Bit Players at Christmas

I am sure the challenge each Christmas is to find a newness in the story that we have heard or told time after time.

And I am also sure there are times that we get so caught up in the demands of the season that we completely miss the arrival of the Christ child, albeit in a guise that we were not expecting.

When my husband and I first moved to our city, we went church hunting and shopping. We settled (for a time) on a church within the city limits. We liked the minister and his thoughtful challenging sermons. We were not overwhelmed with the congregation’s friendliness, but figured maybe it would just take a bit of time.

One Sunday during Advent, a small crisis occurred. This church was some 20 blocks from the center of town, but it was on a main street, and as all churches are, it was a magnet for people in need.

That Sunday, a seedy looking man came wandering in. He asked one of the greeters for help. She pushed him aside, intent on her duties of welcoming and greeting people coming to church. Next, the seedy man encountered one of the more senior church members. That member pushed the man aside, saying—you’ll have to see the pastor, but he’s busy right now.

(photo from the BBC)

Finally, the man in need encountered the pastor. Now, it was just time for church to begin. SO, the pastor who was donning his robe temporized and asked the man to wait around until after church. With that last brush off, the seedy needy man left the church and went back out into the winter cold.

Something about the pathos of that moment struck the pastor. As it happened one of the carols for the service that day was “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”. Whatever the pastor had planned to preach got shelved, and instead he spent the time musing on the well-known words of the carol.

He slowly read through the first verse. . .

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

As he concluded those words, he just paused and then he said—yet in the dark streets shineth the everlasting Light. . .OR DOES IT?

Well, the church sat in complete silence. And it was a guilty silence.

Then when as a congregation we sang the carol, it was all we could do to choke out the words:

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

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painting of Nativity by Gerrit van Honthorst

Sometimes we encounter the Christ Child just as we are rushing around getting ready to announce his coming. Or just as we are greeting members and friends of the church, or just as we are getting ready to preach the word about the good news.

The moment of grace that Sunday was that the pastor redirected his words to make us connect the words we sang with our actions. Of course, we would much rather focus on a helpless newborn baby. We would much rather listen to singing angels. We would much rather ogle mysterious visitors bearing gifts than deal with just one of the bit players of Christmas.

At this time of year, remember the bit players--they have far more need of our attention than angels, or shepherds, or wise men. It may be that in the bit players, we encounter the Christ Child.

The Spirit of Christmas

Once again, news stories are popping up about the war on Christmas. Now, frankly, it seems to me that the folks who trumpet this so-called war the most are the people who take umbrage at court rulings that say you can’t put a manger in front of city hall. I don’t think there has been a declaration of war, so the so-called war at times seems one-sided.

What is the spirit of Christmas and how should we mark the day? We have long forgotten the reason for the time of year on which Christmas is celebrated and how the associations we take for granted came to be. For example, close your eyes and think of a Christmas scene and you are likely to picture something with snow. Yet, the fixing of Christmas in December was as much as an attempt by early church fathers to counter the popular pagan festivals of winter solstice and Saturnalia. We have a mind’s-eye picture of a baby Jesus shivering in a straw-filled manger, of shepherds and sheep out of snow-covered hills, of the still air of a winter’s night being shattered by angels singing. But, Jesus was not born in December.

The early church in determining when to celebrate Christ’s birth settled on December 25 because on that date an important Roman festival was held. What better way to continue vanquishing the pagan customs than to appropriate their festival dates?

In our country’s early history, Christmas was not an important holiday. In fact, the Puritans eschewed Christmas outlawing its celebration in Boston from 1659 to 1681. Following the American Revolution, Christmas celebration seemed too English and was therefore avoided.

In many ways, we have Charles Dickens to thank for reviving Christmas in England. Following the Industrial Revolution which displaced so many people in England, and left them very poor, people had stopped celebrating Christmas. It was too expensive to continue the tradition of feasting. Dickens had written just Martin Chuzzlewit which was not a success. He needed money, so he got the idea for a story which he believed would be a success. Between October and December, he wrote the work, had it published at his own expenses, and brought out A Christmas Carol in December of 1843. It immediately sold out, and has been one of the most beloved Christmas stories since then. And it has also helped solidify our mental image of Christmas.

Some of the traditions we hold most dear have no relationship at all to the brief Christmas story told in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. For example, the custom of bringing Christmas trees into our houses has nothing at all to do with the gospel accounts. This custom derives from our German ancestry—whether in the United States where German (Prussian mercenaries) soldiers introduced the custom, or in England where Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, had a tree set up in Windsor Castle. Can you imagine Christmas without a tree? But what has it to do with the story of Jesus’ birth. Yet the setting up (or not) of Christmas trees has become part of the vaunted war on Christmas.

Almost any tradition that uses Yule—such as a Yule log—has no relationship to the gospel story. And don’t even start on Santa Claus—based on various European traditions where names such as Saint Nicholas or Sinter Claus migrate into Santa Claus.

Think of the typical Christmas scene that is set up whether on a school bulletin board, or in front of City Hall, or any other public space where it becomes the subject of controversy. Now analyze that scene—likely the scene combines a Christmas tree, the manger setting in a stable where the two gospel accounts are blended into one. So you have Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus, the shepherds and their sheep, the wise men, camels, other assorted animals that might be in a stable, and of course angels. Off to the side, you may even have Santa Claus and his reindeer—and if it includes Rudolph, you know . . . you just know. How on earth does this scene accurately communicate anything?

We can quickly dispense with the tree and Santa Claus and his reindeer. True, they are charming. But they don’t really have anything to do with the Christmas story. Now, let’s untangle the gospel stories. Matthew tells us about the things that mattered to him. Only Matthew tells us about the wise men from the east; he tells us about Herod’s scheming and the slaughter of the innocents; he tells us of Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus’ fleeing into Egypt to escape Herod and his awful plans. Luke gives us a whole different set of particulars: he gives us the setting of the universal registration decreed by Caesar that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem; he tells us about the shepherds; and he gives us the inn-keeper who turns away the pregnant Mary and her husband Joseph. What we have done with these stories, each told for different audiences and with very specific and differing purposes in mind, is to blend them completely so they become a seamless narrative. It was not so in the New Testament telling.

Of course, Christmas is something more than a wonderful story. It is more than frantic shopping days counting down to THE DAY. It is more than the TV commentators hurling accusations against forces unknown. It is even more than Dickens’ wonderful story and Prince Albert’s German traditions. It is more than whether you say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.”

The church I belong to, a Presbyterian church, emphasizes Advent during the approach to Christmas. So we focus on preparing for the arrival of Jesus the savior. The songs we sing are Advent hymns. Sometimes I get frustrated wanting so much to sing Christmas carols all the Sunday s leading up to Christmas. But the discipline of not singing Christmas carols until Christmas Eve has begun to insinuate itself into my consciousness. I understand that by emphasizing Advent we focus on what it means to anticipate Jesus’ birth. We don’t get caught up in things like should we say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Should we have a manger scene in front of City Hall or not? Should the public school bulletin board have Santa Claus on it or not? We are too busy preparing ourselves for the arrival of the Christ child to be wrapped up in the diversionary discussions that constitute the war on Christmas. We are, I would suggest, celebrating the true spirit of Christmas.