Putting Christ Back in Christmas

I find it fascinating that while some folks are up in arms about holiday greetings, holiday sales, and holiday trees instead of Christmas greetings, Christmas sales, and Christmas trees, that some of the mega-churches that some of them attend are choosing to close for Christmas! I think if you look up irony in the dictionary you will find that as the definition! So I got thinking about how to really put Christ back in Christmas. (Warning: the following contains a fair share of bitter sarcasm!)

I think that maybe it might be good to plant oneself outside a Wal-Mart and suggest to the shoppers going in that Jesus never said that buying lots of stuff to give to other people who already have lots of stuff was the proper way to celebrate his birthday. In fact, buying stuff that was made by workers in Third World countries being severly underpaid and working in conditions dangerous to them in factories that are dangerous to the environment might actually be the antithesis of what Jesus wants for his birthday. And maybe going inside to have a chat with the store manager about the low pay and lack of benefits for his employees might be squeezed into this day as well. References to Ebeneezer Scrooge and God's preferential option for the poor might be in order. Or maybe putting Christ back in Christmas means volunteering at a shelter or soup kitchen or hospital or prison on more than the holidays. It might even mean exercising your privilege and power as a citizen in a democracy and insisting that those for whom you vote take seriously the Christmas message and start really taking care of those who can't take care of themselves.

But then again, I might just be way off the mark and Christ might just be more concerned about saving the American economy than saving the souls of those addicted to wealth. Let me check with the scriptures and get back to you on that.