Rejoicing Always -- Even Amidst Happy Holidays

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.
May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24)

 This year's popular crusade has become the punishment of stores that commit the unforgivable sin of wishing their customers a "Happy Holiday" instead of Merry Christmas.  Political candidates rail against such diminution of religion.  An internet campaign is pushing a trite little song, sung in part by children, which advocates the boycott of Merry Christmas-less merchants.  "News" pundits decry the tyranny of "political correctness" that strips good old American Christianity from consumeristic discourse.  "It is, after all, about the birth of Jesus" they huff.  

Well, for many of us.  But for many others it is about a wide variety of other affirmations and celebrations and -- yes, it's true -- religious devotions.  Christmas may be the loudest jukebox at the party this time of year, but it isn't the only music playing.  And even Christians have to admit that we sort of pirated this season from an already existing semi-religious observance full in the hearts of many.  Nobody, after all, really believes that Jesus was born on December 25.  I wonder if the druids decried what they must have viewed as the lamentable shift from "Happy Solstice" to "Merry Christmas," and scratched their heads over how to reclaim what, as far as they were concerned, was the "reason for the season"?

I have a hunch that if you asked 10 random retail merchants why they opted for "Happy Holidays" signs in their store instead of ones encouraging a "Merry Christmas" not one of them would mention political correctness.  They would, instead, speak to the need to relate to a wide variety of consumers, only some of whom are Christian.  Especially in this challenging economy, retailers who rely on the goodwill of their customers can't afford to alienate any available constituency.  While Christians ought to feel perfectly comfortable and free to wish the cashiers who serve them a "Merry Christmas" as we leave, surely we can cut the same employee some slack for not choosing to predetermine the faith tradition of the stranger placing a nick knack or a sweater on the counter.  

Why is it that Christians seem always to pick such flimsy fights?  While we are busy fuming over slogans, who is worrying, meanwhile, about the unemployed who, in greater and greater numbers each month, simply give up looking for work because jobs are not to be found -- a statistical fact hidden in the rosier unemployment statistics published every few weeks?  Who is concerned about the long term effects of the shrinking middle class and the consolidation of the citizenry into merely the "ultra rich" and the "ultra poor"?  Just today the Des Moines Area Religious Council's Food Pantry announced that they are reducing the number of canned goods in the bags given to needy families because -- and this truly shameful -- the supply of food received by the Pantry is not keeping up with the escalating need.  I wish a candidate for President would condemn this state of affairs.  Or, I don't know, maybe all this would be instantly fixed if only the Shoe Carnival clerk would wish everyone a "Merry Christmas."

This is not the kind of distraction that ought to be consuming we consumers.  This is not an issue worthy of the church's energies.  The scriptures we purport to read and use for guidance are full of succinct reminders of stronger priorities.  When the prophet Micah recalled that "God has shown you what is good," he wasn't talking about season exclamations.  He went on to enumerate the doing of justice, the love of kindness, and the daily walk, in humility, with God.  When Jesus preached to his hometown congregation, he didn't announce that he had come to police appropriate holiday greetings; he claimed the enjoinder of the prophet Isaiah, acknowledging that "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, ro bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor..."  And when Jesus imagined the final judgment and the rubrics for reward and punishment, he didn't name Christmas signage.  He spoke of sharing cool water with the thirsty, sharing food with the hungry, sharing companionship with the lonely, sharing comfort with the mourning and clothing with the naked.  The question of how we greet each other in the marketplace during the month of December is too puny of a windmill for Christians to tilt at.

If I were preaching this Sunday I would focus on the epistle reading out of 1 Thessalonians from the Revised Common Lectionary.  For one thing, the passage strikes me as a powerful and light-filled word for a people living in a fairly dark time.  For another, it focuses our attention where, day in and day out, it ought to be in the first place:  less on judging others as to what we think they ought to be doing, and more on those behaviors and attitudes that we -- as disciples of Jesus -- ought to be exhibiting.