by Pastor Dan Baumgartner

Maybe you recognize the title from Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels) way back in 1729. Swift used it for an essay proposing that a way out of the Irish famine crisis was for poor families to sell their children as food to the wealthy! It was outrageous satire designed to grab people’s attention, get them to recognize the dire straits that fellow human beings were in and take steps to relieve the misery.

My proposal for us this holiday season is far more…well, modest. I’m proposing that we swim against the U.S. cultural current in some minor ways and reclaim Christmas as a season to rejoice in God’s decision to send his Son to this earth, among people like us. It has always struck me as strange that we have allowed the two largest events in Christian belief (Christmas, Easter) to boil down to one day celebrations—or less.

Why has this happened with Christmas in particular? Oh, I could rail against the consumerism of our culture, the store decorations that went up weeks before Thanksgiving, the 24-7 radio station Christmas carols starting in mid-November. But those pieces of evidence, though true, are overworked. The bottom line is that most Christians, me included, fall easily in line with a season that our culture has dictated as “holiday,” work ourselves into a frenzy of cards, gifts and gatherings until December 25 gift opening and then collapse in an exhausted heap.

There are alternatives. Here are two things I think would be helpful:

1) Allow Advent to be Advent. This is a time of waiting and preparation (similar to Lent before Easter) for receiving our Lord. It lasts for four weeks. Try delaying Christmas (trees, cards, music, lights) for just a bit- a week, two weeks- to try and live in this space. Use an Advent wreath and candles at home, use a devotional (there is one on the table in the Lobby) to get a breadth of scriptures and time to reflect.

In worship at Bethany we will mostly sing Advent songs. We’ll gradually add art and decorations to the sanctuary as the month unfolds. Sure, we’ll fudge a little on the fourth Sunday as we draw near to Christmas. We’re not trying to be legalistic, but are looking for some small steps that probably will go counter to the cultural hubbub.

2) Let Christmas Eve and Day be the start of something, rather than the end. The Christmas season (as opposed to Advent) actually runs for 12 days (yes, the song has an ecclesiastical connection!), until Epiphany on January 6. Try saving some gatherings, some gift giving, some family outings for those days instead of jamming them in earlier. In worship we will keep up decorations and continue singing Christmas carols on Dec 27 and Jan 3. The Advent devotional has some pages added to it to walk you through this season of incarnation.

Imagine doing something different from other people. Imagine finding some time to enjoy rather than produce. Imagine the space of a season rather than rushing to a day. Imagine some leisure with the Lord and your loved ones in December and early January. It’s a modest proposal.