Christmas is now just a week away. This Advent I have heard the phrase “keeping Christ in Christmas” more often than most. It is a phrase with nearly endless possible meanings.
A few weeks ago Ron Patterson, Senior Minister of Naples United Church of Christ (Naples, FL), wrote a helpful piece on the topic in the Naples Daily News. Consider these excerpts:
- Taken literally “keeping Christ in Christmas” might mean imprisoning the power of God in a single day or single season.
- Did you ever think of how dangerous it is to keep Christ in Christmas? It could be very dangerous if keeping Christ there limits the deeper meaning of what God was up to in the life Jesus.
- Just keeping Christ in Christmas might prevent us from seeing the things we hold in common with people of good will here and everywhere who worship in other ways and with other words and with other traditions.
So What?
Patterson asks two thoughtful questions:
- Could it be that the best way to keep Christ in Christmas is to follow Jesus on the path of service?
- Could it be that the best way to keep Christ in Christmas is to commit some blatant act of kindness in mid-July?
He concludes by suggesting that in our keeping Christ in Christmas we should focus on creating more light rather than more heat.
- What does “keeping Christ in Christmas” mean to you?
- Based on your answer to the preceding question, how then will you seek to live into that possibility?