Tuesday, December 27, 2011

“Merry Christmas”, “Seasons Greetings” or just pay for your stuff and keep the line moving?

One of the things I love most about this country is that, over my lifetime, we have become an increasingly multicultural society. Gone are the days when I could imagine that I could imagine an “average Canadian”. And the other day I was delighted to hear someone list Swedish meatballs among their favourite Canadian foods. But it’s a good wind that blows no ill and, on Christmas Eve, I had occasion to witness another episode of the annual Holiday Season drama “What to say? What to say?”.

Now I know some of my fellow Christians take this matter very seriously, as do some of my non Christian friends. The former suspect that “Happy Holidays” and “Seasons Greetings” are sinister plots to do away with Christianity, while the latter believe “Merry Christmas” is a deliberate or, at best, ignorant insult to all those who don’t celebrate Christmas. Personally, however, I think the whole debate is a bass ackwards approach to a problem that shouldn’t be a problem at all in a multicultural world.

In twenty-first century Canada there’s a whole host of festivals being celebrated toward the end of the calendar year: Bodhi Day (Buddhist), Winter Solstice (various ethnic and religious), Dōngzhì Festival (Chinese), Diwali (Hindu), Kwanzaa (African American), Christmas (Christian and post Christian), Pancha Ganapati (Hindu), Hanukkah (Jewish), Yalda (Persian). And if there are any ancient Romans among us they will be enjoying Saturnalia.

Of course we can opt to withdraw, as we often do in awkward social situations, but why light our lamps and put them under bowls, when we could put them on stands and give light to everyone in the house? (Matt 5:15) In other words, wouldn’t it be nice if we encouraged everyone to step up and share what they have with everyone else?

When I say “Merry Christmas” I need not assume the person I’m addressing is a Christian or of “Christian Heritage”, or even that they’re celebrating Christmas. I can simply be being inclusive, extending to them some of the joy that I’m experiencing. If a Jew were to wish me “Happy Hanukkah”, I need not be offended or feel he or she has failed to recognize my non Jewishness. I can, instead, be honoured to have been included in their festivities. And, even though I am obviously not of African descent, the same would apply to the African American who wished me a “Joyous Kwanzaa”.

What’s the point of being a multicultural nation if we keep it all to ourselves, or make it all so generic that it means nothing to anyone, or even everything to everyone? And just imagine living in a place where a common reply to “Merry Christmas” might be “Season’s Greetings”, “Happy Hanukkah”, “Good Diwali” or “Have a fun Yalda”, with no one taking any offence at all. I’m not trying to start an argument. It’s just a thought. So...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

because it’s Christmas and New Year to me.

What’s it to you?

Sunday, December 25, 2011

CHRISTMAS IN A BOX


As my Advent Blog draws to a close each year I try to find some little gift to share on Christmas day. This year, however, I was getting a bit concerned because I couldn’t come up with anything. Then, on the 23rd, I opened up an email from my brother in Edmonton, who is the Capilano Mall Santa and, in my opinion, the best Santa south of the Arctic Circle. There I found a poem and picture that have now become my Christmas gift for 2011.

Christmas has a way of stirring up visions from our past. The memories may be positive or negative, and are often a bitter/sweet, melancholy mix. Steve’s poem says it all. He may stir up memories for you as he did for me. Hope he does.

Plastic Santa

by Steve Colborne

With trimming on the Christmas tree and candles burning bright,

a pine bough wreath upon the door, yet something wasn't right.

I wasn't sure what I had missed, it seemed a vital part

cause nothing that I'd done, so far, put Christmas in my heart.

I'd been through all the motions that I went through every year

and why the thrill eluded me this year just wasn't clear.

So I put the thought behind me and continued with my task

of sifting through the storage room and adding to the trash.

When I came upon a dusty box marked `CHRISTMAS' on the side.

I brushed it off and looked to see what treasures it might hide.

There beneath a news print shroud a vision from my past.

A flood of childhood memories came furious and fast.

My eyes welled up, my vision blurred, I paused to catch my breath.

The feelings that came over me I'll carry to my death.

It's just a plastic Santa and it's just his face at that.

With beard and hair of faded white, dull red his cheeks and hat.

And tiny lights that, when plugged in, alight his smiling face.

At Christmas in my childhood years he always had his place.

His eyes that once did sparkle so have faded with the years.

His paint has dulled, worn bare in spots, a crack

runs through his beard.

