Faith Works 12-24-05
Jeff Gill

Christmas Season Begins!

Now we will hear no more -- for eleven more months, at least -- about the debate over whether or not to say "Merry Christmas."
Major retail chains have wrestled with how to instruct their sales staff, fearful of insulting the non-observant or the fervent, let alone upsetting the other faith groups with special days this time of year.
For the Christian community, the challenge now begins to actually get our own traditions right, and begin, not end the commemoration of Jesus' birth with Dec. 25.
Advent is what just concluded for major portions of Christendom, or Double Shifts in the dominant belief system of Retail Consumerism. With the day itself, two Sundays worth or others might say with Twelve Days of Christmas the season should start to make Christmas a -- dare I say it? -- Christian event.
Myself, I'm happy to wish indiscriminate groups I'm around a "Happy Holidays" or receive the same with my change (more likely, an unreadable receipt). What is the grounds for real worthwhile conflict is not how little shopkeepers support ritual practices, but how churches too easily join the mercantile calendar and strip the decorations with St. Stephen's day (y'know, when Good King Wenceslas walked out, Dec. 26).
In fact, our Eastern Christian brothers and sisters, commonly known as the Orthodox of whatever national tradition, whether Russian, Antiochian, Serbian, etc., actually begin their twelve days on Jan. 6 itself. Epiphany, or literally "the unveiling" of who the Child is to the Three Kings, can be the close of Christmastide for many, but it's just the start for some. That's when those onion-domed churches really start hopping, not just for Greekfest on Labor Day.
My hope and prayer for Christians of all types and perspectives is that next year we look to faithfulness to the fullness of our own traditions, and worry less about how to get others to honor them for us out of sequence.
Otherwise, next thing you know, Christian groups might start noticing that Mardi Gras once had something to do with . . . anyhow, Merry Christmas from my family to yours, and however you mark the season of light increasing and everlasting, I welcome your good hopes however phrased!

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and supply preacher around central Ohio; share a story with him this new year ahead through disciple@voyager.net.