Christmas Isn't Over!

When I was a kid, I remember our Christmas decorations were always put away just a few days after Christmas. My mother’s birthday is December 28th and it has always been her wish that she not celebrate her day under the lights of Christmas. Mama is not anti-Christmas or anti-Jesus or any thing like that, she simply wants to prevent her birthday from becoming an after thought to the biggest holiday of the year. While her logic is sound, I remember being so disappointed as a kid when I would wake up to a seemingly empty house and reminded that after a six-week build up, Christmas was over.

Now that I am married, I am so happy that I have a wife with a birthday in the middle of summer who loves Christmas and the decorations as much as I do. Christmas was five days ago and we have continued to watch our favorite holiday movies, listen to the music, and enjoy our decorations. This typically goes on in our home until a few days after New Years at which point we reluctantly pack up and wait for next year. Just last night, Allison asked if it would be weird to keep some of the decorations up through winter and after a little thought, I said no.

The corporate consumerism that has become our favorite holiday begins to call us as early as September to get into their definition of the Christmas spirit. This usually consists of our fill of shopping, big crowds, and tons of stress. We are met with sales, jolly music, and sights that are simply irresistible and only add to our excitement as we look forward to December 25th. In all of this, Christmas comes, and simply ends. Every year I stay up until midnight on Christmas day and try to soak up every last bit of Christmas I possibly can by watching movies and listening to music. The second the clock strikes 12am, the movies and music stop and Christmas is over. But its not!

Christmas ends on December 26th for corporate America and those who subscribe to this style of celebrating because at that point, there is no longer anything in it for them. The money has been spent, the presents are opened, its time to stop. But for those of us who truly understand the meaning of the day, Christmas didn’t end at midnight; it was just beginning!

Christ has come, advent is over, the savior is here, let’s celebrate! Why don’t we let the Christmas music play just a bit longer and help remind a world that has forgotten of the hope we have because of the incarnation. Let all the Christmas movies continue to remind us of true love and good will to men. Keep your decorations for just a few more days at let the lights guide you into a better understand of the light of the world. Keep celebrating.

Even as I look at the liturgical calendar I am reminded that historically, Christmas is celebrated until the first Sunday of the New Year, which is appropriately called The 2nd Sunday of Christmas. Even as late as January 6th, the Epiphany of Our Lord gives us reason to continue celebrating as it is attributed to the visitation of the wise men so we should at least leave our nativity scenes on our mantles.

I say all of this not because I am a redneck and too lazy to take down our lights and tree and not just because I am overly sentimental; I just don’t want to see us buy into the corporate lie that Christmas is over. As Christians, our celebration should have only just begun.

In closing, I’m not saying leave your decorations up all year. I too, probably after a few weeks will give in and tell Allison its time to pack up. I am a classy guy and am appalled of Christmas trees in February, which just happens to be the month of my birthday. So while I do not say leave your stuff up all year, maybe wait just a bit longer before moving on this year. Let the truth of the holiday sink it just a little more. Be silly and listen to Christmas music a few days into January. Watch that favorite movie one more time. Remember that Christ has come, and is here, and we can celebrate Christmas in our hearts throughout the year.

I think this great man said it best…

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.” - Ebenezer Scrooge


Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Merry 2nd Sunday of Christmas!


ACG

Advent 4 Animals

This week I have struggled to find the words needed to conclude my writings on the Advent season as I had originally hoped for a triumphal climax that paints the perfect picture of Christ’s coming. I think this struggle has been due to the fact that, as least at the time, there wasn’t really anything triumphal about Christ’s entrance into this world. The King of Kings spent his first night on this earth in an unsanitary manger among dirty filthy animals. Doesn’t exactly shout “prepare ye the way of the Lord” now does it? I thought then that it might be appropriate on this last week of advent, with Christmas only three days away, to hear a message from those who were present at Jesus’ birth; the animals. The following is the best Christmas message I think I have ever heard, and it came from animals only yesterday.