And thus he hangs upon my door to greet our friends and kin,

but most of them would never know, until they venture in,

and greeted there with open arms and maybe share a tear

how much that plastic Santa has affected me this year.


Merry Christmas, God bless, and thanks for sharing the Advent Season this year.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

A STORY THAT BELONGS TO EVERYONE


Fourth week of Advent (Wednesday)

Luke 2:4-7 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, ... While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

My grandmother used to say of a story “If it isn’t worth exaggerating it isn’t worth telling.” I’m not sure “exaggerating” is the word I’d use, but I do think she was onto something. A good story begs for added detail. It catches us up and draws us in, and we drag in all sorts of things without even noticing we’re doing it. The story of that first Christmas is a good story, well worth telling. And it has, consequently, drawn in millions of people through the years, who have, in turn, added plenty.

  • The manger has morphed into a stable with sheep, an ox, an ass, and even halos, background music, a shining star overhead, and a little drummer boy. In some versions the animals talk. In a few ancient versions even the baby talks.
  • “No room for them in the inn” has become an uncaring, nasty innkeeper who slams the door on a desperate young couple, or a caring, kindly one who leads the expectant mother and her husband to a meagre place of shelter.
  • Magi, who brought three gifts at some later time, have blossomed into three kings, each from a different race or ethnic group, with a caravan of camels and servants, all crammed into this little stable scene.
  • And even Mary’s donkey is an added detail.

And what we couldn’t add to the story, we’ve added to the feast: holly, ivy, mistletoe, Yule logs, wreaths, Christmas trees, coloured lights, candy canes, songs and stories, plumb pudding, nuts, egg-nog, gifts and stockings, pageants, reindeer-powered flying-sleighs, elves and Santa.

The purists shake their heads and grumble about commercialism and pagan influence, and worry that Jesus is being lost in all of this. But Jesus can take care of himself, so all that does is add a note of discord to the festivities.

Christmas isn’t transported, but translated everywhere it goes. And, being the feast of the incarnation, it’s quite appropriate that this is so. When “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14) it was first century Jewish flesh, in a first century Jewish world. And everywhere he goes he is indigenous.

When we first meet Jesus he looks rather like us, or at least like someone we might want to become. And as we become more like him we find he looks rather like others. We begin to see his face in boy and girl faces; black, brown, yellow and white faces; rich, poor, young and old faces; in the faces of innocent victims and even of guilty offenders. Why, we actually begin to see his face in flowers and lakes, earth and sky; in all of creation.

This is the incarnation. God enters his world at any point in time and space; from there he touches everything.

Some Children See Him – James Taylor

(See you Sunday.)

Sunday, December 18, 2011

ALL TRUTH HAS PREDICTIVE POWER

Fourth week of Advent (Sunday)

Matthew 1:18-25 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" which means, "God with us."

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

As Matthew sets out his account of the story of Jesus he is particularly concerned with the fulfilment of prophecy. Twelve times (1:22; 2:5; 2:15; 2:17; 3:3; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17; 12:39; 13:35; 21:4, 27:9) he indicates that an action or event took place in fulfilment of a specific prophetic teaching. It is often assumed, therefore, that he is trying to “prove” what he is claiming about Jesus by showing that the events of his life had been “predicted” hundreds of years before. I believe this is a naive assumption, and that the passage before us is an excellent illustration of what Matthew is really trying to do.

1. Matthew does not see prophecy as prediction of future events, nor the fulfilment of prophecy as precise correspondence between what was said by a prophet and what has taken place. If he had he would surely not have pointed out that Joseph gave the child the name Jesus, while the prophecy states, “...they will call him Immanuel". These two names are as different as David and John. Clearly Matthew is not focused on the details of a prediction.

2. We can be confident that Matthew, who clearly knows his scriptures, is well aware that the prophecy he is referring to (Isaiah 7:14) was a sign given to Ahaz, a King of Israel, hundreds of years before Jesus was born, and that the sign, if it truly was a sign to Ahaz, must have been fulfilled in Ahaz’s day. Isaiah was not talking about a virgin birth – Matthew is not claiming that Jesus is Virgin Birth #2 – but about a virgin who will become pregnant in the usual way, give birth to a son, and name her child Immanuel (God with us). Isaiah’s point is that this child’s name is a reproach to the king. While the King is abandoning his faith in God, in favour of a precarious alliance with other kings, this young girl in his kingdom is so filled with faith that she will actually name her child “God with us”.

