Merry Christmas!

Is there a “war on Christmas?” Fox News’ John Gibson has done the research and concluded in the affirmative. Whether it is the banning in Denver of a church group who wanted an overtly Christian float to represent them in the “holiday parade” or the prohibition of the colors red and green and candy canes from public schools, those who insist that they are simply enforcing the constitutional separation of church and state have been at this game for decades.

I attended a public school until 8th grade. I still have a program from my sixth grade Christmas concert from 1970. We got to sing “Silent Night” and “O Come, All ye Faithful” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” People may think of the 60’s and early 70’s as a time of anti-cultural hippiedom, but the Woodstock generation really didn’t take over the culture while they had more important things to do (like protesting Vietnam, doing drugs, and having unrestrained sex). When the hippie generation became college professors and lawyers for the ACLU, that’s when big changes started to occur.

This year, prior to the Christmas shopping season, retail giant Wal-Mart announced that its employees would be encouraged to say “Happy holidays” and not “Merry Christmas.” Almost instantly, large organizations of Christians decided to take a stand, threatening a boycott. One Wal-Mart customer received an e-mail from a “customer service” employee explaining the company’s decision in this way:

"The colors associated with Christmas red and white are actually a representation of the aminita mascera (sic) mushroom. Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world,"

When this became public, however, the employee was fired, Wal-Mart changed its policy, and the boycott was lifted. The other night, I even was wished a “Merry Christmas” by an employee as I left Wal-Mart.

What kind of person would get upset at the wishing of a “Merry Christmas?” Most people, including this Jewish rabbi, are not offended. There are, however, overt atheists out there who oppose any ingress to their stubborn rejection of the very existence of God, and they seem to be the ones driving the lawsuits to eliminate “under God” from the pledge of allegiance and “Christ” from “holidays.” This article from nobelief advises the observation of Winter Solstice, since the Catholic church “obviously” stole December 25 from the pagans. This one advises people to celebrate Festivus, a Seinfeld-concocted holiday featuring a bare aluminum pole, the airing of grievances, and the feats of strength. I love Seinfeld, but I can’t believe there are really people out there who are celebrating “Festivus” today on the basis of an 8-year-old sitcom segment!

I believe that the whole “Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays” controversy is one more tool of the enemy to distract believers from the true meaning of the miracle of Christmas. The more we get hung up on whether a clerk in a store greets us with “Merry Christmas,” the less likely we are to display love in our own words and actions, and display the “good will toward men” so essential to the angelic proclamation in the Bethlehem sky. As challenging as it is in a commercialized environment, God’s people must take the time to ponder the miracle of the incarnation. Think of it—the eternal son of God humbled himself by willingly laying aside the full and complete use of his divine attributes, so that he could take on human flesh in the womb of a virgin mother. This he did solely by grace; this he did solely to become the substitute for sinners. The word became flesh so that he could live as a human, subject to the law in all its demands yet perfect in his obedience, and so that he could die in the place of all humans, bearing the guilt and punishment for our sins.

Have a blessed Christmas as you ponder in your heart the miracle that God loved you and became man for you, despite that fact that we have all been “naughty” and “bad” and deserve the spiritual equivalent of hot coals forever. Don’t obsess about the external things like greetings and gifts, and ignore the spiritual miracle.