HOLIDAY HOOPLA

I know a pastor (and there are more than one) who struggles to get any kind of holiday groove on each year. At times seeming more grinch-like than elfin, the trappings of the run up to Christmas just make this pastor a little cranky. I don’t want to name him, but maybe we can call him Pastor Ebenezer. He’s been known to hide the baby Jesus in manger scenes until Christmas actually occurs. His response to trimming the tree is as likely “bah-humbug” than delight.

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Pastor Ebenezer spends a good deal of the time before Christmas contemplating the events of a birth in Bethlehem so long ago. It was a birth barely noticed by the world, devoid of extravagance, a most menial affair, really. Yet it is precisely that humble, simple, unnoticed birth that announced God’s love for all. Love’s pure light shone from a pile of hay.

Getting to that unvarnished, tinsel less, tree-free truth is hard for Pastor Ebenzer. It is like an archaeological dig, removing layers and layers of debris, to get to the truth beneath. Scholars Amy-Jill Levine and Ben Witherington III demonstrate the strata added to the arrival of the Christ in their commentary The Gospel of Luke (Cambridge University Press, 2018 p.73):

“Christ’s mass, the origin of the term “Christmas,” was only a minor celebration until 1223 when Francis of Assisi set up a scene of baby Jesus surrounded by Matthew’s Magi, Luke’s shepherds, and even live animals. Thereafter, there were ever-increasing additions to the celebration. St. Nicholas, a charitable bishop of Myra in Turkey who will eventually morph into Santa Claus, entered the festivities. Special confections were added, such as candy sticks in the shape of bishop’s staffs (candy canes). The evergreen Christmas tree to which Luther apparently was the first to add candles, inspired by seeing stars shining through an evergreen when walking one winter night, was borrowed from pagan German celebrations of midwinter. Holly was added with the berries symbolizing Christ’s blood and the leaves the crown of thorns. Mistletoe, which for the British Druids was a symbol of new life, entered the tradition as a sign of budding love, or an excuse for a kiss. All this hoopla seems miles away from the story of a first-century Jewish family having to bring their first child into the world under less-than-ideal conditions.”

There is nothing inherently wrong with these bits of holiday hoopla. They are, however, adiaphora – neutral details that add nothing significant to the reality of Christ. The difficulty comes when the adiaphora replace the thing itself. Jesus was born to bring good news to the poor. We will spend countless millions on gifts, decoration, and feasts for ourselves, and the poor will receive no good word. That’s what makes Pastor Ebenezer a little crazy.

Pastor Ebenzer’s name means “stone of help” in Hebrew. It refers to a memorial set up to remind Samuel and all the people of God’s saving help in defeating an enemy and retrieving the Ark of the Covenant. In the classic hymn, Come Thou Fount of Ev’ry Blessing, a line reads, Here I raise my Ebenezer… and goes on to sing of the help that comes from the Lord. Maybe Pastor Ebenezer’s namesake reminds him that while holiday hoopla is often about celebrating how we save ourselves (a false notion), Christmas is about how God saves us.

Pax Christi,
Tim Olson – Lead Pastor
 
Image by ErikaWittlieb from Pixabay