Living in the times we do -- a pluralistic and secular world -- it becomes more difficult to attach meaning and purpose to things which we at one time took for granted.
Customs and beliefs about things such as Christmas are misunderstood.
As Christians we believe Christmas was rooted in a story, taken from our Christian heritage, which focused on the idea that "God so loved, that he gave . . . .". As we tell the story of God's gift, in the person of baby Jesus, we are able to see that this story of the birth of Jesus in such unexpected and humble surroundings was integrally connected with the larger story of how God was trying to communicate with his human creation: to enable them to come back into a living and life- giving relationship with the God who had created them. This story of Jesus' birth is the opening scene of a drama that results in the events of Easter, which shows the depth of God's love for his human creation.
When the Christmas story is taken out of this larger context of God's plan of salvation for his creation, it loses its power and meaning and becomes instead an occasion for a social tradition that underlines our need to celebrate the human values of love, compassion, sharing and justice among all people, regardless of creed, colour, race or religion. It becomes a focus on humanity, and the human condition, rather than on the greatness of the gift that God gave us in the person of Jesus, with all that implies in bringing us into closer relationship with God.
The efforts to secularize Christmas by emptying out the Christian content have made it a social ritual based around the customs of gift-giving, family gatherings, meals enjoyed together, and generally the reinforcement of social relationships.
These are all great things to be doing, but when done without the Christian context they do not express the integral meaning of the Christmas story, that we are celebrating the means by which we can come back into a living relationship with God.
Christmas, as a Christian celebration, outlines for us the theme of God's outgoing love that will never give up on us and seeks to bring us back to being what we are created to be.
The greatest gift we can give to each other this Christmas is to reflect the reality of that love and to make it real in our everyday relationships.
May God bless us all as we celebrate the coming of Jesus among us to reveal the power of God's love.
Commentary submitted by Rev. Ralph Warnock on behalf of St. Mark’s Anglican Church.
