The Reason for the Season Whole Year

In case you haven't been paying attention, it's Christmas. I'm sure you've been bombarded with commercials touting sales and special deals and all manner of commercialism. And if you hang around "churchy" people like me, I'm sure you've been instructed to remember that "Jesus is the reason for the season." Which is good.

Now, I've tried to say this before, but this is where I get misunderstood. So please, give me the benefit of the doubt. And if I still make you mad, give me the benefit of the doubt some more.

And bear in mind that I've got about five minutes to finish this before I have to get up and pack and head out the door, so I don't have time to nice it up.

We need to remember Christ at Christmas. I strive to do so in my family. We have a nativity scene, we talk about the real reason for celebration.

But (you knew it was coming, didn't you)

What about the rest of the year?

Because no matter how you feel about the liturgical calendar, and whether or not you believe that our Christmas celebrations are a revamp of the pagan solstice celebrations or the earnest attempt of early Christians to determine the date of Christ's birth, you're not going to find anything in the Bible that tells you to celebrate Christmas.

Now, before you pull up Outlook and get ready to fire off an angry e-mail, hear me out.

I get it. I get that Christmas is a great time to remind the world that Christ came to save us. I get the fact that it's become so commercialized that the real meaning can be lost if we're not careful.

But how are we doing on the things we are commanded to do? I can pull up verses where we are commanded to observe the Lord's Supper regularly (and take it seriously) without breaking a sweat, but I am often dismayed by how casually we approach His table (present company included).

The Bible is full of versus that describe God's holiness, but when we bother to approach Him in prayer, we do it with a flippancy and irreverence that we wouldn't dare use with our employer.

It's wonderful that we put our change in the Salvation Army bucket, but what about our regular giving? Are we giving as much as we can? Are we neglecting our obligations to the church while our pastors are living in poverty?

When a harried store clerk naively wishes us a "Happy Holidays" do we self-righteously correct her, instructing an unbeliever that it should be "Merry Christmas," and then walk out smugly without realizing that we've just ensured that she won't be visiting our church anytime soon?

So as bothered as I am at the commercialization at Christmas, I'm even more bothered when we box our warm, fuzzy feelings up with the decorations, and proceed to spend the rest of the year living like everyone else.

Present company included.

So yes, let's keep Christ in Christmas. And let's keep him in the other 364 days of the year as well.