I read a story this past week about a woman who, in early December had stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things on her lunch break. One of them was a cinnamon-scented air freshener. She had smelled a candle with the same scent in the store but wanted to know exactly what the air freshener smelled like. She thought the fragrance might be a nice addition to her home during the Christmas season.
When she left the grocery store she stopped at her friendly near-by Burger King. While she was waiting in the drive-thru line she popped the lid off of the air freshener, aimed the bottle toward the back seat of the car and pressed down. Little did she know the air freshener was concentrated. The scent, although pleasant at first, quickly consumed every inch of her car. Her eyes started to fill with tears. The fragrance was so strong. It was simply overpowering.
The lady said that the woman in the car behind her stared at her as if her hair was on fire as she shifted the car into park, flung herself across the car to open the passenger-side window and then to the back to open the two rear windows.
When she reached the drive-thru window, the girl inside crinkled her nose and looked around as if she were trying to find something. “It’s cinnamon,” the driver said shamefully.
“I thought I smelled something funny,” the girl at the window said in reply.
Driving back to her office the woman couldn’t help but wonder if anyone would notice the scent that was almost without a doubt was stuck to her nose and hair. The answer came quickly as she walked past one of her coworkers.
“You know,” he said. “It’s already beginning to smell a lot like Christmas everywhere you go.”
The things that seem to happen to us every year at Christmas time can make for some pretty humorous stories and at the same time difficult times to live through. Even for those of us who love the holidays and most everything about them, Christmas often seems to become more difficult every year.
For many of those that are among us, however, each Christmas becomes more and more difficult to endure. What with all the buying and exchanging of gifts, the cooking and baking and hosting of friends, family, and co-workers, the decorating both inside and out, and seemingly so much more. Oh, and we can’t forget about the cost of it all. Social agencies report that at Christmas time depression for many seems to climb and at the same time the ability to cope seems to drop more than any other time of the year. There is more loneliness. There is more depression. There is more heartache. There is more disappointment. Can we endure, can we take Christmas?
I Can we endure the secularization of Christmas? The Monday after Thanksgiving, this year, still very much in November, I met a group of preachers, as is my habit most Mondays for lunch. I was the first to arrive and while I was waiting, I noticed the music playing on the sound system. Song after song of Christmas music was coming out. If only we could say that it was simply a few days of extra Christmas music because Thanksgiving fell so early. Truly, that is not the case. I try very hard to pay attention to things around me. I never know when something that I might see would make a good sermon illustration at some point in the future. One of the things that I noticed this year was, I saw my first Christmas push in mid-August when Hobby Lobby was making room for Christmas decorations, and I am not talking about decorations that people would buy parts of to make. I am talking about decorations to put on your tree. That was in mid-August, four and a half months before Christmas.
Santa Claus was actually in many malls two full weeks before Thanksgiving this year. Perhaps that has happened before, but I can’t remember when.
The day after Thanksgiving may be the official start of the Holiday buying season, but it is truly a much longer time than simply one month. And, as Christmas buying has gotten more and more important to our economy, we have made the season longer. The end result becomes, every year Christmas becomes more and more secular. Our society has forgotten much of the Christ of Christmas.
Writing in the St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Linda Ann Martindale observes that the American commercialization of Christmas is a departure from the Puritan (pilgrim) ideals established in the early New England colonies.
“While Christmas generally is considered the celebration of Jesus’ birth, the early Puritans, who settled in the New England region, refused to celebrate the occasion. Disagreeing with the early church fathers, who established the holiday around a pagan celebration for easy remembrance by the poor, the Puritans considered the observance secular in nature. Set during the winter solstice when days grow dark early, Christmas coincides with the Roman holiday of Saturnalia; the date, December 25, marks the celebration of Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, or the birthday of the Unconquered Sun by the Romans. Puritans believed that these pagan customs, which included no work, feasting, and gift giving, were inappropriate for the celebration of the Lord’s birth.”
“While the Northern colonists did not observe the day, the Southern colonists celebrated in much the same style as their British counterparts – with banquets and family visits. Firecrackers or guns were used to welcome the Christ child at midnight on Christmas Eve.”
“The residents of New York celebrated the season in a similar fashion as their Dutch ancestors had with St. Nicholas Day on December 6th, established to honor the patron saint of children. Gradually, all observances became centered around the date December 25th, with traditions becoming mixed and accepted between different ethnic backgrounds.”
It becomes easy to see that the secularization of Christmas isn’t some new phenomenon. It has been building for years. Yet in the observance of the Church, through it all comes a tiny child.
Our lesson this morning asks the question, “Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver…” The text speaks of cleaning and purifying. With the coming of the Christ we stand in need of the refiner’s fire for our purification from our sins.
II Can we endure the refiner’s fire of cleansing sins? It is a difficult question for us. When we think of fire we think of being burned, but fire also purifies. To be in the presence of the Christ child we need to have our hearts made pure. We need the refiner’s fire. We need the launderer’s soap.
It seems to me that so much of what we do during the holidays stands in direct opposition to why Christ came into the world. Yes, we do some good things, I am not saying that we don’t. But, it is also a time when it is another reason to have a good party. And, in way too many of these parties, we aren’t celebrating the birth of the Christ.
Purify our hearts Lord. Cleanse us and wash us. Prepare us for the coming of your Son.
In Romania there is an old basilica up on a hill in Criseni. The doorway into the sanctuary is only about four and a half feet high, which means you have to bow down in order to get in. The monks who live in the basilica explain that such was the intention when the sanctuary was built. The door was intentionally built that low so that one would have to humble oneself before coming inside to commune with Christ. It is the only way one can enter Christ mass, i.e. Christmas. There is no other way to Christmas. Cleanse us. Purify us O, Lord.
III Finally, can we endure the Holy presence of Christ? Such is the purpose of the Advent season. As people of faith we are called to prepare our hearts and our minds to enter the Holy presence of the Christ child that comes with Christmas. In another time Advent was considered to be a mini Lent, a season of repentance and forgiveness. Unfortunately, with the way that our society celebrates Christmas, it is a tradition that has long since past us by with our much more secular holiday. But perhaps we can and we should remember that older tradition this Christmas season. We should repent and ask that we be purified so we can endure the Holy presence of Christ.
A woman was doing her last-minute Christmas shopping at a crowded mall. She was tired of fighting the crowds. She was tired of standing in lines. She was tired of fighting her way down long aisles looking for a gift that had sold out days before. She was sick and tired of Christmas and wanted it to be done.
Her arms were filled with bulky packages when the elevator door opened. Of course it was full. Still, the occupants of the elevator grudgingly tightened ranks to allow a small space for her and her load to enter.
As the doors closed she blurted out, “Whoever is responsible for this whole Christmas thing out to be arrested, strung up, and shot!” Many have felt that way. Several on the elevator nodded their heads or grunted in agreement.
Then, from somewhere in the back of the elevator came a single voice that said, “Don’t worry. They already crucified him.”
We are about to come to the Lord’s Table. As we come, we are presented with an opportunity to allow the refiner’s fire to cleanse our hearts so that we may stand today and everyday in the presence of the Risen Holy One.
Can we take Christmas? With the help of him who came that we might have life, we certainly can.
