This Christmas, Keep It Real

We all have our own Christmas traditions - things that must happen every year in order for Christmas to be Christmas. We get the tree on this date, we attend this Christmas show, we watch this Christmas special on TV, we view our Christmas movies in this order. We arrange it all in hopes that Christmas will feel like Christmas. I think that what we really long for, what I know I long for this time of year, is that Christmas be meaningful and real. That it affect me personally, emotionally, spiritually. This is a high standard to set for Christmas because there are so many artificial things involved and so many people with an interest in selling us on the idea that we can ‘purchase’ a real and meaningful Christmas.

I recently received an email reminding the Church that it might be time to order new candles for the Christmas Eve service. In the email they advertised different kinds of candles that could be purchased, and as I scrolled down I saw something that I never thought I would see, something unimaginable – fake, plastic candles. Yes, you can buy plastic, battery-powered candles to hold as you sing Silent Night, complete with “white plastic flame tip for elegant and realistic look when candle is on or off!” And a “flame that flickers like a real flame!”

They sell these because real candles pose a risk – namely of burning down the church, or at least Aunt Mable’s petticoat. But we use real candles because we want the real thing, risk and all. During Advent, as we prepare for Christ’s coming, if we want this season to be real and meaningful, it make require us to take some risks. To find quiet time, to pray, to search our past, present, and future, and make our hearts and minds a place where Jesus has room to stay. As John says about Christ: “In him was life,^* and the life was the light of all people” (John 1:4). Let’s allow that light to shine on us this year. It might expose some unpleasant things, but it’s worth the risk – it always is if you want the real thing.

Just like a candle – but without the flame, wax, or heat!

The Definitive Mid-Term Election Voting Guide

Ah, yes. It’s a crisp, cool autumn day. Leaves are floating lazily down from trees, blanketing the earth with a collage of orange, brown, red and yellow. The World Series is on the television and the Braves are at home watching it with the rest of us. Pumpkins are smiling at us from people’s front porches and thanksgiving plans are being finalized. Well, all of that it true, except the crisp, cool part – today’s high is 87 – and the part about the leaves blanketing the ground. This is fall in Savannah, so you’ve got to use your imagination a little bit.

There are other things adorning lawns lately, as well as the un-mowed corners and vacant lots of our fair city: political yard signs. That’s right, in case you have not noticed, the Mid-term elections are, well, now. News reports describe voters this cycle as either angry, frustrated, cynical, or just plain apathetic. It is natural when things aren’t going well to express our frustration and anger by demonizing the opposition or whoever we perceive to be at fault. But as Christians we are called to rise above the merely natural to a more spiritual approach.

Although we are citizens of the United States, our primary identity is that of children in the Kingdom of God. We look to Jesus to lead us, and his name won’t be appearing on the ballot this fall or any other time. The signal of his coming won’t be a new congress, but a new heaven and a new earth. He won’t come to fix a broken system in Washington, but to fix a broken world and mend our broken hearts and spirits. He won’t come with a slogan or a platform or talking points, but with Truth that he is and the peace that he brings. The psalmist writes:

Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
The Lord will reign for ever,
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 146 – check out the whole psalm)

There are reasons for anger and frustration in this world, but we have been given far, far greater reasons for faith, hope, and love. Cast your vote (metaphorically speaking) for them, and you will not be disappointed.