About a foot of snow blanketed Winston-Salem, North Carolina and its surrounding areas this past weekend taking me closer than I have ever been to a white Christmas. Unlike what I am used to back home in Atlanta, salt and plow trucks were immediately on the scene clearing the roads to maintain a steady traffic flow. The snow didn’t keep us from our routines; it just slowed us down a little and gave us a chance to think. Although I am on break from my studies, I have still ventured to campus every morning to check my mailbox and pick up a copy of the New York Times. Yesterday, as I walked under the archway at Reynolda Hall and directed my movement towards Wait Chapel, I noticed that the campus wasn’t as empty as I had expected. Sure, classes are over, students are all home for the holidays, but there was a life happening at Wake Forest despite the break and the foot of snow.

A chipmunk scurried across the path in front of me, squirrels were out gathering nuts, and I saw the reddest of cardinals dancing as he seemed to decorate his nest. I was amazed because I became immediately aware of the fact that throughout the school year, as I am focused on my own stressful world filled with chaos, there is yet another world literally under my nose that operates in perfect harmony. Yesterday, as I watched these woodland creatures as they went about their respective winter tasks, I felt more in the Christmas spirit than I think I ever have. It was as if these animals knew more than I that Christmas was only a few days away, and they were preparing for the coming of our Lord. As I watched the animals simply living their lives as they were designed, I could have sworn I heard them proclaim “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

And that is the best Christmas message I think I have ever heard. Those animals, not too much unlike the animals that might have been present at Jesus’ birth, were preparing for Christmas, and glorifying their heavenly father simply by doing what they were created to do. Instantly, I thought to myself that this just might be the reason Jesus came after all: to free us and allow us to become ourselves as we were created so that we could truly worship and glorify God.

I am no Saint Francis, but this Christmas I am reminded of the words of Saint Irenaeus who declared, “the glory of God is a heart fully alive.” Christ has made us alive, and provided us the freedom to be ourselves; this is what we celebrate at Christmas.

In closing, and with Christmas only days away, I hope we will allow Christ to lead us to become the people we want to become. I hope we will chose to lives of passion and happiness. I hope we will all be as we were made, proclaiming now until we see Jesus face-to-face “Glory to God in the highest.” The animals do…


-Alex

A New Entourage: Advent Week 3

It was just another night. For these men however, unlike the shepherds mentioned in my previous post, this was just another night in the comfort of their lavish royal tower or cozy observatory. They were the educated, well respected, and according to some early traditions even royal men who interpreted through the presences of a star that something great and out of the ordinary was about to take place.

Here it seems appropriate to take a step back and ask whom exactly these guys were. In Matthew 2, they are called “wise men from the East” which would indicate that they were perhaps astrologers, scholarly and religious scientist who were believed to be able to make futuristic predictions based on the stars. Some early Christian traditions claim that these “wise men” were actually kings, which would be in keeping with the prophecies that declared the messiah would be worshiped by kings (see Isaiah 60:3, Psalm 72:10, and Psalm 68:29). Regardless of who these guys were, we can rest assured that they were “merry gentlemen” and men of high society who were thought very highly of in their ancient culture. Actually, the “wise men” possessed pretty much the opposite social position of the shepherds who were the unclean and unwanted outcasts. Everyone liked these wise men or kings, and they knew it.

So before we look at the account found in Matthew, lets paint this picture. The wise men, or kings—we’ll just call them Maji, were a big deal. These guys were accustomed to being praised by others, looked up to for their knowledge, and lived lives of privilege. It really doesn’t matter if they were or were not kings because either way the Maji would have had a place in the royal courts throughout the known world and when they traveled, it would have been with their own entourage of supporters and protectors supplying them with countless words of affirmation. Imagine that then as we look to the book of Matthew. These guys are a big deal, and they roll deep.

“When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (Matthew 2:9-11 NRSV).

What I love about this story is the immediate transformation that seems to have come over the Maji when they met Jesus. Again, these guys were a big deal, and the entourage they brought along with them would be the first to say so. While they were typically on the receiving end of praise and adoration, all this changed at the presence of Jesus as Matthew tells us they “knelt down and paid him homage.” In this moment, the Maji forgot all about their own identities, their social standing, or their entourage, and they instantly became the entourage of Jesus. They laid all of their worth on him, and found something bigger.

