Calvin Synod Herald, 2004 (105. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2004-11-01 / 11-12. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD 1 THE FIRST CHRISTMAS My first memory of Christmas was seeing St. Nicholas and the chimney sweep (or was it the devil?) at a Christmas party for children; one had candy for the kids, the other sticks or coal for those who were bad. I remember hiding behind a post when he spoke. Or maybe it was the year I peeked into the next room, and saw the angels decorating the Christmas tree (I thought sure I saw them). Those days were the best that I remember from my childhood - just the fact that these were the ones that come to mind so easily from that time show that they were special. My memories are memories of the celebration of the baby Jesus, of singing about the coming of the angels who told us about the birth of the baby; hearing the story of Jesus’ birth read from the Gospel, and finally, opening the presents the baby Jesus brought us. I can’t tell you what presents I received then; it seems that the important part, the part I remember, was that our whole family was together, with the telling of Jesus’ birth being the highlight of each Christmas of long ago. I felt I was really special, that Jesus loved me, and our family was blessed by Him. Every year these memories come back to me - warm memories - memories of childhood. And the wish - the hope- that somehow this year something of that thrill of MY most memorable Christmas can be recreated for both me, and for those who share in Christmas around the tree in my home. For what our family had was something very special. How can I recreate those Christmases? How can I recreate the Christmas of my third and fourth years of life? I really can’t, we all know that. But the surprising thing of those times is that it isn’t what we had that made the difference; it was who we were- a family looking to something that was beautiful, greater than our circumstance. For now I know that those were not the easiest, not the best years of my parents’ lives. Looking back, I know now that we were living in refugee camps for almost five years, those days I remember as the years of the “perfect Christmas.” The reality my parents were living in was that the war had displaced them and they had fled to Austria from their home; they had lost virtually everything - everything they had worked for all their lives was destroyed or confiscated as a result of the war. The family heirlooms, handed down from generation to generation; the business, the home, the friends, all this was gone. Amongst the tens of thousands of refugees, speaking eastern European languages, all looking for jobs to support their families, they found opportunities were non-existent in a country which had, itself, just been devastated and occupied by the Allied armies. All they had left was each other and their four small children, soon joined by a newborn. And they had their faith in God, faith that there was a future. For a time we lived in an American Army camp, alongside the soldiers stationed there. The daily struggle for my parents was to secure, in some way, enough food for their children; Christmas, and presents for the children must have been a special strain on them. Yet these were some of my best Christmases - wonderful times, times I still remember to this day. How can I recreate those days? In our world, we look back at the “good old days”- how good they were! - and wish we could do it again. But would THAT insure a “happy Christmas” - if I lived in abject poverty, worrying about my next meal? I think not. What needs recreating is the atmosphere of Christmas, not the physical and material aspect. The very fact that I have no memory of the gifts means they were secondary in terms of my happiness; what I remember is the feeling of FAMILY, of love, and of God’s caring, of being special. So what is missing from today’s Christmas celebration? Well, quite a few things are different. First, like the Israelites in Babylonian exile, it seems we have taken on the local customs, began worshiping the local gods, and then wonder why our god doesn’t seem to be the same. Who IS this ‘Santa Claus’ guy, anyway? Does he promise to care for you, to love you, to always be there when you need him? Or isn’t he the guy that brings lots of presents? So already, we lost part of the Old Christmas, because Santa Claus doesn’t mention love, happiness, or family; only THINGS; things you are expected to buy, things you are taught to expect from others. And that mentality permeates our very being, our lives. We emphasize things, not relationships, not God, not Christ when we think about Christmas. We have become so “Babylonized” that we can’t understand what went wrong; why are the kids different, why isn’t there “family” anymore, what happened to respect, to church, to values, to memorable Christmas gatherings? We’re really not much different from the rest of those who are in this “new world,” who threw away their old customs in the name of Americanization, who de-emphasized God so they’d “fit in” with the neighbors, who threw Christ out of Christmas so as not to offend these neighbors and their Santa Claus myth. Of course, our neighbors are also busy wondering what happened to the family, love and happiness, but they don’t want to say anything because they want to “fit in” too. We’re all busy wondering where love is, what happened to the family, what happened to the life that made Christmas beautiful. What happened is that instead of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” we taught our children “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”; instead of “Silent Night” we sing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”; the Christmas eve story begins “’Twas the night before Christmas...” and not “And in those days there were shepherds in the field watching over their flock by night...” So what we have taught our children by the twelfth day of Christmas isn’t about the “Wise men from the East,” but rather that after the toys are broken, it’s time to go back to school; Santa came and went, back to the real world now! How about that old-fashioned, ethnic Christmas? How did we observe that? Our parents emphasized God’s love for the world, embodied in his sending HIS OWN SON to be with us. To the children, they introduced God’s love in a little baby - just like they once were. They showed that God came to US in a small family, just like WE were a family; a mother and a father loving their little baby, their child, just like you and I were loved. That lesson, the lesson of family and love, the lesson of God’s giving us a living gift in the baby Jesus, a gift that is to be nurtured and cared for, a gift that always stays with us, that lesson stayed the year around. And that present that came with Christmas, that was only symbolic, showing that the gift of the baby Jesus spreads to (Continued on page 12)
