No Heavy Lifting {Christmas bonus}
Perhaps Christmas would be more enjoyable if we didn’t feel we had to do so much? What a relief when we pause to consider that the only duties God calls us to at Christmas are those which hold true all year round. Our duty is to do good as defined by God, in the relationships he has ordained. We sentimentally expect that somehow Christmas hospitality, Christmas forgiveness, Christmas kindness, Christmas serving, Christmas giving are more sacred than the same acts done in March. These good things are made sacred, not by the calendar, but by the Lord for whom they are done. They matter, not because it’s Christmas, but because Jesus saves us to be eager for all that’s good, all the time.
Nowhere in the Bible is the costly, convoluted, complex observance of Christmas required of us. All the traditions we treasure, or are trying to invent, are works of cultural creation; the products of centuries; ways of telling an important story. They are expressions of being human together in particular times and places. It’s good for Christians to be culturally fertile (the final third of the Light Duties project will be all about that). The Story matters. The created world, full of food and beauty and music and play and relationships and superfluous delight, is good. We’re to do these things better because we’re Christians than we would if we weren’t. But the inspiration of Christmas overstimulates us. We can become so worried about marking the season meaningfully that we forget Jesus’ command to not worry about anything (Matt 6:25-34).
When we set aside things which Scripture does command, in order to keep our Christmases, we’re out of order. None of us do well when we’re disordered. Giving privilege to human tradition over God’s word robs the thing of the very significance we hope it will carry. Our manner will not suit the message we’re fiercely trying to send. We’ll be loading the Christmas season with more weight than it can bear. More weight than we can bear. And more weight than our families can bear (do you know the caustic resentment which can spill after you spent yourself preparing for a moment that no one thought particularly special?).
Whatever you do or don’t do about Christmas, do it unto the Lord (1 Cor 10:23-33), convinced in your own heart (Romans 14). If it needs to be done, then make sure you do it with thankfulness (Col 3:15-17). If you can’t bake that panettone in Christian joy unto the Lord, then don’t bake the panettone (if your eye causes you to sin, and all that!). If you give gifts, then give with a generous spirit for the joy of the receiver. If you are welcoming people to your table, then work heartily for the Lord, not men. Serve them as if they were Jesus himself. Set aside your own needs and work out how to bless them toward Christian maturity. If you are in tense relationships, love as unto the Lord, not letting any human party set them terms of duty, but seeking out what God says is good in that space. Seek the God-defined good of others. Sometimes seeking the good of others will mean you put more effort in than you feel inclined to. Other times it will mean less effort (especially in those times when the effort was about meeting your own needs, or the disordered desires of someone else). Trust King Jesus when doing good is awkward.
And don’t feel like Christmas needs to be the culminating expression of your Christian life. That baby born in Bethlehem is now King of kings and Lord of lords, seated at the right hand of God the Father. He has provided the good gifts you enjoy and he has also ordained the absence of some gifts you long for. The government of all things is on his shoulders (Isaiah 9:6-7). Your duty at Christmas is to trust and delight in King Jesus in plenty and in want. Instead of anxious striving for sentimental perfection, trust King David’s son, the eternal king, who is coming again. His second advent will bring the resolution, the wholeness and untempered joy we’re wishing for now. Our duty, the one thing needed at Christmas, is to receive from him. From his fullness we spend ourselves toward others, but unto him. If it’s a weighty Christmas, then be sure not to lift anything apart from what he has given and in the strength he provides.
