This time of year, you start to hear talk of taking Christ out of Christmas. It seems many Christians feel threatened by the possibility, but I wonder--is it even possible?
Jesus. In mind blowing subtlety entered human history. That He would come in so ordinary a way as the way that we all come is staggering. Shocking. Unless, of course, the extraordinary of it gets lost in the ordinary. Not that it could ever be objectively ordinary, but if you lived in a tent at the Grand Canyon, it might not always seem as grand as when you first saw it. And if you've grown accustom to words like Incarnation, sometimes they become just that--words. And sometimes you can yawn through Luke chapter 2, as if heaven weren't meeting earth in those words. But God himself really did become not just a human, but a baby, as vulnerable and dependent as any other infant ever born. And I think it's such tender love that He would do it this way. That we who understand our world through family and through names, would have a Savior with a name and flesh and blood lineage. That we, who understand our world through our five senses, would have a Savior who bound himself in degree to the limits of sight and sound, touch, taste and smell. Forever-existing, I AM God became man. Long-awaited Messiah, true to every promise, really did arrive.
Take Christ out of Christmas?
Herod tried to take him out for good and that failed.
In miraculous fashion, the wise men found him. The shepherds found him.
He avoided multiple attempts on his life before the time was right. And when the time was right, even another Herod and all the forces of darkness couldn't keep him in the grave.
Is Christ threatened when his baby resin image isn't allowed in some public place?
How does one take Someone out of anything when that Someone is actually holding galaxies together? Allowing our very next breath?
I get the sentiment behind the concern. We mean well, don't we? We feel we must do our part. But maybe part of our part is to remember just how big our Christ really is. Maybe we need to let the reality of incarnation sink in a bit more. Maybe we need to remember that nothing can diminish him, and that though we might feel threatened, He never does. He is not wringing his hands, wondering about the outcome of human history, for He will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).
A.W. Tozer notes:
"What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us...were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, "What comes into your mind when you think about God?" we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man."
Our understanding of God will determine how we think and how we live. If we believe this, then it would seem that our greatest threat is not from some outside force beyond our control, but that our greatest threat is in fact, ourselves. "Jesus is the reason for the season," we can tout with self-righteousness smugness, but do we live like He's the reason for every season, for every breath?
I love the season of Advent. I love the opportunity to slow down, to prepare my heart for the celebration of Jesus' coming. But helpful and beautiful though it is, the Church calendar was man's idea. If I were to cease to make Advent holy, Jesus would be no less glorious. I just might not see his glory in the same way. So, perhaps if I could borrow from Jesus' take on the Sabbath (though of course, keeping the Sabbath was a command, and the keeping the church calendar is not) , we could say, "Advent is for man, not man for Advent, and Christmas is for man, not man for Christmas." God doesn't need our holidays. They were made so that we might have markers to remember him. He is not threatened by who keeps them or how they're kept. But the spirit in which we enter into them--and enter into all of life, really--will determine how we know him and make him known. If we remember how great He is, then our confidence will be unshakable. Like the woman of Proverbs 31, we'll be able to "laugh at the days to come." And though evil and injustice will grieve our hearts and move us to action, we will trust that the day is coming when God will set everything right. And we'll remember this--loving our neighbors will show them more of Christ than how we stand for any cause.
