THE CHRISTMAS CONUNDRUM

    This time of year is, at least for me, filled with mixed emotions. It is the Advent Season, the time when I know I am supposed to make and take some time to be thinking about preparing for the celebration of  “The Nativity of Our Lord”, as is Christmas’s official title. But that is quite difficult to do, this preparing my heart and mind and soul for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, what with all the Christmas stuff going on all around.

    As I think about what has become of The Nativity and our celebration of this most important faith event, of what Christmas has become, I begin to wonder. Perhaps we should simply eliminate the word “Christmas” in all church publications and hand over that word to the secular world, a world that has already both skewed and co-opted its meaning, changing it from a holy day to a holiday. 

    Yet, perhaps this is as it should be. I’m not sure. It is very difficult to separate the sacred from the secular, if that is our goal, if that is to be our goal. We do not live separate lives. We are secular people and sacred people at the same time. It is not a case of either-or but both-and. Sometimes the sacred comes to the fore and sometimes the secular does. But neither is totally subsumed by the other. We cannot separate The Nativity of Our Lord from Christmas, or vice versa, even if we tried.

    That is what makes the Advent Season so discombobulating for me and makes it such a conundrum. I want to prepare for both the holy day and the holiday. But how do I prepare for the sacred celebration of The Nativity without the secular celebration of Christmas getting in the way? And yet as much as I as a protest would like to drop the word “Christmas”, methinks I protest too much.

    I cannot pick on the secular world because I am very much a part of it. Perhaps to make matters worse, at least for this year, thanks to the pre-Thanksgiving visit of two of our daughters, we had all our Christmas decorations up over a month ahead of time. We’ve never, ever done that before. Notice, however, I did not say we have our “Nativity of the Lord” decorations up. Okay, there is a manger scene or two and a few sets of Wise Men, but they are lost among all the Christmas glitter.

    It almost seems like a losing war. What is worse, as is obvious, I am fighting against myself. I am thrilled that the Christmas decorations are up. I helped put them up! And I love to hear both Christmas Carols and Nativity Hymns – they are different, are they not? – intermixed on the radio. I cannot close my eyes or ears to any or all of this nor do I want to do so. This inner war is waged throughout the Advent Season; and while I win some battles, I have never won the war.

    Perhaps that is enough. Perhaps a battle won here and there is enough. Perhaps those few moments in time when The Nativity of Our Lord consumes and subsumes secular Christmas is enough for me. Perhaps even the memory of those moments in the past and the promise and hope for those moments to come are enough to make this Advent Season fulfilling. Perhaps. I don’t know. I hope so.  

                                                                        W.J.P