A Christmas Reflection

In the traditions of Christmas, we Christians can often get worked up about how the "secular" world stole Christmas from us. Thus, there is much talk about the "true meaning of Christmas," which I suppose has much to do with celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I have admit that I oftentimes resonate with these comments. However, there has always been something a bit off about them. I suppose what has always been slightly awkward about this attempt to get back to the true spirit of Christmas is that I'm not convinced we really want it back. We want the freedom to say "Merry Christmas" instead of the more uninspiring "Happy Holidays" but we are not willing to divorce ourselves from the materialism of Christmas. We want the malls, the clothes, the toys, and the "stuff" but we want to say Merry Christmas while we do it.

What I believe is happening here is that we only want to celebrate the convenient parts of Jesus. Thus, we want to celebrate his birth (God comes to us), his crucifixion (God saves us), and his resurrection (God reigns now and again). But we are not willing to celebrate his life, which requires us to live differently from the rest of the world. When we celebrate the life of Jesus, we purchase differently, we think differently, and we engage the world differently all together.

I guess if we really want to put Christ back in Christmas we need to fully do it. We need to declare Jesus Lord over state, economy, gifts, malls, santa, and ourselves; and until we are willing to do so Jesus will continue to vacation around Christmas.