Today on blogs I read two reflections were offered on the meaning of Christmas from non-conservative Christian viewpoints. One is on the blog Settling for Butterflies and is a sermon by a United Methodist pastor who is also a graduate of Butler University. The other is on the blog The Piety That Lies Between, by Eric Reitan. Both ask what the meaning of the story of Christmas might be to people who read it today aware of the possibility that it offers myth rather than history at key points or at all points.
This seems to me to also relate to a recent post on the blog Unreasonable Faith which suggested that many public voices of liberal Christianity are out of touch with the thinking of the majority of Christians. It is at the very least true that some of the voices mentioned – such as John Shelby Spong – are aimed at reaching out to those who reject Christianity because of claims to the supernatural and the irrational, by emphasizing that they as liberal Christians likewise reject such elements. That same approach will not be an effective way of helping more conservative Christians be challenged by a different sort of Christianity. For that, a different approach will be needed.
A few days ago I asked what it means to take Christmas seriously but not literally, and there were a few comments which suggested that this was an important issue for a number of readers and something they personally wrestle with. And so perhaps it is appropriate now, after Christmas, to revisit the question and ask what Christmas meant to you this year, if you are one of the increasing number of Christians aware that these stories are not in any sense straightforward historical reports, if they contain anything historical at all apart from the mere fact of Jesus’ birth. Did doubt spoil Christmas for you? Did awareness of historical and cultural information cause you to get riled up any time someone mentioned an “inn”? Or did the “magic” of the season manage to transcend such concerns, without eliminating or invalidating them?
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