Jay posted his sermon for today , and among other fine points, he gives us this gem:
It has become a season where the dollar means more than a kind word, a season in which our kids have become more focused on receiving than giving. The attack upon Christmas isn’t about what the checkout clerks at Wal-Mart say when we leave. No the attack upon Christmas is found in our ability to transform a celebration of God’s breaking into our world into just another excuse to buy more stuff.
Source: Only Wonder Understands » Blog Archive » Being Victorious — A Sermon on Zephaniah 3:14-20
I am reminded , as I reflect upon this, of what Clarence Jordan said about “taking the name in vain”. It’s not the words we use that take the Lord’s name in vain, but our lives. Jordan points out how “taking the name” can only be done by one who has taken the name upon themselves; to CLAIM to be a follower. So it is only Christians and Jews who are even “qualified” to “take the name in vain”. I can say “Buddha damn” all day long and never take Buddha’s name in vain, because I have not claimed to be a follower of Buddha. Jordan says: “You don’t take the name in vain with your lips, you take it vain with your life”. This holds for this whole “war on Christmas” thing. It’s not the retailers who are at war against Christmas, it is the consumeristic Christians who have bought into this whole mess. It is a nation of Christians who feel justified in approving wreaking havoc upon the world for the sake of OUR OWN safety and seeking to assure our own nation’s desire to control the oil. I have mentioned over the past couple of years how a few in our neighborhood annually put out their yard signs that say “Jesus is the reason for the season”, and also had yard signs in 2004 for “Bush-Cheney”, signaling their lack of concern about the anti-Christ actions of the Bush administration. To vainly “proclaim Jesus” while promoting the use of war, even the rejection of concern of other nations over the issue of whether that attacking Iraq is justified, this is disgusting and embarrassing to me every time I see those signs.
Where are the churches that would BE for us a formative force to enable us to withstand the forces of capitalism and war? The idols which the nation-state would lay before us to ensnare us are rarely a focus of Christians in their seeking of a Christ-like society; a “City of God”. That’s because the church, who is called to be a gatherer and a “city set on a hill” has abrogated its place as this force. It has, as David Fitch has written , “GIVEN AWAY” its formative roles to the cultural forces.
