Hey guys, I hope everybody had a good Incarnation (that is, a good Christmas).
I was curious to get your thoughts on Christmas. The past two years I've been half-joking, half-serious about my dislike of Christmas in America. The red-suited behemoth, the glowing-nosed beast, the costly cards(!), and etc. really lead me to rebellion. I don't like how the myths/stories have become so great a part of our culture, and transformed the memory of the greatest act of Grace into a lesson on being good and kind to others. Even the plays at our church in the past couple of years have revolved around being too busy with the pagan nature of the holiday, with, at the very end, a remembrance of the "true" meaning of the holiday. Bah-humbug!
The big question is: How ought we to act/react to the pagan celebration that is usurping that of Christ's Incarnation? But, for the sake of breaking it down, here are some areas I'm curious about:
1) Am I being a sour-puss for my bah-humbug spirit against all things non-Jesus at the commemoration of His Incarnation? (remember, I am serious about my dislike for what it has become, but I do so with humor [for example, I rewrote the lyrics of the song "God rest you merry gentlemen" to depict God's wrath on Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty. I think that's funny, but I'm not sure many others would...]);
2) In our churches, should we so heavily address the holiday distractions? Or should we make a greater attempt to overcome that reaction by some in the congregation by magnifying the glory of Christ?
3) What about the children?!?!?! How might we appropriately teach our children about the Christmas stories that have infiltrated our American culture? Do we deny all access? Do we tell them they are not true? Do we allow them to believe that they are true and later tell them they're not?
I would appreciate your thoughts!
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2 comments:
Ok, this is a long time coming, but here we go:
I think that we need to be careful about this subject. I think it is far more important to make sure that your children understand that Christmas is not about gifts then it is to worry about Santa.
Children are going to hear about Santa one way or the other. The important thing is to have family Christmas traditions that keep the children so fixated on the real meaning of Christmas that Santa and presents are an after thought.
Of course, this sounds great in theory, but in practice it is quite difficult. Still, I think if we focus on Christ and do something creative to help our children see presents in a different light then Santa will be no big deal.
If my children become focused on Santa I am not going to panic. They will grow out of this, but the obsession with presents has the potential of lasting forever. Therefore, I would focus on the issue of presents and let the santa thing go a bit. I certainly don't plan on telling my kids that their presents are from Santa, but I'll figure that part ought as I go.
By the way, this is Matt
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