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Pensamientos para hoy (afterthought for today)

I hate fake Christmas

Maybe I'm just getting old and nostalgic but has anyone else noticed how fake Christmas seems to be getting? I was in a store recently and was disappointed by how cheap the Christmas ornaments looked. Everything is made of plastic. Artificial trees come out of the box with lights already attached. Ornaments look like plastic toys. Even the store Santas look as if they are purposefully trying to look as fake as possible. It's an insult to our sensibilities for these retailers to try to market such cheap merchandise. Of course those who know the true meaning of Christmas--the story of Jesus' birth--know that the store-brand Christmas has little to do with Christmas' true meaning, but at the same time, in spite of the commercialism, we have come to appreciate the positive aspects of the modern holiday. We can appreciate the festive atmosphere that surrounds this time of year (unless your name is Ebenezer Scrooge). We can appreciate the beautiful decorations as expressions of our God-given creativity. We can appreciate even secular Christmas music as expressions of our human need for family and friends. So not all of the tinsel and glitter and gift giving are necessarily bad. I just don't like all the plastic. What happened to the shiny glass ornaments we used to hang on our Christmas trees? Is it wrong to long for the days when Christmas seemed to be more sincere, more genuine?

Sometimes even Christians can get too artificial in their celebration of Jesus' birth. We glamorize the story by singing about three kings who came to visit Jesus when in fact they weren't kings; they were pagan astrologers. And we don't know if there were two magi or three or more. We sanitize the story by romanticizing the place where Mary gave birth. It was not a cozy animal stall with loads of soft hay. It was a hard, rock enclosure or cave. Animals may or may not have been in the stall at the time. It was a place where animals were normally kept, but you'll have to take the sheep out of your nativity scene. Sheep were kept in pens usually outside of town. We also idealize the story by promoting the primitive conditions in which Jesus was born as an indication of poverty. Joseph was a craftsman and probably earned a modest income. His home in Nazareth was only a short distance (four miles) from the capital city Sepphoris, one of the largest and most wealthy cities in Galilee. No doubt Joseph had ample opportunity to work in this large and prosperous city. Joseph and Mary spent the night in the stall not because they were poor but because the place where the other travelers were staying was already occupied. And the jolly but apologetic inn keeper? Well let's just say that this isn't what Luke had in mind when he wrote that there was no room in the καταλυματι (katalumati--"lodging places")

We must be careful not to glamorize, sanitize, romanticize, or idealize the story of Jesus' birth. We don't want a fake Jesus any more than we want a fake Christmas. I encourage you to take time to read the birth of Jesus as found in Matthew 1:18-2:18 and Luke 2:1-38. The birth of Jesus is glorious and marvelous on its own. We don't need to add to it and make it something other than what it is--the arrival of the Savior, Emmanuel, God in the person of Jesus come to live among us.

Trying to keep it real,

Pastor Steve

November 30, 2007

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