Did Jesus have an Elmo under His manger?

Every year at this time of year, we as a society are bombarded with commercials and print media encouraging us to buy, buy, buy. People not only want the latest thing, but they want it now, and they want it at the lowest price available.

Hence the crush of people killing a gentleman at Walmart in Long Island, which is a tragedy of huge proportions – because his death was not the result of people standing up for some great social cause, or some great religious cause, or standing against some great injustice, or standing for anything, really. His death was the direct result of human greed run horribly amok. People saw the shortest distance between them and the great bargains (hyped, of course, by the many, many commercials run by Walmart leading up to “Black Friday”) – and nothing or no one was going to get in their way.

And there are reports (though I was not there to witness this behavior) of people complaining about the store closing so the death could be investigated – though why anyone would want to shop in a store with a crushed corpse at the front is really beyond my comprehension.

The point is, human greed is with us throughout the year, but there is something about the holidays which seems to bring out the worst of it. We have created a society driven by consuming, driven by getting, driven by buying the best and latest. We have created a society which is not concerned about caring for The Other. We have created a society which ignores the love and grace and peace extended to humanity in the very first Christmas (you know, when Jesus was born?) and have replaced God’s gift with trinkets made of plastic and metal. (They are trinkets, after all – even a diamond ring which costs $45,000 will not travel with the recipient beyond the grave…)

And this is scary stuff to me as I prepare to be a pastor sometime in the future. Scary stuff because it is so counter to the message of the Gospel (= good news) of Jesus Christ, a Gospel which reaches across lines of power and wealth, a message which reaches across our trinkets and trivialities to grasp us wherever we are and hold us fast. The message of Jesus is one of God’s love and grace and peace, and this love and grace and peace are increasingly drowned out by messages of greed and selfishness and complaining.

So what am I to do about this?

I cannot change all of society.

But I can change myself, and I can influence change in the spheres of influence which God has given me. I can be the person in line who thanks the hard-working checkout person. I can be the person who holds open a door and thanks those who hold doors open for me. I can be the person who doesn’t have a lot of buying power this year (thanks to my current seminary education) but who has the power to be kind, and to show God’s love and God’s grace and God’s peace in my actions – whether those actions be in the pulpit, in the church, and at the altar, OR in the stores, on the freeways, and in my home.

I can be a blessing to The Other.