One response to this is towards a child oriented celebration (that doesn’t offend anyone because it is for children), with a focus on the baby Jesus. One response to the commercialism is an increasing variety of appeals to ask for a gift to be given to a mission or relief agency rather than to oneself. A very good idea as far as the mission groups are concerned (whether there is any reduction in the purchase of gifts for ourselves is probably debatable).
And there is the annual rear-guard action by Christians who attempt to “put Christ back into Christmas”, or give some meaning to the various non-biblical elements.
But back at the church, what would an adult version of a celebration of the incarnation of the Son of God look like? Is there something more to this celebration that we would want to teach our children? Would a closer study of the Bible accounts of the incarnation (including John, Colossians, and Hebrews) lead to a different focus? What music would be we use? In Australia I suppose we could use some of William G James Australian carols that assume heat and dust at Christmas, instead of assuming that the birth of Christ happened in England or Europe. And we might want to leave aside the legends and imaginary elements in lots of the carols if we were taking the celebration seriously.
But what would we celebrate? What does it mean that God became human?
(To be continued...)
Dale