A Fresh Perspective - 12/21/07

Two sisters were standing in front of a store window looking at the Christmas display. Instead of featuring the usual Santa Clause and his elves there was a beautiful church with carols ringing out, a shining star above, and a cloud of angels glowing against the dark sky. As they looked upon the scene they could not help but show their frustration. One said to the other, "Stella, look at that! If we don't watch out the church is going to take over Christmas!"

There is a strange wedding between the secular and the sacred during the Christmas season. Some Christians decry this as a most unholy union. Even folks who are not particularly spiritual disparage the way our culture makes so much of it, as in John Grisham's "Skipping Christmas."

We could be like the Christian community out of which Mark's Gospel emerged and simply "skip" the entire event (Mark's Gospel has no birth story at all). Or we could throw up our hands in surrender to the powers that be and say, "Well, if it's decorations they want, then decorations they will get," and then proceed to make our house and property a prolific winter wonderland.

I suggest a healthy balance between the holy and profane, between Christian faith and contemporary society. We are all children of our culture, though our religious faith shapes us in profound ways. Of course, the emphasis for the Christian must always be on the sacred and the significance of Christ's coming, but that is no cause for being alienated from some of our more wholesome cultural traditions.

One way we might intertwine the two - infusing the secular with the sacred - is by bringing the Spirit of Christ to bear on all our Christmas giving. By connecting our giving to the self-giving of Christ we can nurture a lifestyle of generosity that finds joy in giving. As we carry this Spirit into all our relationships and responsibilities we prepare the way for Christ to make his presence known in our lives and the lives we touch, not just at Christmas time, but all through the year.

In the book of Acts, Paul refers to a teaching of Jesus that, curiously, is not found in any of the Gospels: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." And while that may be true, we can only give in proportion to what we have received. Paul himself is the primary example. One day while traveling on a road headed in a very specific direction he encountered the living Christ, and he changed directions completely. He turned from a taker of life to a giver of life, because life had been given to him.

As we receive grace from the Giver of all good things, we can joyfully, gratefully and generously give "good things" to others.

Chuck Queen is Senior Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church, Frankfort. You can access his sermons and past articles at www.ibcfrankfort.com. He welcomes your comments at cqueen@fewpb.net