The Christmas Message

However crass and commercial the consumerist side of this holiday ever gets, underneath it is the religious holiday which represents a very profound message. That message, in my opinion, begins to come into view with one simple phrase: "...Go, and sin no more."

This is a very profound philosophy, whether Christ really can wash away all of a person's previous wrongdoing or not, ...the simplicity of having one's burden lifted and then being instructed to "Go, and sin no more" is one incredibly powerful concept.

It is, for instance, the philosophical basis upon which our modern system of Justice and prisons are based. It's the philosophical basis upon which talk therapy is based, this unburdening of the mind. This process of being somehow unburdened and then to "Go, and sin no more"... It's woven into the heart of just about any ameliorative effort that can be made for any individual.

I think the key to the success of any such effort, however, is in the unburdening. A person suffers the most upon that which they continue to tenaciously hide from being revealed about them, even if it's just to reveal it to themselves. The more tenaciously they cling to the secret, the more they suffer, and the more likely they'll commit further acts in an effort to hide everything. But the real miracle is that, in order to truly unburden themselves from whatever it might be, they basically have to set things straight. This, more than anything, rests at the heart of the Christian message, at least in my eyes.

I mean, it's such a big holiday in this country... but does anyone spend any time during this season to reflect upon what it really means?

The birth of Christ means that this one man has arrived, and that he can end that suffering by simply touching you, and removing the burden. It's a magical thing, but it's a thing that I find somewhat impractical, since I don't believe in magic... And this magical solution makes for too much short-circuiting of what can otherwise be a pretty simple, ameliorative process for just about anyone.

People say that they've been touched by Christ, and that they've been saved, but judging by their actions, I can't help but notice that they most definitely have not.

The tradition in our culture has long been to hide those instances of wrongdoing in one's past, but try to "Go, and sin no more," anyway. It's not the complete remedy, though... Anyone who tries to pull this off doesn't quite realize that they've skipped a step... the first step, the unburdening, the step that might actually make it work.

The proof of that pudding is that, eventually, they turn out to have also missed the second step of not sinning anymore, as well.

The unfolding stories of various publicly exposed figures, most lately Tiger Woods, show how this tends to play out when the media forces the hidden wrongdoing into the public eye, whether the person believes in Christ or not. No-one can deny that throughout history, people have endeavored to build their lives upon good works, despite having committed dark and shady acts that they would forever insist upon hiding from anyone's view. Tiger is no exception.

But, on the other hand, he really was endeavoring to do good works... despite having skipped both steps all that time.

We've seen an endless repetition of this type of situation playing out in the media over and over again. Big stories and small, however, they are played even more forcefully by the media when it concerns individuals whose public reputations are centered in the Christian ethic. This is probably because it's a demonstration of how they just don't get it. Someone is seen to have played the role of devout Christian, and yet they have failed utterly to dispose of their own actual burden.

As long as such burdens remain in place, hidden and untouched, inconsistent behavior abounds (for instance, the rabid anti-homosexual opinion leaders who, in the end, have turned out to have been a closet homosexuals, themselves). Demonstrations of this kind of inconsistent behavior can be seen often enough in everyday life, too.

When I see a car on the street, driven by someone on a cell phone who is endangering those around them, or someone who is pissed off at some other driver, or any number of other situations where the driver is so fully in the wrong, ...and then I see the fish symbol or a bumper sticker that says, "God is my co-pilot" or something equally indicative of their professed Christian leanings... well, all I can do is shake my head and mutter to myself, "They just don't get it."

The message of this holiday isn't about shopping. The message of this holiday is wrapped around somehow finding a way through the problem of never again having to feel a sense of fear, should the prospect of your inner secrets being revealed ever loom at your doorstep.

In the case of Tiger Woods, the secrets are all out, and now this man suffers the consequences.

But do we read these stories about him and feel elated?... Or do we feel a sense of how this man now suffers?

Within the heart of the Christmas message, how do we really feel about such a turn of events? Now that his guts have been ripped out, do we ultimately forgive him or do we condemn him forever?

For me, especially during this season celebrating the birth of a man I find difficult to believe ever could have possibly existed on such a screwed up planet, ...for me, the message in this whole thing has been so utterly lost that I despair of any hope that such profound, yet simple concepts could ever actually be practiced. It's because I can see how often they are, essentially, not practiced even by those who openly and loudly profess to be Christians.

My only real hope is that the loud voices of hypocrisy are in the minority, that their seeming preponderance in this world is merely a phenomenon of amplification by media, and that the overwhelming majority of humanity is basically good, basically going about living their lives quietly endeavoring to do good works, and that the burdens carried by the majority of the people in this world are not burdens of evil, no matter what their personal religious beliefs may be.

I have no answers for the problems of the world, ...I can only have answers for the problems of my own existence. And in this wise, I maintain my hope that this world can somehow become a better place... through the understanding of this profoundly simple fact of life: that we can resolve our problems, and that we can "go and sin no more".

And in that spirit I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, no matter how politically incorrect such a wish has become.