Emerging Christmas Traditions?

This year retails stores will see a boost in sales. Folks will purchase many gifts for the season. PlayStation 3 game systems will sell for over a grand, but how are we doing as Christians at Christmas? Are emergent Christians, and other authentic Christians, making a dent in any social causes, local, national, or international? Do Christian even give a crap? Or do we just care about what finds it way under our trees- The lovely blood diamond jewelry, or the kitchen appliance we don’t really need. Or, are we thinking about if the kids are getting what they asked Santa for?

It’s really sort of sickening that we are consumed by stuff, and our many resources are used to get more stuff, when people down, in Darfur, for instance, are dying in the worst genocide since the Rwanda ordeal.

Where are the Christians in these things? Are they all shopping? Does George Clooney have to do this “dirty work” for us? There’s nothing like gratuitous excess to get some bah humbug out of me at this time of year. I’m not saying gifts are bad. I’m just saying, when will enough be enough. When as Christians we can start caring about the hurting and dying people out there, more than the self-righteous movie stars seem to care about them? The “least of these” don’t even get a second thought, as we scarf down cookies, tear open gifts, and conduct our shopping marathons for Jesus’ birthday. Yuck.


If you’ve helped the poor or hurting this season, drop a comment and tell us about this kind of MEANINGFUL holiday tradition, I’d love to hear about it. If you haven’t, why on earth not?