Is Christ truly honored by our culture's annual buying binge?
New York Times op-ed columnist John Tierney had this to say on the subject, tongue-in-cheek:
Why do some Christians object to the term "holiday tree"?
Because it hides the ancient link between the tree and Christianity, found in an original Christmas gospel:
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon shepherds abiding in the field, and the angel said unto them: "I bring you tidings of great joy. On this Christmas go forth and smite a mighty tree, a Norway spruce with pleasing boughs, and place it in your home, and adorn it with candles and red balls and strands of silver."
And the shepherds were sore afraid and said unto the angel: "What is this spruce you speak of? What is Norway? Wouldst thou allow a small palm tree?"
And the angel said: "Whatever. Only place on its highest point a star of gold, or, better yet, an angel."
Please note, the angel did not call it a holiday tree. ["O Fight, All Ye Faithful," New York Times, December 10, 2005]
It is our task this Christmas -- and an important one -- to call Christians back to a true observance of Christmas. The place to which we need to call them, however, is not the shopping mall, but the church; not the palace of Herod, but the manger. There will always be a secular celebration of Christmas: one whose most extravagant aspects are best avoided by those who worship the Christ child. If we attempt to approach that commercial beast and collar it, as Mr. Falwell and his followers are evidently doing, we risk being devoured by it instead.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Carter Shelley
Well, Carlos, my first response to this week's reflections is "Amen, Brother!" But with our new format, my task is to challenge or offer another perspective on the texts' possibilities.
First of all, Oliver Cromwell was almost no one's idea of a good-time guy, much less a gracious Christian. Both he and Parliament were extreme in their desire to keep Christ far away from drunken healths sung to a babe in a manger. Yet their righteous sobriety lacked the depth of emotion and beauty someone like John Donne offered when he preached a Christmas sermon. (See related illustration.)
Second, I can't help but think of those families in or on the edges of the American welfare system who would be entirely bereft of Christmas cheer were it not for the gift-giving and financial donations Secret Santas provide through church congregations and organized nonprofit agencies like the Salvation Army and Yokefellows. Thanks to them, many Americans made sure these children received clothes, food, bikes, and toys not considered or proffered the other eleven months of the year.
If the majority of us were not so zealous in our Christian shopping for friends and family, I doubt we'd be so inclined to recognize the contrast and need between what we have and what others do not, and thereby try somewhat to redress the situation.
Third, if one takes the president's view of how we all should "spend, spend, spend" for the good of our national economy and retail profits, it's our national duty to buy now, consume now, and leave thrift and conservation to future generations and other nations. Thus Christmas shopping is not only a patriotic act; it is a noble one.
Fourth, if it weren't for the commercialization of Christmas there are kids who would get absolutely nothing, and not all of them would be poor. Once upon a time in a former pastorate I had a church member more joyless than Oliver Cromwell. Although this individual made a salary well above the national median, he refused to have air conditioning in his home. This decision did not so much affect him as it did his wife and two young children, one of whom suffered from serious asthma. While the man worked in an air-conditioned building all day, they suffered the extreme heat and humidity of summer in the urban South. He also disliked birthdays and presents and he genuinely despised Christmas. "I hate Christmas, because it is Christ's birthday and no one thinks about Christ." He stated this position while standing in the church narthex sipping holiday punch and eating Christmas cookies after the children's Christmas pageant. It was as though the special services, special offerings, and stacks of boxes of food, warm winter clothes, children's toys, and church member checks to be delivered to poor families of the community did not exist. His wife each year pleaded with him to let the bicycle their son wanted or the Barbie house their daughter had seen at a friend's house be designated as Christmas presents, since they would have been bought anyway; yet it was clear he made everyone in the family feel bad about their neglect of the Christ child and the true meaning of Christmas. A seven-year-old and a five-year-old shouldn't have to feel guilty about receiving Christmas presents.