3. Though Matthew clearly believes in the literal virgin birth of Jesus, he is not so naive as to imagine he can “prove” the virgin birth. Mary is the only one who can know such a thing, so, apart from her, there are no human witnesses to her virginity. And it is interesting that the birth narratives of Jesus, found in Matthew and Luke, tell of only one person, other than Mary, who believed in the virgin birth. Joseph believed, but not because of a prophecy, or even because he took Mary’s word for it. He believed because he was told by an angel.

Matthew and the New Testament writers were not naive about these things. They all knew that no one can believe in the virgin birth unless they already believe that Jesus is who they claim he is, literally “God with us”. And that that belief is founded on the resurrection, which is supported by the witness of many who experienced Jesus alive after his death.

So, what is Matthew doing in this passage?

Matthew is dealing with an obvious objection. If God had actually entered the world in human form, he’d have come, not to a family of nobodies in the little town of Bethlehem, but in a mind-numbing display of glory, to a royalty family in Rome, or least in Jerusalem.

Matthew is pointing out that God’s coming in Jesus, though unique, is consistent with the way he has always come to his people. He came to an obscure, nomadic tribal chieftain (Abraham); an unknown, inarticulate shepherd (Moses); another unimpressive little shepherd (David); and, specifically, to a humble child in Ahaz’s kingdom who, because God was with her, had more faith than even the king.

True prophecy has predictive power, not because it is prophecy, but because it is true, and all truth has predictive power. Advent, like prophecy, is about looking at what God is doing, and what God has done, as the best indicator of what he will do. In the mundane, simple lives of his humble people God has been faithful, is faithful, will be faithful. This is the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of Advent.

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

How has God met you in the past? How is he meeting you today? What does this suggest about your future?

(See you Wednesday.)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

THE LIGHT

Third week of Advent (Wednesday)

John 1:9-13 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

As we prepare for Christmas, our Jewish friends, who are truly our spiritual cousins, are preparing to celebrate Hanukkah (December 20 -28 this year), a feast referred to in the New Testament as the Feast of Lights (John 10:22). It originated in what Christians call the Intertestamental Period, the interlude of about 430 years between the end of the Hebrew Bible (Malachi 4:6) and the beginning of the Christian New Testament (Matthew 1:1).

After the Jews returned from Babylon (about 520 BC) Israel remained under foreign domination: Persian, Greek, Egyptian and finally Roman. And the nation was destroyed utterly by the Romans about 70 AD. So, from the Babylonian conquest in 587 BC, to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, a period of about 2500 years, there was no independent Jewish nation. That is, with the exception of a very brief period in the second century BC, when, under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus, they threw off their foreign oppressors.

During this time of freedom they rededicated the Temple, which had been deliberately desecrated by the Greeks under Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Maccabees 1:57-67). According to the tradition, when they prepared to light the lamp that burns continuously in the Temple they had enough oil for only one day. They lit the lamp anyway and, miraculously, it burned for eight days by which time they had been able to procure more pure, undesecrated oil.

The Feast of Hanukkah or Lights, commemorates the eight day miracle that initiated this tiny flash of liberation in an otherwise dark and oppressive time. It is a celebration of freedom, perseverance, and the faithfulness of God and his people. It reiterates the promise of light in the darkness of our lives and, though it is only accidentally associated with Christmas, it is a wonderful companion feast to the celebration of the coming of Christ who is Emmanuel (God with us).

In the Gospel of John Jesus declares "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12). And in Matthew’s Gospel he tells his disciples "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” (Matt 5:14)

Both Hanukkah and Christmas come in the dark of winter. – My apologies to our friends in the southern hemisphere, but both Judaism and Christianity grew up north of the equator. – These feasts exist to shed a little light in the darkness of our world, and we in turn share this light with the world at large. For it is the nature of light to flow outward from its source and reflect everywhere. If it blesses anyone, it blesses everyone.

So, let’s lighten up as the nights grow longer. Light a candle in the window, illuminate a tree, string lights on the front of your home, hang them in the streets and in the malls. We can even light up a reindeer’s nose for the sake of all the little children in the world. It’s Hanukkah, it’s Christmas, the promise of light and life.

Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth "

Though she doesn’t include this verse, nobody sings Silent Night quite like Mahalia Jackson. Enjoy!

(See you Sunday.)