DE Ponderings by Kevin Kessler, District Executive

The Hallmark Channel this time of the year provides a preponderance of shows giving viewers a message that Christmas is frequently about finding happiness and fulfilled relationships. Comparatively speaking, I guess it’s better than all the violence encountered in so much of the other TV programming that comes into our homes. However, I still find Hallmark’s depiction of Christmas somewhat skewed. My intent is not to pick on Hallmark but rather allow this popular channel to help me make a point. In my view, much of their programming focuses on people coming from various places in life to a common area that is comfortable and peaceful, absent of the difficulties that have been or are still present in other surroundings. It’s the old “home for the holidays” perception of Christmas. It depicts a message of people coming to the meaning of Christmas rather than Christmas reaching out to people. And so for me it is a backward depiction of Christmas.

Christmas, in my humble view, is a time to remember and reflect upon the birth of Jesus. My understanding of this priceless gift is God reaching out to creation which has lost its way rather than this wayward enterprise reaching toward God. I find it difficult to imagine that something stuck in waywardness would have the capacity to reach toward God. I do believe that a creating, all-loving God has the facility to reach toward and touch that which yearns for the holiness it is lacking.

Therefore, a true depiction of Christmas is not that we come from various places to gather in a safe place, but rather we move from our safe places to share the love of God with creation wherever it is broken, lost, wayward.

The Rev. Mack Strange of the Brentwood United Methodist Church, Brentwood, TN, offers a helpful example. Rev. Strange invites and encourages congregations to take their Christmas Eve services off-site, reaching out with the love of God in places the church may be a bit uncomfortable being in. In a Lewis Center for Church Leadership Leading Ideas article, Rev. Strange tells about the year when the congregation he serves took their Christmas Eve service to the local bar, the Wildhorse Saloon. Not only was the service held in the bar but the manager of the saloon was asked to participate in the event by lighting the Advent Wreath. He did so and afterward commented how meaningful the service was for him and his family. He even suggested that next year the service add a component of helping to feed the homeless who “gather on the banks of the river just a few blocks from the downtown area of Nashville.” Rev. Strange summarizes this experience by saying, “The heart of God, in the heart of the manager, was revealed as result of a creative partnership.”

Christmas at its best is not drawing people together but rather reaching out to people where they are. As seen in the example above, it has a snowball effect. Just imagine the positive changes we might see in our world when we impart Christmas in this way. It would be in keeping with God’s ideal as revealed some 2,000 years ago when God’s love came on earth to reach the brokenhearted, downcast, marginalized, and disempowered. Would you agree?