A Christmas lesson

It was simply another piece of junk mail coming across the desk on its way to the nearby recycling box. The brief letter was an appeal for clergy to encourage their parishioners to “redefine” Christmas this year by considering charitable giving and the needs of others in the world before automatically feeding the gods of “shop-’til-you-drop” holiday consumerism.

While the Church has been observing the season of Advent in preparation for the celebration of Christmas, our culture has been in the frantic throes of what some have labeled “Hallothankanuka-mass” — that retail marathon running from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas, with a little Chanukah thrown in for interfaith diversity.

A call to redefine Christmas looks pretty appealing against the backdrop of grim headlines about a retail store employee being trampled to death by stampeding “Black Friday” bargain hunters, increasing unemployment, tight credit and a gyrating stock market. The prophets in the Hebrew scriptures would have had a field day: “Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land ...” (Amos 8). In other words, “Wake up! Get your priorities in order!”

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Any religion which professes to be concerned with the souls of people, but is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that cripple them — such a religion is a dry-as-dust religion.”

As we in the Christian community prepare to celebrate the Feast of Christmas, it would do us well to keep in mind that, in Jesus of Nazareth, our creating, loving, and sustaining God came into the world as a peasant, as one of the poor and dispossessed, as one with a heart and passion for justice. Jesus of Nazareth came to embody and enflesh for the world God’s peaceful and equitable vision for all creation. He came to redefine and transform the world as Emmanuel — God-with-us.

Then, as now, people had difficulty perceiving the presence of Emmanuel. In Matthew’s gospel we read, “‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’”

Our Lord appears in unexpected venues — be it in the Bethlehem-places of the world or in the forgotten and neglected in our society. This is illustrated by Mary Glover, who serves at Washington, D.C.’s, Sojourners Neighborhood Center. Mary helps fill bags of food for the poor and hungry who come to the center for assistance. Before the doors open each day, those working at the center pause to share a prayer. Mary often leads that prayer and will usually pray these or similar words, “Lord, we know that you’ll be coming through this line today; so Lord, help us to treat you well.”

“Lord, help us to treat you well” can also be our prayer in this holy season. May our hearts be opened to those in need, our giving to the hungry and thirsty and lonely marked by generosity, our lives redefined by God’s love and grace for us in and through Jesus the Christ. That is the mystery of the Word made flesh to dwell among us. What better way to welcome him?

The Rev. Roberts is pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.