Thursday, December 26, 2013

Unlacing Our Combat Boots

It’s been a while. I last wrapped up my blog before moving from one zip code to another back in June. But it’s been tugging at me; that silly pen sticking its tip in my side.  So here we go. We’re back at it…

It’s the day after Christmas and I have already heard from several people close to me that their trees are down or will be by the end of the day. I frowned. I understood. But I still frowned.  When the world seemingly starts Christmas a month early and commercializes it to pieces by the time we actually get to the babe in the manger come Christmas Eve… well, yes, I see why the tree gets boot kicked to the curb by 10 am on Christmas Day.  But I can’t do it to mine.
In fact, it is on Christmas day that I actually begin to enjoy my decorated trees and wreaths. I’m usually too darn busy until then. Now I can look back and ponder all the grandeur and splendidness of Christmas Eve worship services.  I find myself humming a choral tune or belting out a carol.  I go back into the worship spaces and just sit, pondering all their meaning… and the glory of it all. 

After all, Christmas has just begun! Actually for Christ followers, Christmas is one day but Christmastide runs for 12 days; hence, the Twelve Days of Christmas! And that whole war on Christmas? It is no war. We Christ followers actually placed our holiday over an already firm standing secular holiday called by many “The Winter Solstice” and by others simply “The Holiday Season”.  We, as many other cultures and religions, overlap our Advent Season and then Christmastide, with this wider winter solstice celebration.  No wars are needed.  We aren’t in competition, really. Or at least, we don’t need to be.

And while I’m at it, that whole “keep Christ in Christmas” thing and the “let’s not X Christ from Christmas” thing? It is up to Christians to keep Christ in our Christmas celebrations; not others outside our faith.  It would be like expecting them to worship our God because we are called to.  (Ooops. Bad example. We do that too..) But the X thing, it’s not taking out anything. It turns out “Xmas” is not a non-Christian version of “Christmas”. The “X” actually indicates the Greek letter “Chi”, which is short for the Greek (New Testament language), meaning “Christ”. So “Xmas” and “Christmas” are equivalent in every way except one has fewer letters. Poor thing. It gets booted to the curb too.

Ahhhh, the perils of war… Maybe it’s time to unlace our combat boots. 


My hope is this: That both Advent and Christmastide will be for all Christ followers a time of expressing the very love that Christ calls us to all year.  Then, truly there would be peace on earth.  I’m heading home from work here soon to sit in front of my Christmas tree and ogle over its beauty and the way each twinkling light reminds me of the Light of Christ in my life.  If your tree is already down, that’s okay. You are welcome to stop by and sit at the base of mine.  It’ll be up for another ten days or so, anyway.  Merry Christmas my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ! Merry Christmas!


2 comments:

  1. Even the nuns that taught me in Catholic school wrote "X-mas." God love you! Grace and Peace, my friend!

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  2. From about 1620 until 1850 or so, it was the puritans themselves that banned Christmas celebrations in the New England area of this here United States. It was a combination of the idea that these celebrations were associated with paganism with all of it's idolatry and the reminder they received of the Church Of England. To be honest, the Christmas celebration here in the US is relatively young.

    Thanx for tellin' it like it is Pastor M

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