Christmas

Last night Carol and I put up our Christmas tree and decorated it. She is very familiar with my bah humbug attitude toward Christmas. She asked why I hated Christmas. I thought about how to answer that as I was walking Rose and Lily this morning. You can do a lot of thinking when you are on a long walk.

I don't hate Christmas it is more that I am disappointed in what Christmas has become. It seems to be the one holiday where the fullness of our excess is on display. When I was young we spent Thanksgiving as a family. The only people who had to work were folks like police, firemen, prison guards and hospital workers. All the stores were closed so that everyone could spend the day with their family and reflect on how thankful they were for what they had. Now it seems that we spend less time being thankful for what we have and more time trying to figure out what else we want. I'm not talking about things like a more inclusive society or peace with others. It's about how much more crap we can stuff into our homes. Maybe we have so much we need a storage unit for the excess. We rush through our Thanksgiving meal so we can go out shopping or get on line and buy stuff. Can't miss out on those deals. Can't we take a day and be thankful for what and who we have in our lives?

It seems to me that modern Christians want to celebrate the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus while they ignore everything he tried to teach them about how to live. Pastors stand behind the pulpit and preach that if you give more money to them you will be rewarded with more money for yourself. The so called prosperity doctrine. The first part is true. If you give them more money they will have more. Then they claim to need things like expensive jet planes so they can reach more sinners. It seems the logic they use has seeped into our politics. If you don't have money, a nice house and car it must be your fault. You are doing something God doesn't like. It couldn't possibly be anything else. So many in politics believe you are poor because you are a sinner, or of poor character, or just plain lazy. None of those may have any basis in reality. Many Christians wear those wrist bands that say WWJD. What Would Jesus Do. It appears for many the answer is that Jesus wouldn't give a shit about you. They got theirs because of their faith and you didn't get anything because you don't have enough faith. It is like those who claim to heal by faith. They lay hands on you and pray for your healing. At the end of the prayer they say that your faith has made you whole. You die a week later from that cancer that was eating you up just like the doctor said would happen. The faith healer says that you died because you didn't have enough faith to claim the healing God had for you.

So simply put my Christmas problem is twofold. We lack thankfulness for what we have while we shamelessly pursue more stuff. We celebrate the birth of Jesus while we spend our time ignoring all the deeds we should be doing that would make us true followers of Christ. Christmas has his name but it has lost his spirit.