How Do We Do Christmas?

Santa Claus and Reindeer and presents for the kids is not a bad thing. It is fun and wonderful, but doesn’t get to the root of Christmas if you want to grow spiritually. Cultural Christmas is like any cultural religious rite, washed out and devoid of depth. So, if you want to do Christmas in a deeper way, here are Five Spiritual Keys to doing Christmas.

1. Story

Christmas is about a story, and so words really are central to the Christian practice of Christmas. Tell the story. But don’t just tell it. Act it out. Enter the story yourself -- where do you fit into the story and where does the story fit into you. Our ancient grandmothers and grandfathers of the faith decided that God being born into an infant was important stuff and had a certain shape in our spiritual journeys. The weird concepts of the divine in human form, virgin births, wandering stars, foretelling dreams, and choirs of angels are nothing more than good story fodder if you watch the Christmas story from a distance listening. Once into the story, however, we find the images and odd ideas cutting a bit close to things we don’t really want to deal with in our lives.

So, how to get into the story. Jump in. First, read the story on your own, from Matthew and Luke chapters 1 and 2. Not much to read, but you will probably be surprised at some of the stuff you find there. But don’t just read it once, read it a bunch of times in the next few weeks, till you know the story and can enter it in your imagination. Where in your life would this story be played out if it happened today? Where would you be? Argue with the story. Rage about it. Tell it to a neighbor and see what comes out. Don’t settle for eight little reindeer Christmases, get into the story that has sparked the imaginations of billions of people for two thousand years.

2. Peace on Earth

Christmas is about peace. And this Christmas, we, as the largest nation in the world and certainly the strongest, are about to go to war. Put that in your pipe and smoke it in the next couple of weeks. What on earth does Christmas have to say about that. And if you don’t think Christmas is about politics, then go back to Key #1 and read the story again. This Christmas pay attention to how what you do brings peace on earth, or even into your own life. What is peace anyway? Is it just peace and quiet. Or does peace have a shape and form.

Do it, just don’t talk or think about peace. Make peace with someone with whom you are at war. Go to them and get it settled, finally. Just do it. Do what it takes to be a peace maker, a child of the God of Christmas. Watch where you create strife in the next couple of weeks and ask God to come into you and stop it. How? First, reflect on where you are in conflict with someone. Ask yourself how you are contributing to it, and if you can’t figure that out, ask a good friend to help. And then, take a moment in your day, sit in a quiet place, surround yourself with the spirit of God that you know, and when you are surrounded, simply ask the question. Then go back into your life watching for the quiet ways that God has of working.

3. No room in the Inn

Invite in a stranger. There are folks out there that don’t have any place to stay and unless we help them, they are out of luck. The innkeeper is a hero in the story. There is nothing left, no resources, no space, no time. Everything is too busy and too depressed (it isn’t a party, everyone has had to come to town to pay taxes and be counted by the local authorities). The innkeeper figures out that people are getting left out, are hungry and tired and frustrated and in danger, and he figures out what he can do. No mansions, not secret guest room, the garage is going to have to do for this one, and that’s enough for God.

How are we making space for the strangers, for the desperate in our Christmases? Barb is going to have us serving food. But there are too many of us who just want a happy Christmas and want the troubles of the world kept at arm’s length while we loudly sing good tidings of great joy. It is a great thing to do, but won’t enter the richness of the real Christmas. Flying reindeer is a trite substitute for Saint Claus who searches high and low in town to bring at least one moment of joy to children who would otherwise have nothing. How are you going to search out a child to bring hope this year. Bill and others will help us find folks to help.

4. The Gifts of the Magi

The gifts at Christmas aren’t Santa’s gifts to us, but gifts given to God. They are a form of adoration for the huge gift of God’s presence with us, no matter where. Is God on your Christmas list? What gift can you give God this year? This is not a self-serving question. Of course the church asks for money around Christmas, but this question is a much deeper one. What can you give God this year? What is flowing out of you with great joy that leads you to adore God, to live a life as a giver. Put God’s name up on the refrigerator with the rest of your list and think about what you can give that expresses some of the fullness of your relationship. Here is a place where the term "Lord" may be helpful. If God is Lord of your life, then what service, what thanks, what gift can you bring to the manger. Don’t just think about it. Do it.

5. Emmanuel: God with Us

Whether we are brand new at Christianity, or whether we are long-term disciples, one of the most powerful messages of Christmas concerns new birth. God comes to live with us right now in a new way. This brings about new energy, new insight, new direction and all the changes that go with it. The story is not at all idealistic about this. Mary and Joseph seem thrilled and scared. The birth is not idyllic, but filled with pain, threat, and danger as well as joyful and awesome. The moment is the womb. God is the baby. And you are the mother. How does God want to be born in you right now? What are you learning about God? For many of us, the mere act of living into the story begins to bring new insight, but if that isn’t enough, start looking around your house. If Jesus was born in your closet, what would that say about God and what would that mean for you? How about your bathroom, or kitchen or garage, or quiet chair or . . . ? What have you discovered about God that is new this year and how is that coming into your life?

Try this. Go to a part of your home (office, yard) that you have never thought of God being in before and sit there and tell yourself the story of Christmas in such a way that Jesus ends up being born there. What does that mean to you? Maybe have a quiet talk with God about that as you sit.