Traditions

Aunt Billie's log cabin was tucked way back in the woods. It was snowing and I remember crossing train tracks and huge pines covered in the thick white stuff. Pulling up to her cozy home was like parking in front of one of those ceramic houses my mom collected. Inside, Uncle Bill sat in his cowboy hat watching his favorite western in a darkened room decorated with (used) spitoons and deer antlers. My brothers would play pool upstairs while I assessed how to get the candy out of the gum ball machine (that room was the best!) I would tromp out into the cold to visit the Persian cats my aunt bred in their shelter. Those squishy faced felines were a wonder to me. Afterward a Christmas dinner of turkey, little baby dill pickles and rolls (that's all I remember eating), my aunt offered to let us use the hot tub that sat on her back porch while the snow would fall around us. YES! Sadly, we didn't have our bathing suits. "No problem," said Aunt Billie, "you could just go in your birthday suits." Birthday suits? What was that? No one explained. We didn't go in. It's no wonder I never forgot all of that! Especially once I found out what a "birthday suit" was! There weren't a lot of presents from that visit. The intriguing finds and memories, in my mind, are Christmas perfection.

       

I love me some holidays, don't you? My Mom instilled a whole host of traditions in my holidays (not the least of them a visit to aunt Billie's). She was the best at filling those stockings with whole bags of Reese's, Candy Canes filled with M n'M's, and little wrapped presents until the socks sagged and threaten to pull the thumbtacks right out of the wooden piano! (We didn't have a mantle, but we had the oldest and most out of tune upright piano that we stuck our stockings to.) 

Other holidays were no exception. On Easter she would hide our filled baskets and the kids had to hunt for them (someone's was always in the dryer) before we donned our finest apparel to go to church where the pews were filled with pastels and warm sunshine streaming in the windows. A birthday didn't pass without a cake and presents, and every Valentine's Day I would come home from school to find a small red or pink stuffed animal and some other trinket sitting on my bed. 

Later she would instill some other traditions. On Thanksgiving, we would gang up with the homeless shelter downtown Pittsburgh and dish out turkey and mashed potatoes wherever they sent us. Once it was at a nursing home. Then one Christmas we passed out coat after coat on a frigid day to the homeless. She was teaching me something new here. A valuable lesson: holidays were not just about me. 

Let's consider the next couple months of holidays for a moment. You know, November is and was a lovely month. If we were reflective enough, our thoughts were given to thankfulness. Our minds and hearts were probably illuminated to the blessings around us, even if things were tough. We posted blessings and words of gratefulness. And then Christmas comes. Either it is a shot to the gut- confirming all that we do not have and we forget to be thankful immediately, or the lights, the commercials, the Pinterest pins slowly widdle away at us until we are left harried by all that is undone and imperfect in our lives. We become consumed by what to buy, what we might receive. Unraveled by all of this, we recollect ourselves to commit to perfection in the New Year and January is filled with a tremendous focus on self image. I am always floored by the contradiction of January to February, where all the health food and exercise is exchanged for decadent Valentine indulgences and junk food paired with football! Then March comes around and thank goodness, Lent, along with hopefully an early Easter, because we've got some serious repenting to do!

Does all of that seem too critical? Or maybe you appreciate the honest wide lens of American celebrations. Like I said, I love holidays. But, something tugs at my heart and many of my convictions about our purpose as believers to care for the poor and needy are confirmed yet again this Christmas season. This time with Nebuchadnezzar. Do you know this guy? He was the great king of Babylon and of indulgences. He lacked nothing. I'm not sure what holidays Babylonians celebrated but I'm guessing based on their commonalities with American culture (wealthy, thriving, lots of choices, educated and a overly superb sense of self) they enjoyed (or suffered) the holidays in the same bustling, perfected, and indulgent ways we do. King Neb likely did it up to the hilt. Daniel 2:37-38 has Daniel describing him in this way, "You, O King, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you the ruler over them all."

He was also (like the rest of his culture) incredibly self centered. Imagine the CEO of your company builds a statue of gold of HIMSELF that is 90 feet tall, sets up a huge concert and when the music plays, you and everyone else in leadership positions are supposed to hit the ground and worship the statue. And here's the kicker, if you don't, you will be fired. Well that's what King Neb did, only instead of losing their jobs, those who did not bow down would be literally burnt in a fire, alive. Later he has this dream of a really big tree that gets cut down to a stump. Daniel interprets the dream and explains that Nebuchadnezzar is the tree that gets cut down; that he will be sent into the wilderness and go crazy for about 7 years until he acknowledges that God is sovereign and he himself is not the end all be all in life. Daniel's advice? "Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue."  

There is a subtly in Daniel's advice that is not lost on me. He advised Neb to "do what is right" and be "kind to the oppressed." Reminds me of the Lord's requirements for mankind in Micah 6:8,  "to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." (Actually it also sounds like a blog I know!) Beth Moore said of Nebuchadnezzar in her study of Daniel that God must have a "profound offense at a person's willingness to sit contentedly in luxury without concern for the oppressed." And all I can think is how horrifying Christmas must be to God at times! Not the gift giving necessarily but the over-indulgence, the debt racked up on our behalf while the poor and oppressed exists. I'm terrified, sickened and convicted that He sees it all: the war torn country where life is taken, while the superfluous presents and decorations are purchased; those thankful for scraps of food that will allow them to survive, while we break our budgets to fill a table with food. I could go on, but honestly, it's too painfully convicting even for myself. It's enough for me to reject holidays altogether!

But, I've confessed already that I love Christmas, and Valentine's Day and Easter... And I get caught up in it all too.  Sometimes I worry (yes, worry) that I suck at Christmas. That I need to bake more cookies, buy more presents, host a bigger party and then I read something about airstrikes in Alleppo or the poverty in Haiti and my selfish spinning world comes to a screeching halt and everything is put into perspective. I realize cookies, shopping and decorations are not what I was meant for. And I have a choice to make. Pull the cover back over my head to continue to "sit contentedly in luxury without concern for the oppressed" whispering Babylon's motto to myself "I am and there is none but me" (Isaiah 47: 8) or reject the "magic" of it all and launch headlong toward God's real purpose for my life,"to loose the chains of injustice" "to set the oppressed free" "to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to clothe him." (Isaiah 58:6-7)

Unfortunately, King Neb pulled the covers over his head and foolishly declares as he stands on the roof of his palace "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the Royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30) He chooses wrongly, focusing only on his self importance, and scripture says at that very moment, the dream came to pass and King Neb lost his mind and roamed out into the wildnerness. A focus on self and a forgetfulness of the poor is not sin God takes lightly. And it is one that we ought to be talking about a whole lot more as believers than some of the more popular ones we like to harp on (ones most of us find easily avoidable.)

There is a lot of good that happens this time of the year, I'll admit. Toy drives for little ones who don't have anything, family gatherings where birthday suits are discussed, presents bought from NGO's that provide income in developing countries, turkey and mashed potatoes dished out to the homeless... But be careful, oh so careful, that Christmas cheer does not zap your ability to read about, pray for and act on behalf of those who aren't celebrating like you are. Don't lose your purpose amidst the traditions. And if you are already kind and generous to those who have not during this season may you continue (like being grateful) to pursue that in January, shirking the need to lose 10 pounds (eat less and send the money you save to Haiti), and in February, loving others (and not just with chocolates), and during Lent in March, fast in the way it is commanded in Isaiah 58, spending yourself on behalf of the hungry and afflicted, and make it a tradition that takes priority over them all, all year long!