"Xmas Wars"

A Christmas sermon by The Rev. Keenan Kelsey
Noe Valley Ministry, Presbyterian Church (USA)
December 24, 2005

IN THE BEGINNING, there was no Christmas!

In fact, in the beginning, at the start of the Christian era, not only was there no Christmas, it never occurred to any of the founders of the church that there should be! There is not a single word about Christmas in the writings of the earliest Christian author, St. Paul; in fact, in his writings, there is not a single word about the birth of Jesus- never mind instruction for any kind of celebration of his "birthday."

The first of our Gospel writers, Mark, doesn't say anything about the circumstances of Jesus' birth. Either he didn't know or it simply didn't matter to him. In Mark's gospel, Jesus suddenly appears at the Jordan River- there to be baptized by John. It is from that beginning, that the story grows.

It wasn't until the days of Matthew and Luke that any of the first Christian evangelists made any attempt at all to tell any kind of a story of "Christmas." And, as we now well know, the "realities" from which these authors crafted the narrative had their roots in pre-existent rituals of Winter Solstice, Greeks notions of divine conception, or legends that were originally ascribed to other "gods"- Horace or Mithras.

In fact, in this year when Christmas wars are so much in the news, it is noteworthy that the first one was in 1647! That year, as awareness of the "pagan" roots of much of Christmas first came to public awareness the English parliament declared Christmas "illegal"- a pagan festival without any Biblical mandate at all.

Fortunately, the Puritans who "outlawed" Christmas in 1647 lost power in 1660: Christmas was back on, but now, a festival to be re-invented with a careful eye to faith and faithfulness. The "re-invention" continued from this point for several centuries until, finally, what we know as Christmas, jelled in the 1800's, primarily to the credit of one particular man: an author named Charles Dickens. In his Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Jacob Marley held out his chains and cried, "At this time of the rolling year, I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me?"

From Dickens' understanding of Christmas, there came the transformation of Christmas from a 12-day to a one-day celebration, from a working day to a holiday. With the Dickens vision, Christmas grew from a day when family and friends would gather and celebrate, sharing luscious food, dancing and game; to a time when a primary focus would be on the necessity to be generous to the poor and, thereafter, to the start of the idea of "keeping Christmas" year-round by acting for equity and justice for all people.

Christmas wars, indeed. It is a contradiction of terms! When I was growing up in New York, that phrase would have referred to 12 days of raucous snowball fights from fortified snow banks! The phrase took on more specific meaning in the 60s: Christmas wars were Xmas wars, with literalists shouting their discomfort over abbreviating "Christmas" to "Xmas." X, after all, was an abstract mark standing for the unknown. Then, of course, seminary graduates reminded us that X could be the Greek letter chi, the first letter in "Christ." And the "mas" ending is a shortened version of "mass," an early Christian word for worship. Those in the church relaxed their resistance, and the uproar subsided.

Today there are Xmas wars again, carried out on NPR and radio and TV talk stations and in the newspaper columns, decrying both secularization and commercialization. Objecting to the move by Macy's and other retailers to wish their shoppers "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings," combatants have begun to accuse secularists in general, and, on some of the right-wing talk shows, liberals and Jews in particular, of undermining Christmas. Christmas purists shudder as public schools ban Christmas carols and public squares ban nativity scenes.

The Xmas wars continue to rage over other aspects of Christmas, particularly the consumerism and materialism of the season. Gift giving and generosity have evolved into greedy orgies of shopping. Oddly enough, the Merry Christmas warriors who push people to patronize stores where clerks still say "Merry Christmas." are often the same folks who agitate for less commercial buying to begin with!

In truth, friends, none of it makes much difference. For Christmas is not about what we call it or how we greet one another. It is about seeking God, and God seeking us. It's about finding God and responding to hope, and reaching out to others. It's about the ageless priorities of God that challenge us, in every age, to nurture life and peace on earth with justice and equity, announcing hope to all creation.

