Christmas Day is behind us. Most families who gathered together for Christmas (many didn't) have said their goodbye's and are back home or are on their way home. Christmas decorations will soon be down and stored for another year. Christmas 2020 is in the books.
And yet, it is only the third day of Christmas!?
In the liturgical year, Christmas is more than just one day. It is a season - a twelve day season. That's what the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is all about. In the church, our tradition calls us to celebrate and reflect on the birth of Jesus for twelve days.
But in our culture, Christmas is a day - December 25. And in our culture, Christmas is about family and being together with family. And in our culture, Christmas is about Christmas cookies and candies, gift-exchanges, and parties. And, of course, in our culture, Christmas is about Santa. It's not that we don't acknowledge the birth of Jesus in our culture. We do. His birth is the backdrop to all we do. We even say "Jesus is the reason for the season." And we work a Christmas Eve worship service into our traditions. But the way we treat Christmas in our culture is like a respectful tipping of the hat in the direction of his birth.
The way we do Christmas in our culture reflects the way so many of us treat God. We acknowledge God. We believe in God. We talk about having faith in God. We study about God in our Sunday School classes and Bible studies. And, of course, we participate in worship services. But, like with Christmas, our focus in all of this God-activity is really on us and what we think and what we enjoy. Ours is a man-centered Christianity. Man-centered Christianity is governed by the what's-in-it-for-me spirit that is inherent to our human condition. It plays to the ego. It's really about us, not God.
A God-centered Christianity is like ... well, like Christmas as a twelve day season rather than a single day. In a God-centered Christianity, the focus is God ... just as the birth of Jesus is the focus of Christmas as a twelve day season. In God-centered Christianity, our interest is in more than what God can do for us. Our interest is in who God is and in learning the ways of God. Jesus taught a God-centered Christianity, not a heaven-focused Christianity (i.e., man-centered). In the Model Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray "hallowed be thy name." This phrase is a prayer for the world to be captivated by the beauty of God's character. Applied to our personal lives, it is a prayer that who we are would be shaped by a deep love for God. When he taught us to pray "thy kingdom come," he was teaching us to pray for the world shaped by the character of God in which the ways of God were lived. "Thy will be done" makes the prayer personal. It is a prayer that we would live the ways of God in our daily lives. In God-centered Christianity, we fall in love with God and God's ways. That translates into living the ways of God, in loving as Jesus loved, in loving who Jesus loved.
A twelve-day Christmas season guides us into a God-centered Christianity. It invites us to reflect on the wonder of Jesus's birth - to ponder the mystery of the incarnation - to sit with what we cannot explain - to wait for the Spirit to give us insight that takes us beyond a surface understanding - to see beyond self-interest into what Jesus's birth tells us about God - to explore the depths of God's self-giving love.
We can't move beyond the what's-in-it-for-me spirit when Christmas is a single day. We can't escape man-centered Christianity when Christmas is over when family goes home. We can't fall in love with who God is and with the ways of God by tipping our hat at the birth of Jesus.
Today is day three in the Twelve Days of Christmas. It is the third day of Christmas. "On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ..."
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