Fifth, as the New York Times op-ed you cite, Carlos, points out, many Christian customs have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus' birth. We don't know the actual date that Jesus was born. We do know the current date was a compromise to make it easier for former pagans who had a celebration around December 25 to adapt to their new religion. We also know that the words Luke gives to Mary in the Magnificat originated in the Anawin community who sought God's intervention on behalf of the subjugated Jewish community. If the world were upended in the way proclaimed by Mary in the Magnificat and by a God who won't be "fenced in" by David's plan to build God a temple or by sending a Messiah who is simply another warrior-king; were our world the one God calls all of us to create, based on justice, compassion, and reversals of power and wealth -- many of us who have the cash and sentiment to demand a "Merry Christmas" at Wal-Mart or Target would be empty-handed or on the receiving end of other people's generosity. May God instill in us this Christmas a better sense of how each one of us may more fully embody the Divine reasons for the Season.
ILLUSTRATIONS
The whole life of Christ was a continual Passion; others die martyrs but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha (where he was crucified) even in Bethlehem where he was born; for to his tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as his cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day. And as even his birth is his death, so every action and passage that manifest Christ to us is his birth, for Epiphany is manifestation. And therefore, though the Church do now call Twelfth-day Epiphany, because upon that day Christ was manifested to the Gentiles in those Wise Men who came then to worship him, yet the ancient Church called this day (the day of Christ's birth) the Epiphany, because this day Christ was manifested to the world by being born this day. Every manifestation of Christ to the world, to the Church, to a particular soul, is an Epiphany, a Christmas day.
-- John Donne, from "The Showing Forth of Christ; a Christmas Sermon"
***
Whose Birthday Is It Anyway?
Once in a very strange neighborhood, there lived an eight-year-old boy named Jason. Now in this neighborhood where Jason lived, the unexpected always happened. Instead of playing football, they would play kneeball. Instead of children going to school, teachers were busy going to homes. In the summertime, it was not unusual to see water freeze, and in the winter flowers bloomed in the gardens. It was a funny, strange place.
One of the strangest events happened on Jason's ninth birthday. Jason's grandparents came from their home across the country to help celebrate, but of course when they got to Jason's neighborhood, they went to the Brown's house down the street and visited and stayed there. When Jason's mother baked a birthday cake, she gave it to the mailman to eat. When all the neighborhood kids heard it was Jason's birthday, they gave gifts to one another and Jason didn't get any.
There was a flood of birthday cards. The post office had to hire extra workers and work long hours to deliver the cards. Of course, in this strange neighborhood everybody except Jason got cards. It was even reported that a couple of dogs and a parakeet got cards, but Jason got none.
Finally about nine o'clock, in a fit of frustration and anger, Jason went out of his house, borrowed the school cheerleaders' megaphone, rode up and down the street on his unicycle, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "WHOSE BIRTHDAY IS IT ANYWAY?" And the night was so silent that all night long echoes bounced off the mountainsides: "Whose birthday is it anyway? Whose birthday is it anyway?"
That question still echoes down through time every December.
***
Losing Our Souls
In The Sinner of Saint Ambrose, Robert Reynolds described ancient Rome in this way: "Our whole Roman world had gone dead in its heart because it feared tragedy, took flight from suffering, and abhorred failure. In fear of tragedy, we worshiped power. In fear of suffering, we worshiped security. During the rising splendor of our thousand years, we had grown cruel, practical, and sterile. We did win the whole world, but in the process, we lost our souls."
***
It's the People that Make the Difference
A young boy came to his father and said, "Dad, let's play ball."
"Not now, son, I have work to do."
A few minutes later, the boy returned: "Want to play ball now, Dad?"
"No, son, I still have work to do."
Twenty minutes later, the boy had returned again: "How about playing ball now, Dad?"
The father reached over, picked up a magazine, and flipped through it until he found a full picture of earth spinning in space. He pulled the picture out and showed it to his son. Then he tore it into many small pieces. He gave the pieces to the boy along with a roll of scotch tape and said, "When you've put that picture together, you bring it back, and then we'll play ball."
