A Very Secular Christmas

Week beginning 19 Dec. 04

It's that time of year again -- a time of lights, decorations, trees, presents, eating, drinking, carols, tinsel, crackers, and more eating. It's a time for Santa, for reindeer, for snowmen; a time of magic for young children, a time of stress on parents, and usually a time of increased spending and debt for most of us.

We could dismiss it all with a 'Bah, Humbug!', except that this particular season represents a strange dilemma -- Christmas is our most egocentric, indulgent season of the year, and all in the name of the most remarkable and supernatural fact imaginable. The birth of Christ is, ostensibly, the 'reason for the season', yet the season itself has become the end, rather than the means.

For some Christians, who will have nothing to do with the seasonal festivities, the whole Christmas business represents the worst form of paganism, the shrouding of ancient pagan festivities in the cloak of Christianity. But I suspect that when we look closely at the rites and rituals we associate with the closing weeks of the year, the truth is rather the opposite. Whatever the origins of our Christmas traditions, we have now, in our contemporary practices, shrouded the Christian element in the cloak of a new paganism.

Who is fooling whom? While most of the churches try to seize the evangelistic opportunity to brag about Jesus in a godless world, all the world is interested in is baubles and presents. Carols compete with cash registers; watchnight services with late-night shopping. More people attend Stornoway town centre to watch coloured lights being switched on than attend Prayer Meetings throughout the island.

The much publicised 'nativity scene' in wax at Madam Tussaud's may appear a bit of harmless fun, but it represents the most audacious national slur on the Christian message centred on the Word made flesh. The godless icons of our culture are given pride of place and trounced as a holy family, in a travesty which represents the ultimate paganisation of our Christian heritage. I used to think that our society loved Jesus in his manger, and just wanted to keep him there. I no longer believe this. I now think our society wants someone else there.

Because, let's face it, the season is now about indulging the gods of our postmodern world -- the gods of pleasure, wealth, materialism and hedonism. Why should the police issue special warnings about drinking and driving at Christmas time? How come we have turned a religious festival, of whatever dubious pedigree, which centred on the Lord Jesus Christ, into a reason for binge drinking, partying and revelry?

Simply because there is no room for the holy family, or for anything else that is holy, in the inn of a secular worldview. We place man, rather than man's Saviour, at the centre of our festivities, and we cannot accommodate the miracle of the incarnation, far less the reason for it, into our philosophy.

So year upon year, the trappings of our secularism turn into a tidal wave of godlessness that stands ready to engulf us. Our Christmas decorations become ever more elaborate; our houses get lit up on the outside as well as the inside; our Christmas lists become ever longer, and all the rivers of our pleasures run into the sea -- but the sea is never full.

And watching the madness of it all is the One whose birth has become our excuse to forget him, the One whose entrance into the world marked the beginnings of its hope, and who, amid the hopeless of postmodern man, still speaks words of spirit and life. John was right: 'he came to his own, but his own received him not'.

Here is the absurdity of it all: marginalised in his first appearance among men, the Son of Man is still without a place to lay his head. Wise men still honour him and angels still regale him; equally, the world still rejects him. We have the audacity to enact laws that will allow euthanasia, abortion, gay marriage and Sunday trading -- and we still celebrate the birth of Jesus? We applaud atheism, but we still celebrate Christmas? We make man the measure of everything and still sing of what happened once in royal David's city? Can we not see the madness inherent in our godless behaviour?

So what should we do? Adopt the politically correct approach and just take the Christ out of Christmas altogether? Or should we campaign to turn the season around and centralise the babe of Bethlehem once again? I suspect that the issue is not that easy. To avoid reaping the whirlwind we need to stop sowing the wind first. We cannot expect to find fulfilment, happiness or contentment either by paganising Christianity or by Christianising paganism.

But we can expect to find it by bowing before the incarnate Word. That, after all, is where sins have been forgiven, hearts healed, and lives restored. Until we learn to love the light of Christ more than the darkness of secularism, we will not know anything about the true meaning, value or dignity of human life. These are the measure of the incarnation.

I am not asking that people find a place for Christ at Christmas. I am asking that they find a place for him 24/7. I am not sure that He is the reason for this particular season any more; but I am convinced, beyond any doubt, that in seasons of joy and sorrow, of light and darkness, of mourning and dancing, of doubt and assurance, of fear and faith, he is the only source of life, light and happiness.

And so the irony remains: Christ is the only hope of the world that does not want him. Have a very sacred Christmas.