Christmas Is Not Your Birthday - Chapter 5 - "By A Different Road"

I woke this morning to stories of shoppers angered and disappointed because the two major package carriers did not deliver their ordered gifts on time. I found it disheartening to think that many people are blaming shippers, weather and deliverers for their "giftless" holiday. I talked to someone who has worked in the retail industry for years and he said that people always came in to shop on Christmas Eve and complained that there was no selection.

This is exactly the problem that we have been addressing the last six weeks. The world has seen the Christmas holiday become one, big shopping extravaganza - a Santa-fest - instead of focusing on the reason for the season.

In this last chapter, Mike Slaughter wants to us consider taking the lessons we have learned this Advent season and applying them to the rest of the year. He likens our journeys to the one of the Magi. They came to visit the baby Jesus by the way of the world, consulting with King Herod in order to find the infant King. But after their encounter with Jesus and his family, they went home by a different road. They were warned that returning the same way they came would endanger the holy family - and themselves.

The gospel is filled with stories that tell us the same about our own lives. Faith in Jesus Christ is not just about accepting the saving grace of Jesus. It's about accepting that Jesus calls us to live in a way that is different than before... different than the world. Think about the parable of the man with two sons - one left, but ending up returning to the love of his father - the other son stayed home, but continued to seethe in resentment of his brother's and father's actions. Which one had truly accepted the love with God gives and demands of us? And which one are you?

 One of the first ways that we can live differently than the world is to remember (or discover) that the 12 days of Christmas START on December 25th, instead of ending there. Consider celebrating these 12 days all the gifts that Christmas brings to our lives. If you want a bigger challenge, give thanks for special things each day. One on December 25th, two on December 26th, three on December 27th (you see the pattern), culminating on January 6th with a remembering of the visit of the Magi to the stable scene. The wise men in our nativity set will not make it to the manger scene until then, and we will keep the nativity up long after the rest of the decorations have been put away.

One Christmas Eve night, our pastor asked us to consider living Christmas all year by leaving an ornament or decoration out for the whole year, to let this be a constant reminder of how important Jesus' coming is every day of our lives. We have not decided yet what that decoration will be, but are considering that this will be a wonderful way to remember Christmas throughout the year, and to live as if it makes a different in the way we live.

I wish to you a joyous Christmastide and thank you for joining in this advent journey. May the blessings and peace of God be yours always. And may you be a living representation of that peace in the world.

Merry Christmas!

Deb

Here's what others are talking about this Advent and Christmas:
(It's never too early to be thinking about next year!)

Cow or Cash?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/december-web-only/should-i-give-cow-or-cash-for-christmas.html?paging=off

Upside-down Christmas Tree
http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/12/10/nyt-bestseller-ann-voskamp-hung-christmas-tree-upside/

Our War on Christmas
http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/12/23/our-war-christmas