We really don’t know what happened to the Maji. Luke tells us the shepherds, upon leaving the baby Jesus, “returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen” (Luke 2:20). While we’re not sure, I think we can probably say the same about the Maji. Both groups, coming from two completely different backgrounds, experienced the same thing at the manger. Some were rich and respected while the others were poor and unwanted. Both exchanged their identities at the manger for that of Jesus’. It seems from that point on, nothing else mattered.

I think a lot of us can relate to the stories of the Maji and the shepherds. Some of us come from great backgrounds and life for us has been a piece of cake. For others, like the shepherds, life seems to have dealt you a bad hand. The good news of the gospel is this: when we encounter the living God through Jesus, all things are made new. Our lives are literally exchanged for his, and his past becomes our past and his future is ours too. We come to the manger with our own entourage, perhaps good or bad. At Christmas, the season we celebrate the birth of Christ, we rejoice for he has taken our life and entourage, and replaced it with his own. Glory to God in the Highest!



“Arise, shine; for your light has come,
And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Nations shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your dawn.” – Isaiah 60:1-3

“I have been crucified with Christ.
My ego is no longer central.
It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you.
Or have your good opinion.
And I am no longer driven to impress God.
Christ lives in me.” – Galatians 2:20-21, The Message


ACG

For All People: The Second Week of Advent 2009

It was just another day. They simply got up, perhaps some without sleeping at all, and tended their flock. It was, without a doubt, just another day.

But I can’t help but wonder about that night. Maybe the air was just a bit fresher as the shepherds kept watch. Perhaps the sky was a little clearer, with more stars in the sky that boasted a bright, full winters moon. What if it was that night,, as they went about their daily tasks, they were, for the first time, content, their bones did not hurt, and their muscles were not sore? What if this night was so ordinary, it was different?

This night was different indeed, and while the following events would prove this fact, it was just another night in the fields, a silent night, and all was well.

It wasn’t easy to be a shepherd in the 1st century, and as someone that grew up surrounded by cow pastures, I know that line of work hasn’t gotten any easier. For those living 2000 years ago however, your line of work, what you touched, and how you spent your time had a huge effect on how you were seen in the community. Shepherds were considered unclean. They spent most of their time around animals, and many scholars hold that they were not even allowed to sleep inside the protection of the city walls. Needless to say, this wasn’t an easy life. If you were considered unclean by a community in 1st century Palestine, this meant that you were also religiously, and ritually unclean which would have probably kept these shepherds from any kind of active life around the Temple and thus unable to follow all of their Jewish law.

We can imagine how they must have felt about themselves. They were, in the truest since of the word, outcasts. How might this understanding of their own identities affect the way these shepherds thought about God? I mean, if they were unclean, and unwanted by men, why would the perfect God of the covenant want anything to do with them? In the minds of these shepherds, they were unwanted and left out by both men and God. Again, this was just another typical day, or was it?

“In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for ALL the people: to YOU is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom he favors’” (Luke 2:8-14 NRSV).

We all know what happened next. They immediately departed for the city of David, Bethlehem, just as the angels had told them. What must have been going through their minds at this point? Think about it, they were shepherds, unclean, and unwanted outcasts. If what they angels said were true, everything they once thought of themselves must be wrong. Even more important, if this good news was for all people, and a savior had actually been born to them, then perhaps the feelings that they once thought God had for them were wrong as well.

As modern readers, we have the privilege of history for we know what happened. The angels were right, there was a savior, and he was for all people. This savior, Jesus, had come, to save those from oppression and even to save their oppressors. He came to save the lowest shepherd and the highest king. He came to be all things to all people, to meet them where they were, and redeem even the darkest, most ordinary night.

I’m not sure where you are as we move into the middle of this second week of advent. Maybe you feel a bit unwanted, or even unclean and believe that God overlooked you. Perhaps your misery is simply the ordinariness of the everyday life in which you live. Regardless of where you are, or where you have been, today, in the city of David, a savior is born to you, his law is love, and his gospel is peace for all people, even you. He has come to make all things new.



“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” – Matthew 11:28-30, The Message

It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
When all was calm and all was bright,
For this, truly, would be, a silent night.


ACG