Christians have lost Christmas as a religious holiday and it is not because of political correctness. Christmas sales now drive the American economy. We need to recognize that we Christians no longer have a nativity theology, we have a “black Friday theology”—that crucial day when Christmas shopping cleans up the retail bottom lines and the red ink turns to black. Unless Christ turns a profit for us, the American economy shows a net loss.
Well, really, what’s the loss? When Christmas day (December 25) inconveniently turned out to fall on a Sunday, Willow Creek, the mega-church on the north side of Chicago, canceled worship. Instead, they gave out a video and let people stay home and celebrate with their families. I hesitate to speculate what, then, they would be celebrating except the triumph of cultural Christianity. What kind of Christians cancel worship because it falls on Christmas day?
There is a huge loss, honestly, when people who profess to be Christians skip the beginning of the wonderful and mysterious narrative of how it is that God was born and dwelt among us. How do you get to the end of the Christian year when you don’t even start the journey in a cold stable on a winter night, with mangers and shepherds and stars? It is a poor excuse for a faith that sells its most precious child to clean up the bottom line and make a profit.
I used to enjoy the start of the Christmas season, the decorations in the streets and the buzz around the shopping district. Our kids would make lists and we’d light the Advent candles each Sunday night. That was when Christmas began after Thanksgiving. Now, especially this year with the economy so bad, the Christmas shopping season seemed to begin around Halloween. That is scary.
I wonder if we Christians who still hold to the idea that Advent and Christmas is a sacred season for us ought to think about moving the date. Now, it’s a radical idea and I know there are hundreds and hundreds of years of tradition behind the December 25th date, but work with me here. What we need is a walkout, a strike, a nonviolent practice of resistance to black Friday theology.
Early January might be a good time to hold Christmas. The frenetic shopping season would be over. Of course, we’d have to wait until people sobered up from New Year’s Eve, but we could start Advent the next weekend and have Christmas day by the end of January. No conflicts, no political correctness problems, let Santa and the reindeer and the retailers have December and the Christians who believe Christmas is a period for faithful reflection on the mystery of God-with-us could do that in January. Just a thought.
Maybe it’s too much to move Christmas Day, but we can still do the walkout, the strike, the nonviolent resistance. Christmas in our house is about the birth of Christ. We get each other some gifts and we give to those who have a lot less and we just enjoy worship with those who also believe that if you don’t start the journey in Bethlehem, come spring you won’t understand how you got to the cross.
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