Is our salvation in Walmart?

From Minor Clergy in it's totality.  Emphasis is mine, the text is his.  I am simply delighted in this posting.

An interesting controversy has reared its head this holiday season.  Major retailers -- Walmart and Target among them them -- have shifted their marketing to refer to the season simply as "the holidays", as opposed to Christmas.  This has many, including many Orthodox, in an uproar.  My question:  why do we care?

North America and western Europe have allowed Christmas to become nothing more than a commercial extravaganza, a process which has developed over a number of decades.  As one columnist noted, it is almost a patriotic duty to spend extravagently, so much so that economists become all gloomy if spending slips a bit.  We give lip service to the idea of de-commercializing Christmas, lip service that lasts roughly as long as it takes to slip the credit card out of the wallet or purse.  We tsk-tsk at the uncivilized images of people fighting over material items, forgetting that those people are...well, that's us.

And now, Christians of all stripes are furious that the leading purveyors of commercialization have decided that they no longer wish to acknowledge that it is Christmas that happens to fall on December 25.  It is as though we are crying out "Yes...the entire season depends on your earnings report, and yes, we have substituted material gratification for spiritual peace, and by golly, that means Christmas!"   

Is there something wrong with this picture?

I am as bad as anyone to spend money at Christmas, but certainly we, as Orthodox, should have a firmer grasp on the meaning of this season.  The fact of the matter is that no one has ever achieved theosis or aided his or her salvation because Walmart or Target or any commercial entity said "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays".

A modest proposal:  lets be counter-cultural.  Isn't that what true Christianity is all about?  Anti-world?  Anti-materialism?  Pro-Christ?  Let the world reinstitute Saturnalia or whatever pagan holiday was displaced, because that will bring people to Christ.

I know, it sounds crazy, but I do not doubt it's truth.  It is only when people become so exhausted, so sickened by the exhibition of greed and materialism that they will themselves seek the Truth, the Light, the Word that has become flesh.  When they become exhausted and seeking, let them find our churches, open and joyful.  Let them find us, with no trace of guile or commercialism.  Let them find us,  with only hearts and candles ablaze.  Let them find us, saying not "Merry Christmas", but crying "Christ is born!  Glorify Him!"  Let them find Christ.  In us.  Not in Walmart.

Comments

[Paul]

Very nice. As a Baptist I'm reminded of the British Baptist pastor Charles Spurgeon who spoke against celebrating Christmas altogether - and that was before Wal-Mart and fourth quarter earnings reports.

[Mary]

I have given some thought to the "happy holidays" vs. "Merry Christmas" issue, too. I think I am beginning to understand that there are two lives at play here. One of my own is devoted to Christmas in the Christian sense and the other is devotion to commercialism. The fact is that I don't even have enough resources to purchase a bunch of meaningless gifts just because it's the time of year for doing so. More importantly, I make my immediate family (husband and two kids) my priority. Everyone else gets what is left over. The reason I do this is because they give to me all year and they are there no matter what; therefore, I give to them first. I will never give gifts just because it is the thing to do-- I will only give as I feel moved. Throughout the year there are lots of opportunities to give, and the very best time to give is when there is a need. I am amazed at the range of passion about the holiday vs. christian issue-- we have so many other problems to deal with.

This morning I was reading through my Week in Review magazine and there is a small article about a movement to recruit youth to white-supremacy. See http://www.theweekmagazine.com for the "Show of the Week" Hate Rock article. This is scary!

[~m2~]

wonderful post. wonderful :)

[Joe]

This was great. This year I am having the youth do a coupon Chirstmas instead of gifts. The coupons are for certain services you can do for someone.
I have hope things will change.

[gavin]

those are some great images lorna
terry, thanks for highlighting this, it's probably the best stated viewpoint of this conversation.

[Lorna]

Thanks for the feedback.

I love Advent and I lvoe Christmas - but I long for the commercialism to be less, without us becoming -what do you call it inthe US? Grinches

I haven't celebrated in Greece but it sounds great :)

In Austria - in the alps - it's a very peaceful build up to Christmas and like here in Finland lighting candles in the cemetery is part of the Christmas Eve practice, which I love. (Whatever your beliefs its peaceful and beauitfully there and a chance to bring back good memories. )

And in the snow the candles give off much more light than you'd expect. I love it :)

[stephen]

Thanks for the ideas of how to celebrate Christmas "counter-culturally", Lorna.

How about this one: take your tithe to Wal-Mart and distribute it amongst the employees making minimum wage and not getting jack in the way of health-insurance.

[Damien Scott]

Wonderful!
Having grown up in an evagelical fundamentalist church in the Bible Belt that despised the holiday of Christmas as papist and pagan, I am amused/saddened by their current righteous indignation over taking "Christ" out of "Christ-Mass." And then lots of the same churches are opting NOT to have worship on Christmas Day (a Sunday!) because it should be spent with family! I thought part of the message was that we are now members of a larger family -- the family of God.

At any rate, Happy Immaculate Conception for those who celebrate that, happy Advent to those who are in the middle of that season and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and Happy Hannukah (also on December 25 this year) to us all!

[soulpastor]

Thanks for the post and the link. Very Refreshing! Very true!

[Seraphim]

Thanks for your kind wordsand the link to my blog! Looking at Lorna's comment, I am reminded of how I saw the Nativity celebrated in Greece when I was there a couple of years ago. The entire period up to Christmas was very quiet. That was the period of the Nativity Fast for the Orthodox, and the quiet on the streets reflected that. Christmas Day itself was celebrated in church, followed by dinner with family and friends. It was the week after that which looked more like Christmas as we think of it - snowmen, and Santa and presents and what not. It all culminated on New Year's Eve, when presents were exchanged and there was general merriment. A pretty decent compromise, I thought. It managed to preserve the sanctity of the Nativity and still give everyone a chance to really celebrate as well.

[Lorna]

counter cultural

*celebrate new year on Advent Sunday

*want to give gifts - try alternate ways of giving that are fun, thoughtful and not last minute or hurried. bake cookies, choose a book, buy a goat in Africa from oxfam and giveyor loved one some goat's cheese

*live giving generously for the whole year

* and when you greet cash assistants with Merry Christmas - don't do it to point score, but as you smile and greet them, make contact, learn their name, single them out next time and start to bless them in the mighty name of Jesus

jesus doesn't belong in Wal-Mart, but the people who belong to him shop and work there, let's spread the real meaning of Christmas - the love the joy and the knowledge of our salvation