Rediscovering the Heart of Christmas

Greetings; may the grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord be with you all.

It is two weeks before Christmas, the decorations are going up and gifts being bought. The parties and fun events are happening, and we are deep into Advent.  It was just BEFORE Halloween that we began to be in-undated with the “Christmas Spirit.”   (Ugh), I have come to despise the use of that phrase in our modern media and conversation.  It is not so much the commercialization and secularization of Christmas that bothers me as it is the loss of meaning and true Spiritual depth of the season. But then, Christmas has always been a double-edged sword.

One hundred eighty-two years ago, that’s 1843, Christmas was not a big holiday.  Yes, it was lifted up and celebrated with church services as the birth of Christ, but little more.  That changed very quickly with the publication of one book, yes, you guessed it, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ classic book about the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge. Which itself was a double-edged sword.

Dickens had already reached great heights in the literary world, but at just 31, he was in crisis.  His debts were mounting, his career was stalling, and he feared his time and creativity were already finished.  He was desperate for a successful book.

Yet at the same time, he was haunted by the specter of poverty, working conditions of common laborers, and particularly child labor.  For months he had been working on the idea of a pamphlet lifting up these problems as he saw them.  He truly had a desire to make a positive impact on the culture of early Victorian England, moving the ignorant toward understanding and those in power from apathy to action.

At some point, he came to the idea of taking his concern and putting it into a book, one he hoped would accomplish his mission for the poor, and one that would alleviate his own professional and financial woes.

The book was an immediate commercial success.  His finances changed and his reputation as an author restored.  As for the plight of those others he sought to help?  Well according to the experts, charitable giving increased substantially, and the efforts of reformers found new and powerful allies in society and government. The sharp edge of his work cut deep and helped effect real change in policy, law and personal behavior.  For this we should be greatly thankful.

But remember, I said it was a double-edged sword.  The other result is that Christmas became popular and was imbedded in the minds of everyone who read A Christmas Carol and beyond.  The un-intended consequence was that his commercially successful book laid the seeds for the modern-day commercialization of Christmas, and for that, I think we can be allowed some mixed feelings.

That is the context behind A Christmas Carol.  But I have no intention to go on a rant bashing what popular culture has done with Christmas, or A Christmas Carol.  Instead I am challenging you to look deeper into Christmas.  Re-discover the depths of its Spiritual meanings and look again at the not-so-subtle messages of justice, kindness, joy and redemption in the birth of Jesus as well as Dickens’ story.

Today’s “Christmas Spirit” (ugh) is opening doors, the same doors upon which Jesus has been knocking.  Now is the time for us to put a foot in the door and invite our friends, family, co-workers and strangers to come celebrate with us and learn about the real love at the heart of the Christmas season.  Take the time to lift up and dwell on the real miracle of Christmas, the Incarnation.  For the Incarnation is the fullest measure of the love we experience in the season around Christmas.  Even in the church we allow ourselves to get so wrapped up in the birth of Jesus and the background story of the Nativity that we sometimes forget that the Incarnation, God becoming “one of us,” is the real miracle and mystery. 

In Jesus Christ, God lowered himself to put on our humanity and experience life just as we do.  What an amazing thing to comprehend, God became “less” for the purpose of serving us. 

Our theology teaches us that it was necessary so that we might know the love of God and be saved.  Our Scripture reminds us that God did so, because he “so loved the world.”  And our hearts tell us that it is true.  But what does it mean to you that God loved you enough to become like you?  Imagine what it might be like for those who have never thought of Christmas that way.

The love that caused God to take such a drastic course of action should stir within us the same love for others and in time the most exceeding joy!  For truly, every day, we should shout, “Joy to the world!” because in the birth of the child in Bethlehem, the Lord has come to save us.  Let this thought brighten your life and warm your heart beyond anything else that this wonderful season offers.  Pray about it, meditate on it, and find someone to share it with.  Let this exciting time of the year and the incarnation, the coming of God into your heart, bring a change in you that is beyond even that of Ebenezer Scrooge. 

The real miracle behind the season is the Incarnation and the love that caused it to happen, don’t let yourself, or anyone else over-look it.  “And as Tiny Tim would say, ‘God bless us, everyone.’”

Your servant in Christ, 

Mitchell Lee Miller