The boy took the pieces to his room and in about ten minutes he was back with the picture all taped together. The father was amazed. "How did you do that so fast?" he asked.
"Well," said the boy, "at first it was really difficult, but then I discovered that there were people on the back, and when you put the people together, the world fell into place."
***
Years ago I heard a rather emotional sermon from a seminary student who was assisting in our congregation. It was on a theme that you often hear during this season: "the real meaning of Christmas." Part of the sermon was a denunciation of the practice of referring to the holiday as "Xmas." In algebra, "x" often stands for an unknown quantity. People who call it "Xmas," the seminarian told us, are taking Christ out of Christmas. But it's still Christmas -- not, he said with a derisive tone in his voice, Xmas.
It was a well-meaning attempt to keep Christ in Christmas, but it ran afoul of one fact: The "X" in Christmas doesn't stand for an unknown but for the name "Christ." It's the Greek letter chi, the first letter of Christ in that language. And Xmas is simply an old abbreviation for Christmas, just as the chi-rho symbol (the first two letters of the name) stands for Christ himself.
I suppose some people may use Xmas to avoid the name of Christ. But it's not as easy to take Christ out of Christmas as you might think. And it's true that "holidays" is a pretty generic term -- but its root meaning is "holy day." Maybe that could provide an opportunity to talk with people about what it is that makes observance of the particular day December 25th "holy."
***
It's fascinating that with all the talk of a struggle by conservative Christians to save Christmas from the grinches who are trying to steal it, many prominent evangelical churches, including some of the largest, are not having services on December 25th -- in spite of the fact that it falls on a Sunday this year. See, e.g., http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/13323398.htm. (In fact, many congregations never have a Christmas Day service.) Supposedly this is so people can have more time with their families, but isn't this just a polite way of saying that the church is capitulating to secular standards? Or is that all right as long as we call the day Christmas, whether we worship then or not?
***
To avoid offending anybody, the school dropped religion altogether and started singing about the weather. At my son's school, they now hold the winter program in February and sing increasingly non-memorable songs such as "Winter Wonderland," "Frosty the Snowman," and -- this is a real song -- "Suzy Snowflake," all of which is pretty funny because we live in Miami. A visitor from another planet would assume that the children belonged to the Church of Meteorology.
-- Dave Barry, in his "Notes on Western Civilization," Chicago Tribune Magazine, July 28, 1991
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Gabriel -- God's messenger
Object: A Christmas tree angel or nativity set angel
Based on Luke 1:26-38
Good morning! I brought an angel with me this morning to tell a wonderful story about God. God doesn't work the way we work. We often see people based on their importance. We think some people are very important and we treat them special. Can you tell me about some people we consider very important? (give the children an opportunity to tell about important people) We treat kings and presidents in special ways that we don't treat others.
Sometimes when a person is very poor or doesn't have a really good job, people are tempted to treat them as if they are not as important as others. That's the way many people are. It was true a long time ago as well.
Many years ago in a little town -- which itself was not important -- there lived a young woman. Many would say she was not important at all. She was poor and she had no important job. She did not have a high position, such as being a princess or queen. Many people probably thought this poor woman was not at all important. Does anybody know this woman's name? (let them answer) Her name was Mary and she lived in Nazareth.
Others didn't think much of Mary from the unimportant town of Nazareth, but God thought she was very important. God sent a messenger to this woman. The messenger's name was Gabriel. Gabriel was one of these -- an angel. Does anyone know what God wanted Gabriel to say to Mary? (let them answer)
God told Mary she was to have the baby Jesus. That was important. That was the most important thing anyone could ever do.
One thing I think this story tells us is that every person is precious to God. God could have chosen anyone to have Jesus, but God chose a person everyone else thought not important. Now we consider Mary very important, but she was important to God long before anyone else thought she was important.
Do you know what? YOU also are important to God.
Dearest God: Thank you for making us important people. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 18, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
