Last week we focused on Hanukkah lights in Trump darkness. This week we focus on Christmas light in that same darkness.
We begin with what should be obvious, but isn’t for everyone. Christmas is a Christian celebration. It is NOT an American holiday.
The people who seem to be most confused about that are Christians, specifically, evangelicals who pretend America is a Christian nation.
Nothing about that is true, and nothing about it is good, but let’s pretend otherwise.
Let’s suppose that America is a Christian nation.
If this is true, it means Christianity endorses the rich getter richer and the poor getting poorer.
It means Christianity endorses civil discrimination based on sexual orientation.
It means Christianity endorses starting wars and using other nations as pawns on our chess board.
It means Christianity endorses demonizing immigrants.
It means Christianity endorses separating babies and children from their parents.
It means Christianity endorses capital punishment.
It means Christianity endorses a healthcare system that is based on the ability to pay.
I could go on, but the main point I want to make is that if America is a Christian nation, God save us from Christianity.
Thank God it’s not true.
We are not a Christian nation, and that is a good thing for Christianity and for the nation.
So let us focus on Christmas as a Christian celebration, telling the story of Jesus’ birth for what it is, a miracle story that cannot be explained or proven, only celebrated.
Miracles happen because we believe they happen, and that is enough for us to find meaning in them.
They are stories, as Marcus Borg used to remind us, like the one told by the shaman who often begins by saying, “I don’t know if this happened or not, but I know it is true.”
That is how Christians can think about the Christmas story. We don’t know if it happened the way Matthew and Luke tell it, but we know its message that God is still with us is true, that is, true in the sense that we “know” through the eyes of faith that Christmas is real.
And even though the nation observes Christmas primarily because it benefits the economy, the Christmas message is one all of us can use.
Just as Hanukkah reminded us that light shines in darkness, so the message of Christmas that God is still with us also reminds us that hope is never lost, light is never quenched, and good is never defeated.
The irony is that Christmas (and Hanukkah) are celebrated in the darkest days of winter.
I am writing this only a few days before the winter solstice, the day with the least amount of daylight of the year. But it doesn’t last. Once the darkness exceeds the light, light immediately begins to make a comeback. Soon the days will get longer and “extinguish” the darkness more and more.
Because of my anguish for the nation under Donald Trump, that’s the way I am thinking about Christmas this year. Trump’s darkness is everywhere, but with each passing day the light of truth is exposing him for who and what he is.
And each day that brings a new revelation is like each day after the winter solstice has passed and more light shines.
It will take time for his darkness to be expelled completely, but we need not lose hope.
So in the coming days let us wish each other a Merry Christmas, or happy holidays, or be of good cheer, or whatever way we choose to express even the slightest joy we feel knowing that light is not only shining in America again, it is getting brighter by the day.
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