PASTORAL MUSINGS .
. . . .
Radio stations started playing Christmas music 24/7 before
Halloween. Department Stores had their
Christmas Ornament sections up and running before Halloween. Malls have been decorated since 2-3 weeks
before Thanksgiving. And for weeks
before Thanksgiving we have heard about the upcoming Black Friday sales and
hours. Now stores will open up at
Midnight on Thanksgiving. Some stores
will actually be open on Thanksgiving.
People have had their Christmas trees up and lit for weeks now. Christmas comes earlier and earlier every
year. And every year Christians look
bewildered and angered by it all at the same time.
All of this reminds me of the saying that “desperate times
require desperate measures”. In other
words, when people feel desperate, they do desperate things. And believe me, the world is definitely feeling
desperate. And why shouldn’t they. The world is finally reaping what it has been
sowing for the last two decades. We now
live in a society where truth, moral values, and what is considered right or
wrong is whatever anyone wants it to be; People will not impose their values on
anybody else. Children don’t have
manners because adults don’t have manners.
Television comedies are built around insulting one another and making
people look like complete morons (particularly the clergy and Christians). The world has thrown away its’ responsibility
of being its’ brother’s keeper. People
ridiculed Hilary Clinton years ago for her book, “It Takes a Village to Raise a
Child.” And so now, like the priest and
the Levite, people walk by those who are in need so they won’t have to become
involved, all the while deploring the careless attitude of society.
The baby boomers who expected to retire as well off or
better than their parents now find themselves not being able to retire at
all. Today’s younger generations are
finding it hard to find work because the boomers are not giving up their jobs,
and thus their futures are in doubt, and they are angry and frustrated about
that. The world has partied so hard over
the last few years (lived life to the hilt with its’ excessive greed and
materialism) that the hang-over will take a long time to get over. The long time coming in the economic recovery
is leaving people a great sense of confusion, fear, and hopelessness. It is taking so long people are feeling so
desperate that they will do anything to feel better.
And what better way to feel some joy and hope than to
observe the season of Christmas as early as one can and for as long as one can. The Christmas season is that one time of the
year where people actually practice manners coupled with human care and
compassion. Jesus saw that same look of
hopelessness in the crowds that had gathered to hear him in Matthew 9:36—“When
he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and
helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Desperate times (and people) call for desperate measures (like
celebrating Christmas 2 months earlier).
Like Jesus, rather than complain about the world, we should have the
same compassion for the world that Jesus had.
We too, should see the world as harassed and helpless because of its
sinfulness; we should also, like Jesus, realize that the world is so lost that
it doesn’t even realize it is lost! The
Lord has given us a wonderful opportunity to ratchet up several notches the
length and breadth and height and volume of our proclaiming Jesus Christ
crucified to a world that will do anything and look to anything to find meaning
and purpose and respite from the condition that the world finds itself in. Let’s simply go along with the world where we
can and wish Merry Christmas a little more loudly and lovingly; let us sing the
carols with boldness and confidence; and rather than complain about Christmas,
let us extol the blessedness of Christ having come into our world as one of us
for the sole purpose of restoring us to right relationship with him through his
death and resurrection.
AE
