Home | Previous Messages | Pastor Bill's Bio
A
Message from Pastor Bill – December 2009
Disarming Christmas
There's a new arms race, and it's threatening the meaning of Christmas.
Dear Saints:
In "The Winner-Take-All Society" (1995), Robert H. Frank and Philip J. Cook identify what they call "positional arms races" that take place every day: plastic surgery, one-upping your neighbor in clothing, car, job, house or toys, etc. I mention the above reference because it motivates my thought for this Monthly Article as oppose to my usual free-lance writing.
How ironic that Christmas has become the boom season for the new arms race. Everyone is vying for the honor of "giving the best present," "spending the most money," "throwing the most fun party." Like the runaway nuclear arms race of the Cold War era, we keep stockpiling those things that we think will protect us from the enemy and position us properly alongside our neighbors.
In children, the arms race of consumerism is manifested by Christmas outbreaks of the "gimme, gimme" syndrome—"gimme the coolest clothes," "gimme the hottest toys," etc. A classic case records a little kid working on his Christmas list, who honestly expects Santa to bring him ... "one of everything on pages 219 and 226."
In adults, the arms race of consumerism causes credit-card fever, fraud and shopper's fatigue. Even more insidiously, it can cause dangerous hallucinations and delusions within empty souls that the arms race is what Christmas is all about. The arms race deludes us into thinking that if only we can buy more stuff, or bring home some really extravagant gift, or outdo the neighbors in the size of our tree (or brilliance of our outdoor lighting or the number of parties we attend), then we will be filled with the true Christmas spirit.
The arms-race-induced hallucinations convince us those piles of plastic toys (for children or adults), stacks of designer clothing, and countless trendy gadgets actually embody Christmas joy.
It is time to disarm! Who will declare a moratorium on the arms race?
It is time to declare an end to the positional arms race, and to call consumerism for what it is. London Anglican priest John Papworth, editor of the Fourth World Review, has declared that "Consumerism is the greatest and most virulent social disease in human history."
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the arms race holds us in its deadliest grip. The deadly epidemic of rampant consumerism is a madness that strikes virtually every house; that infects all ages and crosses all racial, economic, and social divisions.
Here are three life strategies for counter-attacking the arms race of consumerism.
1. Simplify.
It is time to disarm—to voluntarily lay down the camcorders, the toaster ovens, the CD-ROMs, the snowboards. It is time to declare that in your life, consumerism is dead.
In the retail world, the old consumerism is coming to an end. There are over 1,000,000 stores in America, many of them selling the same things. Retail marketing stores are failing at an enormous rate. Toys "R" Us closed 25 stores in 1996—its first store closings in history. Kmart closed 70 stores after two years of losses (its "junk" status caused by $6.8 billion in debt). Over 16,000 retail companies have sought the protection of bankruptcy court in 1996.
The Trends Research Institute has announced that "the consumer society of the Industrial Age is coming to an end." Walk through any mall, remembering how it used to be, and you immediately get the picture.
How many stores selling trendy tennies and chic shirts do we need? How many trendy tennies and chic shirts do we need? How many frozen yogurts and espressos can we slurp down?
For too long, Christians have used Christmas as an excuse to increase the arms race and proliferate our collection of things. The positional arms race has not succeeded yet in letting us feel like we are sitting on top of the world. It has only left us sitting on top of a heap. This Christmas, seriously commit to downsizing your involvement in this arms race.
For our children's sake, as well as our own, let us declare that Toys "R"(NOT) Us.
2. Magnify.
At Christmas we love to sing "Little Jesus Boy." As long as Jesus stays "little Jesus boy," we're safe. Just don't let Jesus grow up.
Herod's killing of every child under two was also an attempt to prevent Jesus from growing up and to drive Jesus out of the culture of his day. You see, if Jesus grows up in and roams through the culture, he transforms the culture. Herod's act to keep Jesus from growing up was a violent, abusive, aggressive, killing act. We, too, do the same things to keep Jesus from reaching maturity in our culture, even in our churches. We desperately want to keep Jesus small.
It's time to magnify the Lord, to let the greatness of incarnated love shake us up and stir our souls. When we magnify the Christ child, we will no longer coo and cluck over a baby Jesus "meek and mild." Instead, our eyes and our hearts will be opened to the enormity of God's gift to us, and what that gift means in our lives. Our knees will tremble at the thought of the tremendous love and sacrifice that lie wrapped in that manger bed.
3. Glorify.
What do your Christmas traditions, activities and attitudes really glorify? Let me get specific.
During this season, would you rather listen to "Here Comes Santa Claus" or "O Holy Night"? Our taste in Christmas music reveals what we most honor and glorify, what we truly worship and proclaim during the Advent season.
The whole reason for John the Baptist's ministry of proclamation was to advertise and glorify the miraculous incarnation of the Divine in our midst. John took pains to avoid claiming any glorious titles for himself. He is not "Messiah" or "Elijah" or even "prophet." The only identity John the Baptist claims for himself is that of the nameless, faceless "voice," crying in the wilderness.
Will you be a voice for God crying in the wilderness of our day? Will you be a voice that simplifies, magnifies, and glorifies? Will you disarm Christmas?
Peace and Power,
Pastor Bill
Do you have comments about this message? Please click here to e-mail me.
