Keeping Christ Out of Christmas

I'm all in favor of keeping Christ out of Christmas.

I mean, why muddy the waters of consumerism with anything that might give people pause in their mad rush on Black Friday, which lasts, of course, for the next month. Christ is certainly no good for the economy - after all, things like restraint, kindness, generosity, compassion, mercy, are hardly the engines of Wall Street. So, let's keep Christ out of Christmas. And besides, it's a giant waste of time that makes some feel good about their "Christian witness" when, in fact, it's nothing but a "mountain out of a mole hill."

Rather, let's keep Christ in our hearts and minds, as much as we can ... in our thoughts and decisions about:
Ferguson,
civil rights,
marriage equality,
war,
police violence,
the raging fear that permeates our air waves,
the condemning of the poor so popular these days,
hunger,
education,
health-care for all ...
to name just a few places where Christ is needed.

And, heck, who can remove Christ anyway from CHRIST-mas? Of all of the silly places for some to make a fuss, this is it. Christmas and God and Christ and the Holy Spirit can take care of themselves just fine. They don't need us prancing and dancing around as if were the saviors of all things good and godly.

All of this "Christ in Christmas" nonsense reminds me of something Jesus said to the supercilious - "You're doing just fine straining gnats out of your water, but you've managed to swallow a camel in the process" (Matthew 23.24).

If one's spiritual line in the sand is the right and privilege to say, "Merry Christmas" instead of Happy Holidays, well, go for it. But pay attention, please to where Christ is missing, I mean really missing, in our world and life. And with some humility, and a good dose of kindness, be less concerned about "Christmas" and a whole more concerned about the really big things where pain and sorrow prevail.

Rather than fussing about nothing, and it really is nothing, let's tackle the real stuff ... in the toughest and hardest and roughest places of life, where folks suffer and children die like flies, where girls are enslaved and women beaten, where men are humiliated by their poverty, where family life is torn apart by lack of opportunity, places where wealth has run amok and power gone mad for profit and privilege ...

If we're content to let Christ be absent from all of these places, shouting "Merry Christmas" and "He's the reason for the season" only makes a mockery of Christ and reveals the shallowness of our faith.

Let's keep Christ outta Christmas and then be sure that he's brought into all the realms of life where hope and healing are so desperately needed. Then, and only then, can our witness to Christ make sense and carry some legitimacy - the legitimacy of kindness, mercy and peace.

And that might just be the greatest Christmas Gift we Christians give to the world! And with that gift given, again and again, no one will mind if someone says "Merry Christmas," and Christians, having given the real gift of Christ to the world, will be inclined to simply say, with humility and gentleness, "Happy Holidays."