Like a glass ornament falling from the Christmas tree to the hard plank floor below, our cultural Christmas traditions have shattered into a thousand pieces. We will never put them back together again. But as we sort through the colored shards scattered below the tree and under the furniture, we recognize parts of the design.

Of course, our Christmases have long been split between sacred and secular celebrations, the commercial and familial, the sentimental and recently the political.

I am not much of a partisan in the Christmas wars; I don’t insist that the clerk at the post office wish me a Merry Christmas instead of happy holidays. I am not inclined to think of an army of heavenly host appearing to the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night made up entirely of pudgy cherubs, but that’s okay. I am completely fine with the Magi showing up at the cattle stall, though the image (both the cattle stall and the Magi at it) is not scripturally warranted. I love Luther’s lullaby even if the little Lord Jesus made a lot of crying.

On the more secular side, I still tell our grandkids that I believe in Santa Claus though every one of them is now a non-believer and mocks my naiveté. I am not sure why Jimmy Stewart and the people of Bedford Falls sing “Auld Lang Syne” on Christmas Eve, but, yes, it’s a wonderful life.

The story of the Nativity is no more a parable about immigration policy than it is a children’s story about a little drummer boy (pa-rum-pum-pum-pum). But if thinking so gets the “Love Spoken Here” crowd to read the narratives in Matthew and Luke, so be it.

Sacred and secular, commercial and familial, sentimental and political, Christmas is now less than a week away. What shall we make of it? How shall we understand it? Yes, go first to the narratives in Matthew and in Luke. And then pause and listen to the sounds and look at the sights of the season.

The words of a second-tier Christmas song have filled my mind this past week. It’s an old Appalachian folk hymn transcribed and then modified to be sung at Christmas.  “When Mary birthed Jesus t’was in a cow’s stall,” the second modified verse  of  “I Wonder as I Wander” sings. But it is the first and original verse that has captured my thoughts this week filled with news of hatred and death at Bondi Beach and Brown University.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die.
For poor on’ry people like you and like I…
I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

Some newer versions of the song change “on’ry” in the third line to “ord’nary.” Yes, the Savior came for to die for ordinary people, but perhaps more pointedly for ornery people. Like you and like me.

Paul describes us as having been enemies of God (Romans 5:10), alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. (Colossians 1:21). Ornery and more. The Savior came for to die for poor ornery people like you and like me. For poor ornery people like Ahmed al-Ahmed and Sofia Gurman, Muslim and Jewish heroes at Bondi Beach.  And for Sajid and Naveed Akram and “a person of interest” in Rhode Island.

We will be with family this Christmas and the non-believing grandchildren will mock my insistence that Santa is real. Progressive friends will post silly memes about Mary and Joseph and immigration policy. Others will post blasphemous memes of Santa (he’s actually not real) kneeling before the manger bed.

In it all, I hope I give a thought to Jesus the Savior who came for to die for poor ornery people. Like me.

Long ago and far away, a much younger me was teaching an adult Bible class to a wonderful group of people mostly much older and most definitely in higher income brackets than the junior staff church member teaching the class.  I don’t remember the text we were dealing with; maybe it was Proverbs 22:7: “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.”  In any event it seemed pertinent to mention something I had recently read about consumer debt. People were swimming in it. Fortunately, the junior staff member in the lower income bracket had avoided debt, and so, when I spoke of those about to be swept under by a riptide of debt, I spoke with some disdain, shaming those who would allow themselves to be enslaved to a lender.

I would later discover that more than one member of the Bible class was one of those whose weight of debt was pulling him down like a swimmer being pulled to the depth of the sea by a concrete block tied around his ankles.

My disdain and shame had only added guilt to the fear of pending financial ruin. Continue reading →

I did not know about the National Customer Rage Study, but I was not surprised to learn that we American consumers (and voters and neighbors and maybe church members) are madder than ever (here and here). We are sadly divided in so many ways.

So why the rage, and exactly what is “rage”? Why are customers so angry? It turns out that it is not so much shopping – online or in person – that makes us mad, it is trying to fix a problem when there is something wrong with what we buy. “The study found that 77% of consumers experienced a problem with a product or service in the past 12 months. This is a record high and more than double the share reported in 1976.” Part of the problem is having to navigate a labyrinth of chatbots and call centers before you can speak with a human being who 1) might know what you are talking about and 2) can do something about it. It takes a click to buy and an hour or more on hold to just begin to fix a problem.

Now, we’ve all groused about lousy customer service or muttered under our breath about long waits and inefficiencies. But the rage the Rage Study is talking about is something else. It’s the authors of the study call “uncivil behavior.”  Specifically: Continue reading →

An early Observations this week as we celebrate Thanksgiving Day with friends and family. Posted below is George Washington’s first (of two) Thanksgiving Day Proclamations.  As you read it, pray to Almighty God “that we may . . . all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks,” for his “signal favors” in our “public or private stations.” 

Happy Thanksgiving! Continue reading →

“Always Let Your Conscience be Your Guide,” Jiminy Cricket tells Pinocchio in the Walt Disney version of the children’s classic. I can’t speak for Pinocchio, but my conscience can be a pretty lousy guide as it leads me not to being a real boy or a better person but to chasms of guilt and swamps of discouragement.

A couple of weeks ago I had what might be called a difficult conversation with a colleague. I challenged him regarding attitude and behavior that I and others in our organization were finding harmful to relationships and to our common work. Prior to the conversation I sought the advice of some wise counselors who were familiar with the situation and who know me well.  They deemed the conversation difficult, but necessary.

I don’t like difficult conversations and tend to steer clear of them until I have exhausted all avenues of avoidance. But sometimes you can no longer postpone the inevitable. Continue reading →