Christmas 2008...

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.... And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.'— (Luke 2: 8-10-11.)

As the song says, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year… ” . Or is it really? The Christmas season is a paradox and each year we don’t get any closer to the understanding of this than the year before. Or do we? I find myself, many times, being torn between the crass materialism and consumption mentality, that plagues the holiday season, and wanting something “different” this year. I think the situation that many of us find ourselves in currently with the economy reeling and on virtual life support from the government demonstrates the necessity to just stop this pursuit of the “right present” at the right price. I am completely disgusted by the masses of people who have turned the day after Thanksgiving shopping experience into a chaotic life threatening full contact sporting event. Sadly, someone got killed this year while just doing their job. This really returns us to our most primal hunting, gathering and killing roots. I can just imagine a proud shopper boasting on Christmas morning, “You like it? I had to kill for it…” WOW. Too extreme?? Is that too harsh? What have we become this season? We talk out of two sides of our mouth. We say we know the “reason for the season”. So, if we really do then why don’t we act like it? Seriously, it is time to just say ENOUGH.

As Shane Claiborne says, “Enough to the myth that happiness must be purchased. Enough to an economy that is awarding CEOs salaries 500 times that of their workers and still manages to seduce people in poverty and wealth alike to give more money to these predatorial corporations. Enough to the American dream that now consumes over 40 percent of the world’s stuff with less than 6 percent of the world’s resources. Enough to a dream that would need four more planets if the world pursued it … a dream the world cannot afford. Enough to the advice of government leaders who fearfully order us to “just keep shopping” after tragedies like September 11 and November 28. ENOUGH. Maybe God has another dream”.

You know what, I believe He does. I believe there is a better way and it is called the Advent Conspiracy. A couple of years ago, people who had enough of this madness, from four churches, got together and did something totally radical. They changed their spending habits at Christmas, shunned the spending mania, and gave presence instead of presents—the way Christ modeled for us through his gift of himself. They took the money they saved—nearly half of a million dollars—and gave it to Living Water International so that desperate communities could have the gift of clean water. Families from those churches are still telling stories of how Christ returned to their Christmas. Communities were renewed. Lives were changed. It was a Christmas to remember. Last year, 1,000 churches banded together for Advent Conspiracy 2007. Three million dollars were given to the neediest people in our neighborhoods and in communities across the globe. Simply, this Christmas the idea is to worship fully, spend less, give more and love all. You too can be a conspirator. I love these words from author Alex Gordon, “There is no Santa Claus, no, there is something better. Every Christmas Eve a Great Spirit comes to this world and flies around it and scatters energy over the earth, and wherever that energy falls, like fairy-dust, it changes despair to hope, tears to joy, want to abundance, and when it touches a hard heart, it seeks to melt it, and when it touches a hateful soul, it seeks to change it, just like the spirits tried to change Ebenezer Scrooge. If you listen carefully, just before mid-night on Christmas Eve, you may hear this Spirit, and you will be blessed. But this Spirit is tired, and the times of its coming are few now. Time is of the essence”. Of course, you and I know what that that “Great Spirit “is. It is the Spirit of the Lord God that has come in this season to bring hope and tidings of great joy. It is this same spirit that in Isaiah 61:1 it says,“ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;” So, let’s open some prisons instead of presents, let’s bring good tidings of the redemptive and restorative power of love to someone broken and lost and let’s give presence, NOT presents, unlike any Christmas ever before. And maybe, just maybe the real Christmas will come back. Merry Christmas, y’all.