Hip Hip Hooray for Christmas Vacation

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Hip Hip Hooray for Christmas Vacation

    Clark W. Griswold, after a series of unfortunate and hilarious experiences with his extended family gazes up from his front lawn at the "Christmas star" and opines: "It means something different to everyone." Christmas Vacation is one of my favorite movies of the season and has made it into a couple of Christmas sermons. However, the main character's assessment of the "meaning of Christmas" expresses the cultural spirit of individualism, and so the movie seems to land on the illusion of individualism. 

    Most of the movie and the meaning of Christmas point to a different reality. That is that we are community people. Yes, we are each unique, and each have our own journey to become the people God has created us to become, but we cannot do that without one another. The meaning of Christmas and other winter religious festivals for that matter is about remembering our interdependence. 


    When God became Incarnate in Jesus Christ, it wasn't by riding a lightning bolt all alone, or pulling himself up by the bootstraps out of nowhere. Jesus came into the world by being born by his mother. Jesus was nurtured by Mother Mary, and he was given tools and empowered by his earthly dad Joseph. When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we remember him not alone, but surrounded by his family, shepherds, the Magi, and animals. God's salvation happens in community, and God sent his Son for the whole world to be rescued from all that destructive forces that would tear us apart. 

    My Grandad looked and sounded old and funny to me when I was a little boy. Sitting by our family Christmas tree, he sang "O Tannenbaum" in his primary language with an Austrian accent. I can remember my dad bringing him to our home, where my sisters and I had been opening presents, and we squeezed around the dining table with our Advent wreath at the center. In the middle of the wreath, the Christ candle was finally lit for Christmas supper. After the late night church of Christmas Eve, and an early morning of gifts beneath the tree, we enjoyed our early supper as a kind-of completion to the celebration of Christmas. The "meaning of Christmas" came to me by the incarnate or embodied love from my family and church. Baby Jesus is born vulnerable and immediately dependent on his family. Later, in his life, he does not begin his ministry alone, but after gathering men and women who will learn to live the way of love together. 

    In the hustle and bustle of a season we have allowed to become over busy, I pray we will take time to recognize those in our lives who have taught us how to love as Christ loved us. No one has been set on this planet alone, and neither did our savior arrive alone. This Christmas, know the meaning isn't something we each individually make up or figure out. It is given through the relationships God has given us. My family and my church taught me how to love by showing me love. Not easy sentimental love, but enduring, empowering, nurturing love that has made me strong, and aware that I am part of something much greater than myself. 

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