The call of Christmas is that we make a difference; and, inspired by our ability to do that on the one day of Christmas, that we continue to do so, keeping Christmas 365 days a year. Christmas invites us to lay claim to Scrooge's resolution, expressed at the end of A Christmas Carol story, where Dickens has Scrooge exclaim: "I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."

At Christmas we discover anew that we can be angels and magi bearing gifts, we can be innkeepers who open whatever doors we have, we can speak Gabriel's word of hope and comfort, we can grow with Scrooge and know the delights of sharing and being transformed to make a difference in the world around us.

At Christmas we are reminded that even the little we can do any day can be a vital part of the building of God's kin-dom. And, at Christmas we wallow in the glory of that dream expressed in carols and song and words of ancient prophets letting their hope and excitement, their commitment and vision, seep into the core of our being where it can become a spring of living water, a fountain of joy that is for us and those we help and all creation.

There is a beautiful spiritual message underlying Christmas that has universal appeal: the hope that gets reborn in moments of despair, the light that gets re-lit in the darkest moments of the year. It is beautifully symbolized by the story of a child born of a teenage homeless mother who had to give birth in a manger because no one would give her shelter; and escaping the cruelty of Roman imperial rule and its local surrogate Herod who already knew that such a child would grow up to challenge the entire imperialist system. Christmas is to celebrate that vulnerable child as a symbol of hope that eventually the weak will triumph over the rule of the arrogant and powerful. This spiritual message is not unique to a Christian Christmas-it resonates with the message of many other spiritual traditions around the world.

Tonight, in this place, we celebrate the birth of Christ, of God-with-us, of a baby who reveals the vulnerability, yet the sacred possibility, of being human. If the resurgence of Christmas wars has any purpose, it is to demonstrate anew how often we lose perspective and take ourselves too seriously. Without guidance, without compassion and generosity, human foibles become blind rages, and firm grounding in our faith erodes into insecurity and hostility. The birth reminds us that incompleteness is part of the Christmas Spirit; it makes us realize we need a Savior.

Tonight we celebrate hope. Just as every newborn has a bright and bold potential, we claim confidence in the future, gratitude for new birth, new life. It is an understanding that our Jewish brethren will share tomorrow night with the first candle of Hanukah, for both holy days celebrate hope in the face of hopelessness, miracles in the face of disaster, and light in the face of darkness. When we realize this, when we feel this, we are ready to hear in our hearts, "Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy, to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you." May He be born again to you tonight.

LET US PRAY.

God of Light and All Comfort, we, the human family, gather around you. It is Noel, and we revel, sing, and kneel with all the shepherds and angels, welcoming Emanuel, God with us. Jesus is, to us, the expression of what you are and of what you do. Let this celebration instill more deeply your message of love and reconciliation into our hearts. As you prepared Mary to be the Mother of Jesus, so prepare our hearts. May each heart be a manger for the Prince of Love and Peace, and each home a Bethlehem.

Christ was born in a stable, so we pray for courage to the homeless and housing to all people, from San Francisco to the Gulf States to Pakistan. The Holy Family fled to Egypt, so we pray for welcome and acceptance for the refugee. The Child of God, fasted in the desert, so we ask mercy on the hungry; may we continue to work for the multiplying of loaves and fishes, food for all.

Christ who hung on the cross, knew pain and torture. Pity and protect those in pain, be a presence to those in prison, heal those who are ill or disabled, comfort those who sense their aloneness more in this season than at any other time, put your arms around the old or unwanted. And God have mercy on those in war. Save us from violence. Bring peace to our world.

Turn us to translating our celebration into service, the Christmas hope into hopeful actions, Christmas peace into peacemaking, Christmas joy into continuing gladness, Christmas goodwill into acts of goodness, Christmas greeting into constant caring, so that your Word might take flesh in us, and your Love be manifest through us.

O Child of all Joy, bring us your peace. AMEN