MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!

O.K. That’s it. He’s taken leave of his senses. It’s January 7 and he’s still celebrating Christmas. We’ve heard of the 12 days of Christmas, but he’s up to 13 or 14 or something. Christmas is OVER!

No it’s not. If you belong to one of the Eastern Orthodox churches still using the Julian calendar, Christmas doesn’t arrive until January 7. What an great excuse for one more cup of egg nog.

It’s a lot more than egg nog with me. (Besides, the stores are out of it now.) I have been distressed for a long time that the Winter Festival our society calls “Christmas” gets under way just after Labor Day and is done around December 24, except for Christmas Day itself which is an anticlimax to what precedes it. I am not one of those cranky Christians who makes lists of stores who say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”  In fact, I’d prefer they did say Happy Holidays, because whatever they are sell-ebrating (a new word I just coined) with holiday spirits (in 750 ml bottles), it sure isn’t The Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord.

I am not concerned so much with what the secular society does with the Winter Festival. I am concerned that so many Christians have bought (literally bought) into it. It has swamped the Christian celebration even in our churches. Of course people in liturgical churches have been griping for years about why we don’t have the Christmas tree up on December 1, and where are the Poinsettias the Sunday before Christmas, and why do we have to sing Advent hymns instead of Christmas carols. Of late I have noticed that some people are counting the twelve days of Christmas as the 12 days before Christmas Day. And there is this weird practice that has emerged of it being bad luck to have a Christmas tree up after New Years Day. All that isn’t really very important, however.

I am a bit disturbed that there are clergy of the Lutheran persuasion that have reduced Advent to three weeks so they can get three weeks of Christmas in. And I have even seen some of our churches advertize the last Sunday of Advent as Christmas Sunday.  It all adds to the destruction of Advent as a time of anticipation and awaiting that leads to a joyous celebration of the Incarnation of the Son of God. Everybody is so pooped from partying since Thanksgiving (or maybe since Halloween) that there is no energy left to contemplate the mystery of the Word made flesh.  They miss the message of the Magi: "We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him."

I love the celebration of Christmas, and it saddens me to see it die with a whimper by December 26 at the latest.

I’m running a one man campaign (is it all right in church circles to use the word “man” anymore? I’ve gotten the impression from the Powers-That-Be that “man” is a sexist term that simply seethes with privilege and patriarchy. Why, you can’t even sing “Hark! the Herald Angel Sings”  with out noticing “Pleased as man with man to dwell” has been corrected to “Pleased as man with us to dwell.”  And if they get to changing Jesus to Sophia as some so-called Christians are wont to do, they will be able to get rid of the first man in that line as well.” Now where was I? Oh yes,) a one man campaign to encourage the full celebration of Our Lord’s birth starting with first vespers on December 24 and not ending until the feast of the Epiphany on January 6. In fact, I may even go further and advocate for the continual celebration of Christmas until Candlemas (The Feast of the Presentation) on February 2.

To all who celebrated the whole twelve days of Christmas, a blessed new year. To those who only observed the Winter Festival from October 31 to December 24, Bah, Hum-Bug.

May the Lord born to us in Bethlehem, seen by the shepherds, visited by the Magi, bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

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