Bah, Humbug
So, here's a christmas observation - not a whinge, just an observation.
I'm not normally all that vocal when it comes to the Christmas season ... it's almost an intentional decision for me not to jump on the Santa-slugging bandwagon. There's plenty of folks who seem to be willing to protest our cultures' ironic ability to celebrate the Christmas season without recognizing the centrality of Jesus and all that He brings to our world.
So at the risk of riding the humbug train, I quickly noticed the advertising in our local shopping centre this morning for paytv and mobile phones ... "foxmas" and "txtmas".
Yes, it saddens me that the word doesn't have "christ" in it, but it also shows me that it's not hard to identify our culture's gods in its marketing efforts.
May we live in a way that exposes the false nature of idols and reveals the brilliance of a baby born in a stable - the true God who brings far more satisfaction than the selection of tv stations we could have, or the amount of times we can bug our friends with a text message.
Merry CHRISTmas!
Comments
PS - I feel that I may never txt you again. (heh heh - you wish!)
It seems like western culture's celebration of "The Holidays" have about as much to do with The Kingdom as the feast of Saturnalia (which is why we celebrate 25 December)
I guess you could also say that FOXmas has about as much to do with The Kingdom as Herod's census ... and somehow God entered those worlds, cultures and stories that seemingly didn't want anything to do with him (yet deeply longed for him) and started the celebration of New Creation.
Because of THAT, I'm looking forward to decorating my tree, hugging Santa, sharing a glass of wine with my neighbour and embodying Jesus in the midst of a culture looking for a GOOD reason to celebrate.
I hope you can enter TXT/FOX/X-Mas and have a joyful, hope-filled, Good News celebration with plenty of texts and an annoying Christmas-tune stuck in your head :)
Much Love
e-Reverend-e aka Santa-Hugger
nice - it's that kind of approach that brings fulness into emptiness and transforms it ... have a glass for me