Christmas Dinner #1
I imagine I'll have a good number of these this year. Today, I was a guest at our church's annual Senior's Christmas Banquet. I enjoyed a good meal, and great company. During the musical performance, I started to wonder about other things. I'll post some of my thoughts, but interspersed with comments made by the older ladies at my table.

"You look awfully young to be a senior. I guess somebody felt sorry for you and decided to give you a free meal."
Do I know how to celebrate Christmas solely as a remembrance of the birth of my Lord, without the customary attachments of years of pagan holiday ritual?
"Ach, I think somebody's lid fell of their shaker. This stuffing has far too much sage for my liking."
I don't mind going to a mall and not hearing Christian Christmas carols. Who cares if they aren't played there. I don't go there to worship. I know that most people there aren't worshipping either, and nobody will bow their heads in adoration of Christ just because they hear some soled-out celebrity singing, "Fall on your knees".
"Boy, I sure like these turnips. Usually people make them too soft, but these are good."
Can a Buy-Nothing Christmas work on a broader level? Will we lose families if we try to push that idea?
"You see Will, her mother was my cousin. My father and her grandmother were sisters. They were a family of 11, and that was normal at the time."
Recently there was an interview on CBC radio, with a woman who attends a local church in my conference. She was discussing their Buy-Nothing Christmas initiative, and the play that they were putting on. Are those initiatives effective? Would people really buy less, or would they just feel good about themselves knowing that they should?
"And the next thing she knew, she was in the hospital with a broken hip, and no idea how it happened."
Isn't it ironic, that when society most feels the need to attend church, at the same time, churches are downplaying the routine that brings people to church that wouldn't normally come?
"We first started singing that song back in 1938 when it came as part of the Sunday School material at that time. We learned it then, and sang it every year since. Only lately have we stopped."
People enjoy all the pagan revelry that's attached to this holiday, and they aren't necessarily blaspheming the holiness of the holi-day. Coming to church should still be part of the "holy" part of the holy-day. Can we as a local congregation walk that balance beam? Can I as a pastor do that? Is it up to me?
"Now, did you get your fill? We wouldn't want to let a young guy like you go home hungry."

   [ posted by William @ 9:06 PM ]