DAY OFF
Tuesdays are my regular day off. Today, in addition to sleeping in until 7:30, I did a little work on the Cornerstone website, a little laundry, a little trip to Safeway, a little trip to the post office (amazingly short lines) and only two runs to Wal-Mart. I finally got my bike tire changed (after too much frustration involving Slime clogging the valve stem.) AND I saw a spectacular cloud formation which framed the moon.

On Sunday we gave away redwood seedlings at church (“baby Christmas trees”). There were 40 trees leftover. I took them home and found pots for five, which I transplanted today. Only 35 to go. We’ll eventually plant them along the west side of the church property.

Cheryl and I went to dinner at a local Chinese hole-in-the-wall.

CHRISTMAS RAMBLING
Our Sikh neighbors were the first people on the street to put up their Christmas decorations. They’re good neighbors and work hard to fit in and are striving with the rest of us to bring down the Western Grid this holiday season.

Of course, the irony in this is that Sikhs aren’t Christians. They don’t buy into the Christmas story. But then again, I’m not sure that they are all that different from the rest of the neighbors. When you think about it, Christmas, as it exists today is mostly an American cultural phenomena with only a slight historical connection to the Christian Feast of the Nativity. And as American culture is quickly engulfing the rest of the world American Christmas traditions are making a strong showing in Europe and Asia. The extravagant gift-giving and related holiday frenzy is now almost as strong in England as it is in the US. Even Father Christmas is conceding to his jollier, over-weight, red-suited American counterpart.

While many Christians react negatively to the demise of Christmas it is even more ironic that early American Christians, mostly of the Puritan persuasion, worked hard to outlaw the celebration of Christmas in the new World. Christmas was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681. There was a five shilling fine for anyone who did Christmas. They didn't think you could keep "Keep Christ in Christmas" because as far as they were concerned he had never been there! Christmas was too “Catholic” and there were too many ungodly associations with the standard holiday paraphernalia – yule logs, gift giving, and even the late December date all had roots in pagan lore.

Missionary-minded Christians in the fourth century and beyond had “baptized” these pagan elements – taking them captive to the cause of Christ. It was a very strategic move on their part back then.

However, I suppose the question that modern Christians face is whether those pagan elements were truly baptized enough or if they all need to go back down for another dip in the river? Or is it really possible to save Christmas? Maybe it’s too far gone. Perhaps we should simply accept that it is a secular commercial holiday, enjoy it to whatever degree is possible, and quit whining about our lost holiday.

Sometimes I envy my Eastern Orthodox friends who celebrate the Feast of the Nativity on January 7th (They use the Julian calendar and their December 25th falls on our January 7th). When they gather for worship on that morning Christ isn’t in competition with family obligations or the toys left by Santa the night before. They just have to explain to their baffled bosses that they can’t come into work because they’re having Christmas. And maybe that’s not so bad.