The Christmas Homily
He began talking about Tradition. How traditions change with time and circumstance, and how difficult it must have been for the Jews to be confronted with the Birth of the Messiah who changed everything they understood about their traditions. How they had to learn, understand, adapt, and move on, making new traditions. Then he talked about us, who struggle when our traditions change and evolve.
But then he talked about the traditions Christians are compelled to save. We are throwing out the Baby with the bath water! We must keep Christ in Christmas, for without Him there is no Christmas, no purpose. We must stop adoring our decorations, and adore Him. We must stop desiring presents instead of His presence. We must give our presence to Him and each other as gifts, rather than presents. We must stop the worship of Santa Claus. He is to be a whimsical fun part of our celebration; not BE the celebration. The crowded mall has become the most important place to spend Christmas instead of at the mostly empty stable in our churches.
I nearly jumped up and down with joy at his words because this has really bothered me a lot in recent years and this year more than ever. This year Hallmark has let me down with their Countdown to Christmas night after night as the perfect characters explain the “real meaning of Christmas” to one another and to millions of viewers. Depending on the episode, the “real meaning of Christmas” might be love, falling in, finding true, discovering self…not once did anyone in any episode say the real meaning of Christmas is the birth of our Savior. The theme might be going home for Christmas and discovering one should never have left. Does anyone mention returning home to the Church where they were raised? We can rely on the outcome for the modern-day Scrooge who discovers giving feels good and changes his or her selfish ways. But it’s never revealed to the viewer that this feel-good reward is because of following Jesus. The reward is most often a passionate kiss in falling snow.
Music has always been a part of our Christian Christmases; the beautiful carols have been sung for centuries in our churches and places of worship. With Sirius channels in the hundreds, doesn’t it seem we should be listening to some astonishing renditions? I ask Alexa for Christmas Music. And after I hear Blue Christmas and Santa Baby for the umpteenth time, I tell Alexa to stop. Then after several days I got a spark of an idea. Alexa, play Christmas carols! I listened to some kind of music in foreign languages. It might have been a playlist of carols, but none I recognized. Alexa, stop. Last evening, we tried “Alexa, play English Christmas carols. We got the choir from Westminster. The best music I’ve heard all Advent Season, and finally on Christmas. Where has the music gone? Are our children not learning any of the sacred carols?
Who is passing on the traditions that we need to pass along? This isn’t just tradition of hanging stockings and dressing up like shepherds. I’m talking about Tradition with a capital T. Christians, we must keep Christ in Christmas. If not us, then who?