Advent

I have been having several of these "God" moments that come often when I least expect them to arise. I touched upon this particular moment in my sermon on Sunday but wanted to spend more time reflecting on it as I prepare myself for this Advent and Christmas season. This moment occurred right before the start of a wedding that I officiated at Saturday. During this interlude before the service, I was talking to a person and we began to chat about Thanksgiving and what we had done. We were also talking about "black Friday" and the people lining up for the bargains at various stores often getting into line at 3 am. We spent time wondering about this and she made a comment, "Wouldn't be wonderful if Christmas was more like Thanksgiving." Her comment made me begin to think about what I was planning on preaching this Advent which was Christmas in our culture. It struck me about what we have done with celebrating the birth of our Savior.
I began to reflect on not only my behavior but even my family's behavior during this time. While Thanksgiving is a secular holiday which we have incorporated as religious institutions, Christmas is a religious holiday which has be usurped by the secular institutions. It now has become a time of over consumption, busyness, for many a time of depression and anxiety, so much so that people complain about the holiday. Some spend so much time fretting over the perfect meal or gift, that they have lost sight of what this time of year was supposed to mean.
There have been several meaningless attempts to change our attitudes with such slogans as "Let's put back Christ in Christmas, Let's look for the true meaning of Christmas (as if it was ever lost), and others. What struck me was that despite the good intentions of those who propose such things, I see no effort to choose to do things differently. We are the ones who choose to do the things that we often complain about. We have been socialized in such a way that the normal or natural way of doing things involve "black Fridays" and other social ideas of Christmas. We cannot blame others but need to take responsibility for our own choices as difficult as that may be. It is the same with other choices that we make such as youth sports on Sunday that interfere with church and with families. We are the ones that continue to make that possible. Similar to an event here in Omaha when Hannah Montana came and many parents spent outlandish amount of money to get tickets. Some were conned out of their money and were complaining about that and rightly so. Yet, why did they spend 200-300 dollars for a 60-80 dollar ticket? I wonder why they couldn't say no to their child. And I have to look in a mirror and wonder why I would spend so much money for my grandkids for presents?
If we want to make Christmas be more meaningful, we need to look at the choices that we make and decide if that is in the spirit of Christ or do we want just another secular holiday celebrating consumerism.