Christmas in the news?

I read two reports on Christmas today. The first was about why some conservative evangelicals and Catholics are disgusted with President Bush's White House Christmas Card. The card is sent to some 1.2 million Bush supporters. How intimnate! Again this year, it lacked the Christmas message. For some, it is too generic and apologetic to send a "holiday card". They want the President to send a Christian message on Christmas. Others say that a Christmas card lacks senistivity to other faith traditions represented by some porton of the 1.2 million recipients of the White House greeting. A holiday card includes non-Christian peoples.
One congressman is reported to have said that he cares more about putting Christ back into our war policy than into Bush's Christmas card. I couldn't agree more, especially if said war policy was self-effacing, sacrificial, and peace-keeping. Why is it the President's job to send a holiday greeting at all? If he wants to be a Christian and a President, he ought to realize that Christmas is not supposed to be a secular holiday, bastardized by the free market to drive up consumer spending. He ought to say nothing about Christmas or Kwaanza or Hannakuh. We are not a nation built with religious propensity. We are a nation built on secular humanist virtue and enlightenment philosophy. Christianity was not the forte of Jefferson or many of the framers. Jefferson did not believe in the resurrection of Christ, nor in His divinity. I think the President should remain politically neutral when it comes to matters of faith. (That does not entail ethical uncertanity or moral depravity, as some would believe). Christ is in Christmas, not the President.


The second report I saw concerned the decision of many megachurches to cancel worship on Christmas Sunday! Justified by their belief that Sunday is no more significant for worship than any other day and the expectation that fewer people will attend on Sunday, December 25th or January 1st (Some are cancelling worship on New year's day too). This is in stark contrast to Roman Catholics and mainline protestants who will worship on the Lord's day because that is what the evangelical, catholic and apostolic church does. The megachurch continues to cater to the culture's designs for Christianity. They continue to throw the baby out with the bath water. Doesn't anyone see how dangerous it is to simply disregard Sunday because Americans are more faithful to themselves than to the God of Jesus
Christ? Let them cancel worship. The culture will devour them eventually. How long before they cancel Easter worship or worship on the fourth of July (the truly American holy day)? It all begins with cancellation of Christmas day. How convenient. How wrong!

new life

My wife and I are expecting a new baby. Number 2. What will this new baby be like? Will he have her eyes or my smile? Will she enjoy music? Will she like to dance? Will he play basketball or golf? How will this new one differ from our son? What will make them clearly siblings? How much time will we spend together? Will he marry? Will she have kids? Will we go to Disney World and the beach for family vacations? Will they be faithful to God?
In the beginning, sleep is the price you pay for the promise that your newborn's life will someday provide answers to those questions...

Advent Confession

Advent is not an easy time of year for people. Amidst the mad rush to decorate and shop, many people are grieving. As we prepare to hear the good news of Christ's birth, many people are lost in the pain of death. The season of hope is not without its moments of despair.
John the Baptist comes into the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. John calls us to wake up to a reality most of us avoid, except in this season and in the season of Lent. We are all in the wilderness, barely there, barely making it, surviving. We are all temporary, ephemeral. To repent is to change your mind about existential things. you are not in control, nor in charge. You are losing ground. The only one who isn't, is God. A splash of cold water might wake you up to that. Be alert to the nearness of God. We are never nearer to God than at the hour of our death. Isn't that part of this season's message? We never know the day or the hour. It will come like a thief in the night, we are told. Isn't death like that, isn't mortality like that? One minute you're fine, the next minute there's a lump in your breast. One minute you're wrapping gifts, the next minute you're burying someone you love. you may wake up in Advent and wonder if this is all there is to your life?
Te cold truth about December is that all things pass away. The hope of Advent is really quite astounding, because despite a wake up call to that truth, we expect more. We expect to see the light. Maybe more than anything else, the good news of Christmas is that birth is a miracle and a mystery that still brings joy, even when we know that birth is but the beginning of the end...