Christmas is an afterthought. But what an afterthought it
is!
Maybe it seems crude to say that Advent and Christmas are
afterthoughts in the Gospel story—especially to say it this late, with Advent eclipsed by Christmas and as we now count the days from Christmas to Epiphany. But, perhaps pointing out this
overlooked reality at this moment may heighten the celebration.
I learned this in Biblical literature studies: only Luke and
Matthew write birth narratives and the earliest church did not attach great significance
to details of Jesus’ birth. Only in the second century did the church begin to
magnify and adorn the birth of Jesus.
Even the little the Gospels tell us of Jesus’ birth is
divergent. Luke and Matthew tell two different stories about the birth of
Jesus. Luke follows Mary’s lineage; Matthew follow’s Joseph’s. In Luke, an
angel appears to Mary; in Matthew, an angel speaks to Joseph. In Luke,
shepherds bear witness to the child’s birth; in Matthew, Magi come to Bethlehem
to see the child.
Regarding the birth of Jesus, his initial followers missed
all that Christians a generation later meticulously tried to reconstruct,
document and infuse with meaning. This is not to say that they manufactured the
story, but that they relied on passed-along stories (oral tradition is a great
and historically important tradition—one largely lost in the West today).
Only long after Jesus’ crucifixion, after resurrection
witness, and after Pentecost, amid the dispersion of Christians across the
Roman world did the idea of calendaring Jesus’ birth emerge as important in the
hearts and minds of the faithful.
Eventually, Christians co-opted a holiday already
significant to various “pagan” cultures and baptized it as Christmas. It
doesn’t sound very holy, but that’s pretty much how it happened.
However, after a date is fixed, the
idea of Jesus’ birth begins to flourish. It doesn’t take long for the imaginations
of practitioners, theologians, and musicians to begin to magnify and multiply
meaning. One generation adds garnish to the last. Across cultures, stories
deepen, traditions broaden, liturgies blossom. The original stories are magnified and morph through riffs that ripple and refract across millennia.
Beyond the church and over time, people have adorned
Christmas with explosive imagination. Imagination has given us what is now too
much to take in and process in any singularly coherent framework. With only a
fraction of Biblical or theologically correct touchstones, Christmas images
dazzle, stories morph, traditions multiply, music pours forth. The genie is out
of the bottle and no one can contain or control it. Like it or not, Christmas influence is pervasive and continuously extending.
In light of this uncontainable, irreducible reality, I laugh
at those who ardently try to convince us that someone is trying to steal
Christmas—to drain it of meaning. Hogwash. No one, even if they tried, could
curtail the Christmas imagination.
So, however Christmas imagination has come to you—whatever
its shape, whatever its feel, whatever its experiences, whatever its
traditions—dare to enter into them as fully as possible. Hey, why not
contribute a bit of your own imagination to the mix? It is only those who fail
to imagine a little who miss the spirit and trajectory of what this season
promises.
Have a merry Christmas!
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
www.indybikehiker.com
www.twitter.com/indybikehiker
indybikehiker@gmail.com