Happy Holidays?

Happy Holidays?

Posted by Pastor Dave on December 10th, 2011 | 0 Comments

Should we leave Christ in Christmas? 

We have all heard the loud laments that the greeting of the season is now "Happy Holidays," and in public schools there are no nativity scenes or signs reading "Merry Christmas." Further, the Christmas tree has become a "holiday" tree. The phrase "Don't take Christ out of Christmas" has become a popular slogan.

Is this truly lamentable? I don't think so.

Perhaps at one time we could say that we lived in some kind of "Christian" country (doubtful, but perhaps). But the reality is that we now live a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-faith, mosaic of people, customs, religions, and nationalities. And, as Canadians, we are rightfully pleased with such a mix, rather than the melting-pot approach of our neighbours to the south.

But this has consequences and implications. Christmas is a Christian event. A "Christmas tree" has Christ (and the cross) as its focus. Christmas pageants are all about the pivotal moment in history where the God-man began his journey on earth. As Christians, and as Canadians, in our pride in our multi-/mosaic Canadian society, we then can't turn around and expect everyone to be Christian.

Christmas is a Christian event, in the same way Hanukkah is a Jewish event, and Ramadan is a Muslim event. Christmas belongs to Christians, and the church. For me, "Merry Christmas" and a manger scene splashed on the windows of Tim Horton's borders on blasphemy.

Further, when we look at the shopping malls, our temples of consumerism (most of them complete with steeples), I can only guess that the Christ of Christmas is horrified. And let's be honest—we are part of it. Let's not pretend it is someone else's problem.

In our Canadian society, with its vestiges of whatever Christian roots it may (or may not) have had, a pall of Christendom hangs like a grey cloud over our society. And the radical message of the church, of the gospel, of Jesus of Nazareth, gets muted in the fog.

So, as long as we can say "Merry Christmas" to each other as Christians, and invite others to join us through faith in Christ, and as long as the church can do its pageants, Christmas festivals, and sing its carols, we need to be grateful. But, when the malls, Timmy's, and Canadian Tire, put on manger scenes, "Thou shalt not take the LORD's name in vain" invariably leaps to mind. Somehow, "Happy Holidays" works well.

Let's remember, when the night is the darkest, the light shines the brightest. Perhaps it is time to let the gray pall of Christendom fade, allow the night to become the reality that it is, let the season outside the church be the secular holiday that it has become, and thus have the Light of Life, the virgin-born Jesus of Nazareth, and his people—the church, shine even more brightly.

Merry Christmas.

Tags: Christmas, Christianity, secularism, consumerism, Tim Horton's, multiculturalism, Canada, United States, melting pot