CityView Magazine

faith It is time to Occupy Christmas — to protest the greed and hypocrisy that have taken this season captive, to fight for authenticity and harmony, to actually work for peace on Earth and good will towards men. I Occupy Christmas BY DAN ALGER joy and peace. It has become a season defined by the marketplace rather than the Christian faith. It is now a race to see who can be the shiniest, who can give the best giſts, and who can realize all of their children's fantasies through toys and candy. The whole messed up process leaves us stressed, broke and fat. It is re- ally quite a shame. The Bible's version of Christmas is very different. Christmas is a time of celebrating the incarnation of Christ. "Incarnation" means "in the flesh." The birth of Jesus is central to the Christian faith as it is the moment when God put on human flesh — when God became one of us, just a slob like one of us. The incarnation is God with meat, God in our midst. In contrast to today's Christ- mas season, the Biblical event is marked with utter humility, complete selflessness and pure joy. Instead of a harried, anx- ious time, the angels cruise around tell- ing everyone, "Peace." God's presence brought calm, confidence and truth. When the focus was on God's amazing giſt of himself, everything made sense 14 | Food & Wine • 2011 t is Christmas time again — that glorious season of consum- erism and selfishness cloaked with ambiguous references to for a moment and the things of the world paled in comparison to his glory. What about now? What has hap- pened? The celebration of the birth of Christ has become an excuse for idola- try when we worship, chase aſter, and seek joy from things other than God. We have to manufacture our own joy since we don't receive it from God. We look for some far away hope for world peace without looking to the God who can truly bring harmony. We stuff our stockings with stuff that drains us, rath- er than stuffing our souls with the beau- ty of God. We try so hard to create for ourselves what God wants to freely give to us. The illusion of the self-made spar- kle wears off quickly and for the rest of the year we are leſt feeling tired and jaded until we try again next December. We desperately need something deeper, something real. Listen, all of this is deeply rooted in our culture and to live differently would take a radical shiſt in thinking. We would have to dump some tradi- tions that we think are timeless (even though they are really only a few dec- ades old). We would have to stop believ- ing that material things bring lasting joy. We would have to start believing in Christmas as a time of sacrificially giv- ing without receiving. We would have to stop pining for something shallow and manufactured and instead long for the God who is deep and eternal. We would need God to move radically in our hearts. We'd have to beg for his real presence with us. But isn't that what Christmas is actually about? It is the miracle that God is with us, that he can change us — that real depth, beauty, joy, forgiveness and peace are actually possible because he freely gives them through Jesus. It is time to Occupy Christmas — to protest the greed and hypocrisy that have taken this season captive, to fight for authenticity and harmony, to actu- ally work for peace on Earth and good will towards men. Get out the signs! Pitch the tents in the park! Let's envi- sion a different world where the com- mon man incarnates the work of God and brings real change, an in-the-flesh kind of change, to our lives and to our city. I'm tired of the terror of corporate Christmas! Rise up! Occupy Christmas! Who's with me? CV Dan Alger is the Pastor of The Church of the Apostles in Hope Mills and can be reached at ecs@tcota.org.

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