Run Over By a Reindeer
At the earlier service this afternoon, the puppets attempted to tell the Christmas story, with very mixed success. Their version went something like this:
It all started when Caesar Augustus decided to take a census of everyone in the Roman world. They ordered everyone to go back to the place where their family was originally from to register for the census.
So everyone headed home for Christmas, which is where the song, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas comes from.
Mary and Joseph had to travel all the way from their house in
There they tried to get a room at the local inn. But it was run by the evil Grinch. And he tried to ruin Christmas by saying, “Bah! Humbug!” and telling them that there were rooms left for them. But Charlie Brown found them a place to stay in the stable, where they kept warm by roasting chestnuts over an open fire.
While they were at the stable, it was time for Mary to give birth to her son, Jesus. And since there was no other place for them to stay, thanks to the Grinch, she wrapped the baby in cloths and let him sleep in the manger, where the innkeeper had set out straw for the reindeer to eat, alongside a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for Santa.
Mary and Joseph hung their stockings by the chimney with care, and visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby. They were eating lefse and ludefisk and eggnog and fruit cake, and writing their Christmas cards while dreaming of a white Christmas.
They were busy watching their sheep, when who should appear but a jolly old elf and eight tiny reindeer, followed by the Ghost of Christmas Past. Then an angel of the Lord appeared and said, “You better watch out, you better not pout! But fear not for I bring you good news of great joy. And that good news is that there’s a pile of Christmas presents just waiting for you.”
Then the angel told them about Jesus being born in
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a great company of the
heavenly host singing, “Have a holly jolly Christmas, it’s the best time of
the year.” And the shepherds followed Frosty the Snowman into the town of
Then all the shepherds went and told everyone they knew about Jesus, singing Christmas carols and yelling, “Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
Then there were three wise men who came from the North Pole. They were following a star in the sky and had come to worship the baby Jesus. And they brought with them gifts: four calling birds, three French fries, two turtle sundaes, and a partridge in a pear tree.
And Mary treasured all these things in her heart, and returned everything that she didn’t want to the store the next day for a full refund. And everyone lived happily every after.
Their version reminded me of the Christmas song, “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer,” only it seemed that in their case it was The Christmas Story That Got Run Over By a Reindeer.
Do you ever feel like Christmas has gotten run over by reindeer? That so many traditions and customs and songs and celebrations have blown in from the secular world and have taken over that we don’t really know what we’re celebrating anymore? That Christmas has become nothing more than a gigantic end-of-the-year blowout party, spending spree, and folk lore celebration?
I think a lot of people feel that way.
There are two standards responses to this situation. The most common is righteous indignation. What is wrong with people? What is wrong with our society? By God, this is Christmas we’re talking about. This is about the birth of Jesus. That’s what we’re supposed to be celebrating. All these people are turning it into a secular circus. Why, some of the stores won’t even say, “Merry Christmas,” they only say “Happy Holidays’ or “Season’s Greetings.”
It’s the government or the schools or the media or the greedy merchants who are ruining Christmas. We are a Christian nation and if people don’t like it they can go live somewhere else. We need to rise up and assert our rights, exercise our power and take back Christmas for Christ.
There are two big problems with this response. First, what was the event of Christmas all about? Wasn’t it about “Peace on earth, good will to all people?”
That is the message of Christmas. And it is so powerful and rings so true that even secular people, those with no connection to Christianity at all, get what Christmas is about. They understand that it’s about joy, it’s about giving, it’s about good will, it’s about putting out a little extra for those with whom we share the earth. They get it, and they identify with it.
If they get the message that the heavenly host brought to the world on Christmas, it’s more than a little embarrassing that so many Christians don’t seem to get it. If we’re intent on turning the Christmas message into a cultural war, that pretty much defeats the whole purpose of the birth of Jesus. If we think we have to destroy what Christmas is about in order to save it, then we don’t get what Christmas is about.
The second problem is that the righteous indignation response is what my generation used to call a “copout”. I don’t know, do they still use that term today? It’s easy and fun to blame other people for what’s wrong. It makes us feel really good and important to lay all of the blame on someone else’s doorstep. But it isn’t very responsible.
If our children and our neighbors do not know the story of God coming to earth in human form at Christmas to save the world, whose fault is it? If our society cannot seem to find the gospel of Luke buried under the story of Santa Claus, or a Charles Dickens tale, or a popular song, or the presents under the tree, or stockings hung by the fireplace, or sleighrides through the snow, or the exploitation of Christmas for making big profits, whose fault is it?
The government, the media, the schools, the greedy merchants?
If we are honest about it, if the story is not being told, the fault lies with those who have been entrusted to tell the story. It’s on us.
The first century Christians lived in a society far more idolatrous, far more oppressive, far more antagonistic, far more anti-Christian than anything we will ever see in our lifetime. Yet they didn’t whine, they didn’t fume, they didn’t curse all those idiots who were ruining their society, they didn’t demand their rights. They didn’t blame others.
They told the story, and they lived the story. They read the scriptures to their families, lived their lives as if these words were important, they prayed, they trusted the promises of God, they made the worship of God and the pursuit of justice the centerpiece of their lives. They joined with others of like mind and faith to support each other and to make their voices heard.
Because they took seriously the task of spreading the Christian message, the story of Christmas has never been told more powerfully or more effectively than it was in those days. Through them, the message spread and the church grew until both reached the ends of the earth.
The message of Christmas does not get lost because other people are making it hard for Christians. It is easy to be a Christian right now. There’s not a place I can go in this country where my wearing a clerical collar puts me in any particular danger, and there are a great many places where it gets me special treatment.
The message of Christmas gets lost not because outsiders try to stop it. They have never been able to stop it and they never will. There is no way to stifle a message that powerful. They only way the message of Christmas gets lost is if Christians stop telling the story.
I have no problem with a secular Christmas. I think it’s great fun. I love the smell of Christmas trees, and the sound of carols. I look forward every year to baking rosettes, and eating lefse, and drinking egg nog, and stuffing stockings, and giving presents. I get a kick out of Santa Claus and elves, and stories of grinches and Charlie Brown and Tiny Tim and little snowmen, and red-nosed reindeer, and dozens of other Christmas traditions that have nothing to do with the Christmas story.
Jesus said something about wanting us to have abundant life, and that’s all part of an abundant life when we can share all that with those we love.
But all that stuff, as fun as it is, is not the Christmas story. That story stands alone. It is special because that is the story that brings salvation and peace and goodwill into God’s creation.
I am going to read the Christmas story from Luke. If the reading of this story is just another tradition that fits nicely into the festivities along with Christmas cards and office parties and tree decorations, than it’s nothing special, and there’s urgent reason to tell it. It has no more or less value than hanging Christmas lights in the yard. If that’s all the story is, then eventually the story of Christmas will stop being told. Not because anyone stopped us from telling it, but because we chose to stop telling it.
But if this story of God’s amazing love stands at the center of lives, if it is a story we proclaim in our lives as well as in our annual celebration, then it is a story that will resound throughout the earth, and change lives, and bring new life, forever.