Advent Conspiracy, Week Three

Here's this week's article in The Oconee Leader:

So when did Christianity lose its soul?

It’s one thing for a band to sell out and lose their edge in order to sell a few more records. I get that – it’s hard to resist the money that is reserved for artists that can craft their sound to the plastic, vanilla melodies that attract the masses. But when did following Jesus become this polyester cliché that ends up trying to find life in days gone by or in the values of the world we live in? And when did Christmas stop being about Jesus and his conspiracy to change the world through compassion?

I know that those of us who do church are going to hear a lot about Jesus over the next couple of weeks. In an effort to counter the increasingly consumeristic message of Christmas in our culture, we’ll program the Christmas season to death – children’s musicals and Sunday School Christmas parties and special sermon series. And the focus will be on the story of Jesus’ birth and if we’re lucky we won’t be subjected to vapid reminders that ‘Jesus is the reason for the season’ – especially if the season is going to continue to look like it does for most Christians.

What has Christmas become for the followers of Jesus? Not the weeks leading up to Christmas – but the actual day itself. Has anyone noticed that for all of our talk about Jesus in the days and nights before Christmas, he somehow gets lost underneath the piles of presents and ripped-apart wrapping paper? Maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure that my thirty-two Christmases to date have had little to do with Jesus and a lot to do with what this Santa character dropped down the chimney for me.

What would it look like if December 25th took on the heartbeat of Jesus when he came to earth? Certainly there would still be gifts since giving is at the heart of God’s mission in our world. But it shouldn’t be lost on us that when God wanted to show his love for us, he didn’t send stuff, he sent Jesus. He sent a person, not a present.

What I think this means for us here in Oconee County is that our gifts never get detached from the gifts of time and self. It’s not about the money – relational giving can include a day out taking pictures or a weekend in Chicago. Maybe it’s a new guitar strap and an afternoon playing vintage guitars at Musician’s Warehouse in Athens. Maybe it’s the college guy who drives back to Marietta to spend an afternoon with his mom and at the end hands her a scrapbook of pictures of the two of them throughout his life. The possibilities are as wide as our interests – what do they like to do and how can you give yourself to do it with them.

I’ll be the first to tell you that this won’t be easy – it’s hard to give this way because it asks us to give our time and energy which we really don’t have to do when we hand over a gift card to Best Buy on Christmas morning. And let’s be honest, if someone gave us the choice between the Best Buy gift card and something ‘homemade,’ we might think we’re getting ripped off if we don’t choose the gift card. What we’ve come to value at Christmas are not the people around us but the stuff that their money can buy us; instead of loving one another, could it be that we’re using each other to get what we want?

I know that more than a few of us have already bought all our presents for this year. Maybe all that happens this Christmas is that conversations begin to happen. It might take more than a few weeks for your family to catch up with where you are in re-imagining a Christmas that looks more like the relational gift named Jesus that God gave to the world 2,000 years ago. So would we all remember that conspiracies are about creating freedom, not new rules – and would we remember that the process of change is usually rather slow as God chooses to work in lifetimes, not days.

Advent Conspiracy. Worship More. Spend Less. Give More. Love All.

Comments

[Gregg]

Interesting!! I hope your comments about the last 32 years had to do with your personal attitudes and not that of your family.

To some, the giving of gifts is a reflection of our love for Christ, as well as those family members and friends we love. Remember there are many different ways to show this. The acts of charity of which you speak should happen all year round.

[Matt Adair]

Nothing like getting called out by your pops...

Lots of things get lost in translation. I'm not pinning this on anyone except me...