Christmas Spirit, Heavenly Peace, Part 4

Spirituality Column #163
December 22, 2009
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Christmas Spirit, Heavenly Peace, Part 4
By Bob Walters

I like to wake up in my own bed Christmas morning.

My parents were resolute in having Christmas at home, and I’m that way with my own family.

In fact, I like the peace of knowing I don’t have to go much of anywhere between about noon on Christmas Eve until whenever I decide to go do something on Dec. 26. I’ll certainly go see family or a shut-in (or maybe a good movie Christmas afternoon), but I like to be home.

One enthusiastic exception is church on Christmas Eve. It was a beautiful and reverent “Midnight Mass” when I was an Episcopal kid. Now it’s a heartfelt evening worship and vigil in the Evangelical community.

The first Roman Catholic mass I attended was on a Christmas Eve in college. I was astounded by its similarity with the Episcopalian Eucharist and Holy Communion I had come to know so well as an altar boy.

I’ve only actually attended a church service on Christmas Day once that I clearly remember, in 2005 when Dec. 25 was a Sunday.

Mostly, Christmas is not a go-to-church day. It’s a lazy stay home day, or a visit with close family day. Or it might be (horrors!) a climactic, stressful and tiring Iditarod of multiple stops and logistical finesse – a Christmas dash modeled after Santa and his reindeer. No, thanks.

The Conner Prairie pioneer living museum says that in 1836 children would attend school on Christmas – the holiday was no big deal. Our culture has turned Christmas into a big deal, but our traditions really aren’t that old … often not much older than we are.

What we should feel at Christmas – what puts the Christ in Christmas – is a personal and community grounding in something far larger, eternally older, and immensely more meaningful than idiosyncratic, habitual, nostalgic personal practices that harmonize our common rhythms of worldly celebration.

The Christmas spirit and the gift of heavenly peace reside where Christ resides … alive in our hearts and in our love for each other; not in displays or trees or presents or traditions.

It’s the time of year we should take and treasure the opportunity to focus on Emmanuel – God with us; the Christ in us. Our Savior. Glorious light. It’s what the season is built for. That is God’s gift.

Use it wisely, enjoy it intimately, and share it freely. Most of all, accept it unconditionally.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is unruffled by Christmas commercialism … Christ isn’t for sale; He’s forever. John 1:14.