The Christmas Spirit

The eternally liberal town of Eugene, Oregon lost their cross a few years ago. It used to overlook the town from Skinner Butte, but after a heated battle it was replaced by an American flag. This year the diversity police focused on a new target. The Christmas tree in the Hult Center for the Performing Arts was axed - you should excuse the expression - “as a way to honor the city's changing population,” said the center’s administrators. Angry critics made such a fuss that the issue showed up on CNN’s talk-back live last week. CNN’s web page doesn’t carry transcripts from that show, so I have to rely on my memory, but I do remember some of the content.

The chaplain at the State University approved of removing the Christmas tree in the interest of diversity.

A seminary student in the audience felt that including everybody was a better way of expressing diversity than excluding everybody.

But the biggest issue, the one that people spent the most time on, was whether a Christmas tree was a religious symbol or a cultural symbol.

The people who wanted it taken down, by and large, were absolutely certain that it was a religious symbol. The people who wanted it left up understood that it’s cultural - actually, a pagan Germanic custom brought to England by Prince Albert when he married Queen Victoria back in the early 19th century. And since it is cultural, they argued, there could be no first amendment question about the government endorsing religion with taxpayer dollars. Mind you, the Hult Center isn’t the Town Hall - it just receives government funds.

Well, you’re all familiar with the arguments by now, I’m sure.

As it happens, it looks as though Eugene is going to get their Christmas tree back again next year. Some people started calling the Hult Center the Ebenezer Hult Center - in honor of Scrooge, of course. City officials aren't ready to get into a cultural war. "The city is not banning Christmas trees," said a spokesman. "We're not interested in being on the bleeding edge of political correctness." The local paper said that the decision was less a demonstration of social sensitivity than “politically bending over backward until you fall on your head." And a local tree farm has already picked a 20-foot fir as a donation.

Because who could be against Christmas? The “spirit of Christmas” is everywhere. Peace on earth, good will to men - oops! I mean to all people, of course. Santa Claus and presents, angels and babies, reindeer and snowmen and family togetherness. The amount of money spent in this country on Christmas tree ornaments, lawn decorations and lights would probably feed the average third world country for a year. Everybody loves Christmas. Even if they don’t believe in Jesus. And of course as the focus of the holiday moves away from Jesus, more money gets spent on empty things, people hoping to squeeze some sort of meaning out of the tinsel before the tree dries up and has to be thrown out.

But the cross on the hill overlooking Eugene was removed without much of an outcry. After all, there’s no question but what that’s a religious symbol, is there? And the cross doesn’t have the constituency, the fan club, the general cultural popularity that Christmas trees have. Because, of course, the Christmas tree is, they got that one right, a cultural symbol rather than a religious one. It’s a cultural symbol adopted by a nominally Christian country, but it has nothing to do with what we believe, or who we believe in. It’s a cultural symbol standing for those bits of Christianity that offend no one, that can be adopted - that have been adopted - by people who really don’t want anything to do with God.

And that is why we need to examine very closely what it is that we mean by the Christmas spirit. Is “the Christmas spirit” a Christian spirit at all? How much of our activity at this season owes more to the Christmas spirit than to the spirit of Christ?

John gives two tests here, for discerning whether or not something - some teaching, some practice - is authentically Christian.

The first test is, What does this activity or belief say about Jesus?

Now, back in John’s day, the question was whether Jesus was human or divine or some mixture of both. Remember, I’ve been talking a bit about the set of false beliefs called Gnosticism, or dualism. This was a big deal back then. The issue now is a bit different - but the question is still the same. What does this activity or belief say about Jesus?

There’s nothing wrong with Christmas trees. We have three of them right here in the church! All people everywhere express their beliefs in terms of cultural symbols, and the Christmas tree is perfectly appropriate. There’s nothing wrong with lights, either. At their best, they represent the star the wise men followed. They are also appropriate symbols of the wonders of that long-ago night when the angels lit up the sky for the stunned shepherds. Gifts... well, it started as a recognition of the gifts brought to Jesus. And in some countries gifts aren’t even opened until Epiphany, January 6, the day we celebrate the arrival of the magi. But it’s become a bit of a problem. Only a hundred years ago, a typical gift for child would be an orange, a handful of candy or nuts, and one toy. Maybe a pair of socks or mittens. Today... well, I‘ll let you reflect on what’s under your Christmas tree. And I admit I’m as bad as anyone, when it comes to my godchildren. My biggest piece of luggage wasn’t enough for all the gifts I’m taking, I had to pack a large cardboard box as well.