Kristen and I were walking around a mall last night and we walked into a clothing store. The words to the song “Run, Run, Rudolph” assaulted my ears as soon as we crossed the threshold. The commercialist war on Christmas has already started this year.
Christmas is about peace on earth and good will toward men and how God was born as a baby to save the world. It’s not about buying things for yourself or for your families. It’s not about Rudolph or Santa or Christmas trees or hollies or ivy or yule logs or lights or reindeer, but every year, the church of Mammon gets just a little bit grabbier in its attempt to commandeer Christmas for its Black Friday sales.
My fear is not that people will stop saying Merry Christmas. My concern is that the Church of Mammon is already a bigger purveyor of Christmas than the Church of Jesus. The Christmas brand has been hijacked, folks. It’s been hijacked by a tall green tree and pressure to buy, buy, buy, and to get immensely busy and to sing songs about winter (which oddly end right in the middle of the season!).
Stores will gladly keep Christ in Chri$tmas so long as they can keep the $ there as well. Christ, in that way, has become a vehicle for sales numbers. Wall Street doesn’t mind saying that Jesus is the reason for the season any more than the citizens of ancient Rome minded pledging allegiance to Caesar in order to hawk their wares. The deity served at Christmas is Mammon, that old Biblical name that Jesus used to describe stuff, wealth, possessions, the ever-present need to have more.
What if we took Christmas back from Wall Street and Walgreens and Wal-Mart? What if we found a way to get Christmas out of the greedy hands of Christmas Inc? What if we stopped complaining that stores weren’t using “Merry Christmas” as a tagline for commercialism and started complaining that they were? What if we fought back and took the commercialism out of Christmas?
What if we got Christmas back?
Christmas probably wouldn’t be as big of a deal because only churches would have “Merry Christmas” signs up, and stores would have nothing to gain by it.
What if we joined a conspiracy to take Christmas back?
About David M Schell
I am a doubter and a believer. I have a Master's in Divinity from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, but because faith grows and changes, I don't necessarily stand by everything I've ever written, so if you see something troubling further back, please ask! Read More.
