What if you don't have the Christmas "spirit?"

I do like holidays but I don't think as much as others.  You won't find me putting up extra lights outside.  The house will get decorated inside but that is usually initiated by Stephanie.  I really don't get into Christmas programs on TV or have a drive to go see the town Christmas Tree lit up.  We get presents for our family members and did the Christmas morning unwrapping but there was not a real build up to the event except a little snowman countdown figurine that sat on the back of the piano.  I'm sounding a little like a "Scrooge" when it comes to the celebration of Advent.

It gets really bad around the church.  My tendency would be to just keep going like we usually do but there are "other things" that happen around Christmas time.  Don't get me wrong, I am thankful to see many step forward to do these "other things."  I get to meet those I haven't seen in awhile.  All ages get engaged in many of the Christmas services. We make it out to homes of shut-ins with the carols of Christmas.  All these are great but....

I feel at times that we spend a lot of time getting the set prepared to look "just right" but leave out why "He" came.  "He" meaning the baby in the manger but also the man on the cross.  I grew up in a Protestant church that didn't do much with the 40 days of Lent because that was for those "other" churches.  Our celebration of Easter was just a weekend affair but our celebration of Christmas was a good month with all its preparations.  The birth of a baby is fantastic and the manger scene can look so beautiful and serene but someone hanging on a cross with spikes through hands and feet and blood flowing from multiple wounds is harder to dress up.   Maybe this rant is a personal call not to downplay what we do at Christmas time but to "up" what we do leading up to Easter or Resurrection Sunday.  Maybe it is permission given to myself to speak more of the cross this Advent season.  Maybe this would help me be more in the "spirit" of Christmas.

I do struggle with what to say because I feel like we are overwhelmed with the elements of the event of Christ's birth.  If you are around church much, you have probably heard every angle possible on every character that make up the Christmas pageant.  We have even made up some like "The Little Drummer Boy" and personified the donkey that carried Mary from Nazareth of the north to Bethlehem in the south.  So I stand and try to tell some new nugget.  I "google" like mad every key word of Christmas to find some inspiration.  But as I am typing this maybe the solution is coming.

What if I talked more of the cross at Christmas and more of the manger at Easter?  What if I focused on the supposed "end" of the story at the supposed "beginning" and the supposed "beginning" of the story at the supposed "end?"  The real beginning goes back to creation and the real ending goes forward to Jesus' return and reign, the whole counsel of God.  These two events of the manger and the cross are kind of in the middle.  And there emerges another inspiration.  What if I talked about creation at Christmas, the real beginning, and the triumphal second coming of Christ at Easter, the real end?  

I think I found some solutions to my problem this morning and thanks for reading some thoughts from the local church pastor during the highly lit Advent season.  

p.s.  I am typing this amongst the forest of trees brought from the balcony to the platform

Adam