Merry Christmas

Yes, you heard me correctly. I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas… a heartfelt and sincere wish. This, despite the intricacies surrounding the outright deception and manipulation inherent in even in the deepest subtleties of the concept. Within the auspices of this small band, we stand at the crossroads of realization versus tradition. What of the old must go, and what is permissible to stay. As new social normative structures are established, old and – as we are now led to believe – corrupt ways are discarded. Thus, here we stand. Eye to eye, staring blankly, looking for the “proper” response to what was once so intuitive. To this I say simply and humbly, “Merry Christmas”.

It’s a lie… we’ve come to know this. Is it all a lie? This is inherently so. In this age of the cynic… where the questions lead to questions lead to differing heights of superiority in our supposed knowledge and mastery over the arcane… we revel in our perception of distance from the grid. The Christ was not born on December 25th. This is true. Even the child that that I was knew of this, and wondered not how I could be so blind. Instead, the day, whatever its etymology, stood on the merits of each passing annum. One year would seem innocent, the next less so.

Commercialism existed from the beginning… the toy commercials grander, more numerous and blatant in their enticements. Christmas was a December tradition of excesses… then it encroached upon the blowing leaves and snow and brisk airs of November… now, ever creeping into the hollows of October and it’s “Hallows Eve”… where the spirits are said to lie restless at the door, waiting the invitation to knock solidly at society’s silent veneer.

How can we doubt that we’ve been led down the proverbial primrose path? The white lie of the Saint Nicholas, the passing traditions of Sinterklaas, the consumerist’s Coca-Cola-Clause, and the dark rabbit trails of Krampus, Belsnickel, Black Peter, and Servant Rupert. Is the child you once were mindful of these things?

And what of our connective ties to December’s winter solstice, and the vast array of celebrations that herald the death and regeneration of the sun? This is not to even neglect the implication on some very non-Christian spheres of history collecting occultist and illuminist traditions of Osiris, Usirus, Asar, Aser, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, Usire or Ausare. This motley collection of pronunciations and iterations that have led us into the belief in cycles of life, death, and supposed resurrection through the reoccurring memes of dying god, rising son, and universal mother figure. Early Christianity prostituted the truths of Yeshua Ha Machiach, Iesus Christos, our Lord Jesus the Christ for peace with the establishment and Saturnalian revelry. Now we rightly question tradition, motivation, and direction. Do we know, or want to know, more? Are we now stymied?

Consider all the traditions of men and of spirits that we now question… so innocently introduced into the wondrous consciousness of a child: holiday gift giving, wreaths, yule logs, mistletoe, Christmas trees… all elements with a past. Does the Bible even speak to this, God’s passions inflamed against even the participation? The case, though not crystal, is compelling. Now, will we consider the dangers of cauterizing this open wound with the opposing imposition of anti-revelry in general… anti-merriment in practice? Where does that leave us? What does your heart say?

Do we turn our backs on it all, or “claim it for Christ”? Is Jesus the “reason for the season”, or is it a confirmed square block that we’ve insisted on wedging into the round hole of society? Do we concede or fight, or is it a red herring? North American Christianity ignores the herring as even a possibility… camps are fortified and sides are chosen… every television commercial omitting Christ another brick in the wall. Every “seasons greetings” is a calliper used to divide. Somewhere, another soul laughs at our confusion and mocks our naïve floundering.

So Merry Christmas I say to you all today. This is not “Merry Christmas” in any commercialized sense, nor do I offer it as a tool for division. I do not say “Merry Christmas” because it is political, and do not revel in the possibility of its use as a tool for polarization.

I say Merry Christmas to you in the same sense as I would have said it when I was a child, before I conceived of commercialism. I say it now as I meant it before I cared about what I was about to unwrap in the early hours of Christmas morning… uniformed in pajamas with no socks. I say it not for the magic that surrounded the Christmas season in my youth, but from the bottom of the heart of the boy that I was… in all innocence and all contriteness. I say Merry Christmas from the right and from the left, from the sinner and from the saint, and from a place that Jesus would gladly describe as “coming unto one as a child”… for then, and only then, can you conceive of the love of the Father given so freely through our being as a sacrificial act of the Holy Spirit through the broken vessel known as man. In the spirit of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ… I offer my heart’s desire, and fulfillment of Christ’s stated commandments, set for emulation. As cliché an idiom as it is: Merry Christmas and Peace on Earth, Goodwill to men. Love to you all.