Having begun in worship at the start of the day our family will renew old traditions. Some are unique to us, Hope makes cinnamon rolls at every holiday. Some are in common with much of our nation, the glorious tree. A few are very ancient: the story from the Gospel of Luke. This day is sacred and all we do will be sacred: even the rum punch.
What?
The jolly music about weather being frightful, in Houston it will be delightful, and O Holy Night are all sacred.
Why?
They are sacred, because we are God’s image bearers and that which is sound, decent, and fully human is God’s. Nothing is separate from God’s love and as we gather to open gifts, youngest to oldest, God is with us.
When I am told Santa is bad, because the jolly old elf is a distraction from the Christ child, I wonder. Who could be distracted from the greatest truth of history by a creative fiction? We enjoy the jollities of the Santa stories (thank you Mr. Baum!), the lights of the tree, and the company of the family.
We pray, we take communion, we sing sacred songs. This communion is within us and never ceases, but just as we do not only pray, but talk to each other, so we do not only sing sacred songs. We will blend songs about the human things into the divine chorus and the image of God will harmonize with God.
We might do this badly, introduce falsity and our brokenness, but even then God will have mercy and make these “crush notes” turning our timelessness to good. There is so much that is good!
The distinction between “sacred” and “secular” is useful, but not if we take it as real when it applies to human activity. God Himself is totally other in being. The distinction between the Creator and HIs creation is absolute. As His creations, however, we are always sustained by God and in God. All we do, if we are as we should be, is a sacred gift to us and the good God delights in the play of His children.
We kneel in prayer, we kneel to put together the LEGO set, we kneel “praying” Mason Crosby makes the key field goal. All these from the sublime to the genuinely unimportant in the grand scheme of things are human and good if kept in proper order. We do not confuse our Christmas tree with our nativity, our nativity with our Bible, our Bible with our God.
Today, this holy tide of Christmas begins. We are called to party, but to sin not!
The experience of humankind says that those who try to stamp out possible sin by sticking only to religious music, sermons, and services end up debasing those things. Cromwells ban Christmas Jollifications and end up tyrants, not just in the nation, but in the home.
Let us pity them and share a bowl of steaming punch, tell a ghost story or two, and enjoy gifts (if we have them). While we play the newest game the core of us is still singing:
Christ is born!
Glorify Him!
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