the true christmas spirit

Today's Sunday school class on Packer's Knowing God was very good, as the classes usually are. But part of it was especially applicable during the holiday season. Packer has some great stuff to say about the Christmas spirit, in the context of his discussion of the mystery of the incarnation and its implications on Christ's diety, power, etc. It's well worth rereading and repeating here:

We talk glibly of the "Christmas spirit," rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But what we have said makes it clear that the phrase should in fact carry a tremendous weight of meaning. It ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of Him who for our sakes became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round.

It is our shame and disgrace today that so many Christians--I will be more specific: so many of the soundest and most orthodox Christians--go through this world in the spirit of the priest and the Levite in our Lord's parable, seeing human needs all around them, but (after a pious wish, and perhaps a prayer, that God might meet them) averting their eyes, and passing by on the other side. That is not the Christmas spirit. Nor is it the spirit of those Christians--alas, they are many--whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian friends, and bringing up their children in nice middle-class Christian ways, and who leave the sub-middle-class sections of the community, Christian and non-Christian, to get on by themselves.

The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor--spending and being spent--to enrich their fellow-men, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others--and not just their own friends--in whatever way there seems need. There are not as many who show this spirit as there should be. If God in mercy revives us, one of the things He will do will be to work more of this spirit in our hearts and lives. If we desire spiritual quickening for ourselves individually, one step we should take is to seek to cultivate this spirit. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." "I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart."

And Packer wrote that in the early 70's. What must he think now, having seen society slide so much further since then? That bit about the middle-class Christian mindset is especially piercing, but unfortunately it's a very accurate portrayal of American and western "Christianity" these days. His closing point about seeking to act more like Christ in order to know God more is very true. That seems lost on most people, probably more so with Reformed folks like myself who tend to favor theology and head knowledge too strongly over the faith-in-action stuff like empathy and evangelism. But it makes sense, as the Bible of course mandates such a lifestyle and many throughout history we look upon as giants of the faith made their own lives much harder in order to reach others and do God's work.

I always find it funny, in a shameful sort of way, how when the Christmas season comes around people (including myself) start acting nice and paying attention to what's happening around them, as if they have suddenly taken time off from their regular lives to notice they're not the only ones here. It suddenly becomes in vogue to be spiritual and give one's resources to something other than oneself. So we help at soup kitchens, we buy gifts for children, we volunteer at community centers, we go caroling, we write a few extra checks, and on and on. We'll pat ourselves on the back when it's all over and figure we've done our good deeds for the season and helped others. Which we have, but what about the other 11 months of the year? Do those around us only need help or only need to hear the gospel at Christmas time? Our attitude and actions would often imply that this must be what we think.

For me, reading passages like this always drives home how much time I have wasted over the years and how I continue to pursue things that are worthless, either because they don't actually help me live a better life or they would if I'd only pursue them for the right reasons. I spend lots and lots of time with stuff like sports and news and such (or maybe whatever short-term goal I have my sights set on that month), but I've read barely any books at all over the past few years and I can't recall ever getting to know a single neighbor at any apartment complex I've lived at. As I get older I kinda get the sense that God is trying to teach me something and pound some ideas home, and thus I often find myself far away from whatever it is I happen to be pursuing that day. It seems, on a head level anyway, that if I could just get my priorities straight things wouldn't seem so dark all the time. Much easier said than done, though. And unfortunately I'm stubborn enough that I can expect at least another couple of decades or so of this before I get the point. (This is one of those topics I've thought much about and have intended to write a rather long post on but probably never will.)

Anyway, that's perhaps the best piece (from a book other than the Bible) I've read in a long time, and it will be one of the best application pieces I read this Christmas season for sure. Hopefully its application will last year-round, though, as that was Packer's intent. But as with anything, the action part is always much harder than the reading...