Fake Christmas

+ The Candlelight walk and vigil begins tonight at 6pm in Calvary's parking lot (we gather at 5:45) and the service will follow, so we don't have an exact time for when it will begin, so tune in by 6:30 to be safe. The vigil will be in the Calvary's Sanctuary and will be on our Facebook channel Calvary United Church of Christ/An Open and Affirming Congregation | Facebook. Hope you can be onsite or online with us.

Today's Thought - Fake Christmas

I grew up listening to the beautiful music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote for the two-act "fairy ballet" The Nutcracker he created in 1892. It was based on a short story written in 1816 by E.T.A. Hoffman called "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King." Growing up, I had no idea that it had anything to do with Christmas. It became a Christmas tradition because it happens on Christmas Eve, but other than the timing, it has nothing to do with Christmas. It is one more example of fake Christmas. Kind of like the movie "Die Hard". Kind of like the "Christmas" tree, which Martin Luther adopted from St. Boniface. The story goes that St. Boniface came across an oak tree dedicated to Thor, and in his anger, he chopped it down and pointed to a nearby fir tree, proclaiming it to be the new symbol of eternal life in Jesus. Now, we kill those trees (so much for eternal life) and put them in our homes with all kinds of decorations that remind us of Christmas past and present.?

I guess I wouldn't be so annoyed (and annoying) about this if people who claim to be followers of Jesus put as much thought and effort into real Christmas as they do fake Christmas. If instead of the frantic chasing of commodities, we spent more time prayerfully doing good works. If instead of giving families in need enough turkey to last a year, we focused on shifting our economic values so families wouldn't go hungry. If instead of putting Band-Aids on gushing wounds, we provided great healthcare for everyone, not just those who can afford it. If we stopped taking God's name in vain in our judgments of people we don't understand and, instead, saw them as children of God worthy of respect. If we taught our children more about the love God instead of placing sinister elves around our homes that snitch on them to a vindictive god-like Santa who keeps tabs on their every move. If we did those things, I wouldn't mind the fake stories and traditions. They would just be fun. But fake Christmas without real Christmas is just - phony.

Being a follower of Jesus isn't that hard, but also isn't nothing. Giving lip-service to God makes God mad; we can see that in the response of the prophets who tell the people that God is tired of their empty practices and offerings. Saying I am a Christian without being involved in a faith community is like saying I am an American, but I never vote. It's like being an athlete who never shows up for practice or parents who never tell their children they love them. It may be that the church has been faking it too, and people aren't buying it anymore. It may be that people see through the phoniness and are tired of it. I'm done with fake Christmas - I want the real thing. What about you? What would happen to the church and the world if we did more real and less fake? I think we might get somewhere - I think we might make a difference. Because being real is always better than being fake.

Prayer - We know it sounds trite, God of real, but help us to keep Christ in Christmas. Help us to be more real and less fake. For Your sake and ours. Amen.

Today's art is a Fontanini image of Santa kneeling over blond hair white Jesus. One of the absolute worst examples, in my opinion, of fake Christmas.?