Christmas As A Birthday Extravaganza For Jesus Harvey Yoder
Many of us put a phenomenal amount of thought and effort into selecting just the right gifts for our loved ones, and spend an extraordinary amount of cash every year doing so. Our economy is highly dependent on this kind of year end Christmas sales for its survival.
There’s one side of me that sees this as a kind of positive thing. What isn’t there to like about spreading some holiday cheer and focusing on how to make our loved ones happy, plus maybe singing some carols and being generous with Salvation Army bell ringers. It was Bart Simpson, if I recall, who once exclaimed, “We Christians get to celebrate Jesus’s birthday by getting lots of really cool stuff. Is this a great religion or what?”
But there’s another side of me that asks how all of the spending we do on each other, all the shopping and gift wrapping and feasting that goes with the season, really has much to do with honoring the one whose birth we are supposed to be celebrating?
William Wood, a retired professor of economics at James Madison University and a member of the Beaver Creek Church of the Brethren, wrote a piece some time ago that was published in the Wall Street Journal, lamenting the fact that our national celebration of Christmas has become so pagan and so unChristian that we ought to just call it what it has become, a "Merry Excessmas", and call the Christian celebration of Jesus’ birth something else, like "Holy Nativity" (or "Feliz Navidad").
There’s an organization called Simple Living Works that promotes a joyful, freeing kind of more with less lifes, which for many years produced an annual collection of alternative ways of doing Christmas under the heading “Whose Birthday is it Anyway?” suggesting that in the spirit of the real Saint Nicolas of Myra, that we make this a time of extravagant giving for the needs of our hungry, homeless and the displaced neighbors around the world.
But maybe we can learn something from the way we have traditionally gone about observing the season and apply that to the way we share God’s lavish gifts with those in the greatest need. In imitating God’s generosity toward God’s own loved ones, can we make our life all about lavishing gifts on Jesus through generous giving to the least of these, thus celebrating Christmas year round.
Notes, Prayers and Praises
THE WALKING ROOTS BAND will be presenting a benefit concert at 6:30 pm Sunday, December 10, at the EMHS theater to benefit Mennonite Central Committee and the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale. A freewill offering will be taken.
DECEMBER BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to Karen Campbell 12/26/69!
DECEMBER BIBLE STUDY LEADERS may select passages of their own choosing, preferably on an Advent theme.
PRAY FOR MARGIE VLASITS and for success in the treatments she's receiving at UVA.
December Services, 3:30-5:00 pm
3 We will again meet in person with Jim and Ruth Stauffer in the Redbud unit on the second floor of Crestwood for a time of singing, sharing, praying and communion together, led by Harvey Yoder.
10 Location: online
Worship and sharing: Lois Rivera-Wenger
Bible Study: Dick Dumas
17 Location:
Worship and Sharing: Lois Rivera Wenger
Bible Study: Kent Palmer
24 We encourage everyone to visit another church of their choice, in person, this Sunday.
31 Location: online
Worship and Sharing: Harvey Yoder
Study: Elly Nelson
