Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, or Merry Christmas?

Why make such a fuss? When I am out fighting traffic and crowds shopping for cards, decorations, trees, and gifts, I think the term Happy Holidays is just fine. There is nothing intrinsically Christian about those things and I admit I am not really thinking of God’s supreme gift to the world as I am searching for the perfect gift. Until the current fuss about the war on Christmas I assumed that Happy Holidays was referring to Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years Day.

When I am putting up a tree, hanging the lights outside, planning for parties and special events Season’s Greetings speaks my thoughts perfectly. It is the season for indoor trees, decorated yards and houses, parties, and special events. Greetings to you as we meet during these times.

As I put together a series of messages designed to direct our thoughts toward the meaning of Christmas then the former terms will just not do. It becomes, “Merry Christmas.”

Holidays are for gift giving and feasting. The Season is the calendar dates and walking in the winter wonderland. Christmas is the Lottie Moon Mission Offering, the worship services, the advent candles, the carols that celebrate the coming of the only begotten son of God to dwell among us, and the reading of the Gospel story from Matthew 1 and John 1 and Luke 2.

I do believe there is a real culture war instigated by those who would remove every vestige of Jesus Christ from our culture. Christmas has become one of the battlefields only because it is a time when even nominal Christians begin to think about “religious” things. But the real truth is that the materialism that is so rampant at Christmas is so far from the meaning of Christmas that Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings works just fine for me.

“Here’s your credit card Mr. Russell” (as Grandma got ran over by a reindeer plays in the background) “Thank you so much for spending oodles of money in our store for toys, electronics, groceries, pastries, wrapping paper, etc. Have a Happy Holiday.”

“Hey neighbor, your house looks good.” (as up on the rooftop is on the radio) “ Where did you get those really unique decorations? Seasons Greetings.”

“Pastor Rodger, thank you for that service that reminded me of the blessings God has given because ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.’” (and as Silent Night plays softly in the candlelit auditorium) “Merry Christmas.”

A Going Problem

“Go to church, go to church, all the time, all the time, go to church.” This was my little brother’s observation as a preschooler when he was told, get in the car, we are going to church.

I was raised in a church going family. I raised a church going family. My brother, the same one as above, raised a church going family. Sometimes it seemed that, yes, we were always going to church.

Some people think that going to church is a problem. The church expects way too much of them to be going all the time. Our current culture has pretty much limited church going to a once a week journey, usually on Sunday morning. The number of attendees at mid week services or even Sunday evening services has plummeted.

Ask people to make another journey to the church building for worship, prayer, study, service, or any other reason and we are accused in a busy culture of creating a going problem. If you have the additional audacity to suggest that people “go on mission,” you really create a going problem.

With apologies to Avodart, whose commercials you see regularly these days, perhaps we don’t have a going problem, but a growing problem. I may be that our unwillingness to invest time, energy, and resources to the things of the Lord doesn’t reflect so much our unwillingness to go, as our unwillingness to grow.

Happy Thanksgiving

Jen and I wish all the readers a happy thanksgiving. Last weekend was a tough football weekend around here and all the teams I root for. First, on Friday night the Moriarty Pintos lost 41-14 to Roswell Goddard. That ended their perfect season and their hunt for a state championship. Then on Saturday the Aztec Tigers, the high school Jen and I both went to, lost in the same state championships. On Saturday late afternoon the Lobos lost to BYU in a romp. Then on Sunday the Broncos couldn't hold on to beat the Chargers. And to top it all off, after Monday night's game I lost in my fantasy league for the first time in 5 weeks. Can you say Loser?

But we will have something to be football thankful for this weekend. It all starts tomorrow with the Broncos.

On a note other than sports. The Lord has blessed us this year. Our little Andrew is healthy and growing. We are loving being grandma and granddad. It would be nice to be a little closer. Video conferencing is better than nothing, but it is better for businesses than grandparents.

Once again, Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

Theology is a Bargain

OK, get ready for this one. It is a little contorted. I am warning you. In Salt Lake City there is a sports store that has a big ski sale every year. They call in sniagrab. For those who dare to ask where in the world they got the name, the answer is "it is bargains spelled backwards."

I was visiting with a friend yesterday and we were talking about the distorted view of theology many of todays churches and christians have. It was preacher talk. In our conversation I told him about the ski sale at Sports Authority and what Sniagrab stood for.

Later he said, maybe the problem is like Sniagrab, the church has theology spelled backwards thinking they are getting a bargin. So we got out a piece of paper and tried it out. Theology spelled backwards is ygoloeht. But if you sound it out and respell it you get, well almost you get, "ego less".

Maybe what we need is more Theology spelled backwards. OK, I warned you it was contorted. But that doesn't make it untrue.