Is there such a thing as a dangerous Christmas ornament?
Behold the 2017 Lenox Christmas ornament –<<show ornament>> Joseph, Jesus, Mary, the Star, in a circular ornament suggesting the world. It is the whole story of Christmas, in a tight, nicely contained bundle. And while I love it, it also reminds me of a concern that I have: that we sometimes we have a tendency to make our whole Christmas “miniature.”
Certainly the push of our culture is twofold. First, to completely skip the ADVENT season, and Second, to turn our focus from THE Christmas story to our own immediate Christmas. If you are not careful, the thoughts that dominate become:
- Getting shopping done … cards sent … our homes decorated;
- Planning how to get the family together and hoping that everyone is healthy
- organizing the dinner around the various lactose intolerant, garlic abhorrent, and “no onions please” palettes.
- Figuring out the traveling schedule – which house where and when – so that we get by all the relatives houses at some point these days.
I think about those things too. But today’s scriptures tell me, if that is all I yearn for at Christmas, my dream is too small.
Our Advent scriptures last weekend and this weekend speak of a BIG dream:
- That nations shall beat their swords into plowshares
- That, the poor will be blessed with justice,
- The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
the calf and the young lion shall browse together, - The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,
- There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;,
Sometimes our Christmas is such a focus on our own little world that we miss the dream for Christmas that was in God’s heart … God has a dream that includes the whole of the world: this beautiful planet, all that lives on it, and every living thing.
You see … While WE dream of a White Christmas …
– GOD dreams of a Christmas of swords turned into plowshares, where spouses aren’t battered … children aren’t abused … where no wars are fought.
While WE dream of Chestnuts roasting on an open fire and getting our cards out on time
– GOD dreams of a time when no more prisoners are tortured … no children are aborted; the mentally ill are not thrown out into the streets and the refugee at the border is not separated from their family and has a safe place to wait until their hearing happens.
While WE dream of a lovely family meal, good wine, lively conversations …
– GOD dreams of a day when thousands of children won’t starve to death each day
One of the reasons that Christmas often feels so empty; that people wonder, “Is that all there is; wasn’t something more supposed to happen?” is because I think we’ve forgotten the big dream that is worth our life. Our dream needs to include the whole world: our grieving neighbors; outreach to poor; care of planet. And as tough as it is to read the morning papers and watch the news about so much pain in so many places in our world – if we never let that in, then we’ve bought into the lie of a miniature, personal Christmas.
The scriptures the first two weeks of Advent are never about the birth of the savior, nor about our own personal Christmas preparations, but about the end of time, and the dream God has that includes every living thing … this planet, and every person of every race, language, or way of life. Advent is not preparing our own personal Christmas, but letting God’s dream burn in our hearts
I suspect you will see your own version of this ornament – a miniature Christmas – from time to time these next few weeks. Let it be for you, as it is for me, a reminder to ask these two questions:
- Have I made my Christmas too small?
- Do I Dare to dream as God dreams?