Let’s be honest. People are not going to decide to follow Jesus because of our merchandise that say, “Keep Christ in Christmas“. That just offers one more opportunity to pigeonhole Christians. I mean, seriously: do we really need to gift-wrap ammunition for people already antagonistic towards Christians?
In fact, it seems that the more one publicizes pithy little sayings and reduces the gospel to “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven” soundbite (or my personal favorite, “In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned” [are women not included?! Ok, that was a cheap shot]), the more the Gospel (that is the good news of God’s love!) gets diluted.
Yes, we water down the Gospel, this phenomenon that has changed the world and still holds hope for the world.
Christmas wasn’t instated by Jesus Christ. In fact, his birth was not central to many early Christians’ faith. The fact that only two books in the Bible (Matthew and Luke) begin (or include) the story of Jesus’ birth certainly doesn’t mean that His birth was not important; on the contrary! But it does mean that many thousands (at least) of people trusted in Christ without political ambition, without trying to coerce people who are not “called by His Name” to celebrate Him.
In fact, I wonder if Jesus cares as much about the arguments we make. We often say it ourselves, that Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas. So, why do we get all bent out of shape this time of year when people who aren’t Christians don’t want to celebrate his non-birthday? Why is it that only one day in the year we remember God who came to be human? Should not the advent of our Lord be celebrated and shared more than during the winter?
How many abuses have been done to others by Christians? How many in the name of the babe in the manger? How many have we, today, participated in, excluding others? How often have we Christians been unloving or indifferent? Not just to those who do not believe as we do, but to those who are our brothers and sisters, those who also claim the name of Jesus?
I’m all for celebrating Christmas. This is probably my favorite time of the year. But I can’t help thinking we’re fighting the wrong battle by trying to “keep Christ in Christmas.” After all, is it really our job to keep Jesus somewhere, all neat and tidy? It’s like we’re trying to appease the gods, relegating Jesus to His one time of year. Maybe we should be trying to get Christ out of Christmas and into the rest of the world.
Perhaps instead of fighting to “keep Christ in Christmas” (or prayer in schools, or the 10 Commandments outside courthouses, or God on our money or in the Pledge – insert your Christianese battle here), let’s do something that really will impact our world:
Let’s put the Christ back in Christian.
That’s something we can control a bit more. And it’s something surely more pleasing to God than trying to “take back” Christmas. After all, what are Christians supposed to be known for, fighting and winning political battles over our rights, or pursuing justice and mercy for the oppressed, setting the captives at liberty, loving their neighbor??
Should we be known for making enemies by making the Gospel as offensive as possible, or realizing that the whole Gospel can be reduced to one statement, “to love your neighbor as you love yourself“? To be sure, the Gospel is scandelous – who else’s god is celebrated as coming through an unwed teenager? It can be offensive. Unfortunately, Christians today have taken that job upon themselves, making ourselves offensive in an effort to claim the right to our own “pursuit of happiness.” Christian has become a descriptive of culture instead of transformation.
Let’s decide to put Christ back in Christian.
That seems to be a better use of our effort.
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