Stealing Jesus

As I was writing this on Wednesday, I got a visit from a sweet young mom and her daughter who came by my office to bring me some Christmas goodies. While they were here, they mentioned that their dog ate the manger scene that the daughter made at our children's ministry's Gingerbread Bash last week. I couldn’t help but laugh. That was a pretty funny story, at least for me. 

Here's another funny story I had originally planned to start with. A couple travel to visit their son and his family for Christmas. Grandpa sees a beautiful nativity set in their house. He asks his little granddaughter if she knows what it is. "Yes," she replies, "It's breakable." As a grandfather myself, I can sure picture that scene, in all of its cuteness. 

But a news story came across my feed this week that wasn't so funny. The nativity scene at an ancient church in Ipswich, England was vandalized, and some of the characters decimated. All Saints Church in Ipswich dates back to the 13th century. They had just erected their nativity scene in front of their building, when four days later a "barbaric attack" left it in shambles. Joseph's figure was left headless. 

“Why would someone have so much hatred and desire to ruin and destroy something that is not their property, and something that is there to express someone’s belief?” asked the Rev. Danny Morrison, the the vicar at All Saints. “What state might their life be like if they find pleasure in doing this? I am trying to make sense, which I really can’t.”

It reminded me of another story I read about many years ago at a church in Gadsden, Alabama, where someone looted the nativity scene. The thieves walked away with figures of Mary, Joseph and a wise man, as well as a camel. They also stole the exhibit's centerpiece--a figure of the Christ child. A cardboard sign in the shed covering the Nativity scene which read "Put Christ in your Christmas and in your life" was not taken.

Bethel United Baptist Church had displayed the same Nativity scene annually, without incident, for nearly forty years. Needless to say, church members were disheartened by the yule-tide pilfering.

"It broke my heart to think someone would steal something like that from our church," the church's custodian, J.T. Hollingsworth, was quoted in The Birmingham News.

Now, it would be easy to use those stories to illustrate the depravity of our society, that some dastardly people from across the world would stoop to such a low as to decapitate Joseph, or steal Jesus, Mary and Joseph--and a camel--from a church's outdoor manger scene.

However, I'm not sure that many of us don't do the same thing, figuratively if not literally, each year. When we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season--decorations, shopping, parties, and busy holiday schedules--and leave Jesus out of His birthday celebration, are we not also "stealing" Jesus from our Christmas?

So once again, like the sign left over a vacated manger scene in Gadsden, Alabama, let me encourage you to "Put Christ in your Christmas." It may be a cliche, but it's still true.

In fact, one of the ways you can do that this year is to come and join with your church family for worship on Sunday, as we celebrate the birth(day) of Jesus together. It will be eleven years before you have the opportunity to share in Sunday worship again on Christmas Day--in 2033--so I hope you won't miss this chance to do it this year.

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

--Pastor Ken