I would like to wish all of my readers a merry Christmas (and if you don’t observe Christmas, I wish you a happy holiday season!). Since I will be busy the next couple days cooking Christmas dinner for my extended family (turkey with all the trimmings, cranberry meatballs, cranberry apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert), I figure I should take the time this morning for a short Christmas meditation.

As Christians it can be difficult not to let all of the good things associated with Christmas distract us from what we would consider to be the “true” meaning of Christmas, i.e., the birth of Jesus Christ.

Not all distractions at this time of the year are good. In particular I’m thinking about the frenzied consumerism associated with the Christmas holiday season. For many Christmas represents a religion of consumerism that reinforces the “ethic of consumption” and ultimately has little to do with the birth of Christ. Movies such as “Miracle on 34th Street” support its mythology; Santa Claus serves as its chief icon; gift-giving and shopping supply its rituals. Together, these symbols inculcate consumer-oriented values that are, in my opinion, less than Christian.

Even within the church I don’t think we realize the full significance of Christmas because we focus too much on a romantic and idealized version of the Christmas story: Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem and not finding any place to stay the night, end up giving birth to baby Jesus in a manger, etc. This quaint and romantic idea is epitomized in the Christmas carol, “Away in a manger.”

Away in a manger, no crib for His bed,
The little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head.
The stars in the sky looked down where
He lay The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the poor Baby wakes,
But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes;
I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky
And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.

But there is nothing quaint or romantic about the Christmas story as told in the gospels of Luke and Matthew.

Luke’s story highlights how when Jesus was born, how he came to the dregs of society — to the poor, to the outcasts. Jesus was born in a peasant home or perhaps even a cave for animals and was placed in a dirty animal feeding trough. Then to top it off his “healthy beginnings” visit was made by a bunch of filthy lowly shepherds — outcasts of society.

Matthew’s story isn’t a whole lot better! Matthew doesn’t say much about Jesus’ birth, but he does recount how when Jesus is a toddler he was visited by some astrologers who recognized him as a future king. While this was nice and I’m sure Mary and Joseph appreciated the gifts they brought (I doubt if Jesus did… not much fun a two year old can have with gold, frankinsese, or myrrh!), the astrologers also alerted Herod to the existence of a potential challenge to his power — which made Mary and Joseph and Jesus flee to Egypt (anyone who has ever taken a two-year old on a long driving trip knows what fun they must have had along the way!)

Thus, the Christmas story isn’t quaint or romantic. And I think that we have to work hard to make sure it doesn’t become so familiar that it looses its power for us!

The true mystery of Christmas is the paradox of divine condescension; God accommodating Godself; God becoming human.

The Father sends the Son.
The Word became flesh.
God was in Christ.

God came to save us not in his full glory as God but rather as a human; God came as a baby crying in his mother’s arms, a baby that required feeding and changing, a baby that was entirely and hopelessly dependent on others. God hid his glory, he limited himself. Remaining one with and equal to God, he took the form of a slave. By becoming one with us, he was able to share our sorrows, bear our burdens, and ultimately die a criminals death and atone for our sins and unite us to God.

That is the real meaning of Christmas, and it’s my prayer for all of us that this Christmas season, as we get together with friends and family, as we buy presents, as we eat turkeys and hams, as we do all these good things, it’s my prayer that we would also realize that there is much more to Christmas than meets the eye and that the miracle of Christmas is not how much turkey you can eat, but it is that God so loved the world that he was willing to take on human flesh and enter this world as a helpless baby… a helpless baby that would one day die a criminal’s death on behalf of us all.

Merry Christmas!