texans on the autobahn

Christ is in my Christmas!

Our good friends, Tom and Vera, invited us to church on Christmas Eve at their church in Oberschleissheim. It is considered to be something very special when a German invites you to their church, though I know that Vera would do that anyway and she wouldn’t think any thing of it. We were really excited and of course accepted the invitation to her German speaking worship service. The pastor, David, is originally from Texas and we had met him many months ago at a dinner at Tom and Vera’s home. There were probably no more than 30 people there, but it was held in a beautiful small building decorated for Christmas. That’s right, I said Christmas, not “holidays”. Part of what I could understand of the sermon was about the Christmas traditions around the world. In Canada for example they eat steak and lobster for their Christmas meal; in the US we might eat turkey or ham, and in Germany they eat goose although David admits to eating sausages – a very German tradition. He also talked about the tradition of stores like Macy’s in New York staying open until midnight on Christmas eve for late shoppers, but that would not happen in Germany, at least not in Bavaria. Shops and restaurants were closed promptly at 2 pm today so that families could get home. In Germany, the tradition is that families open their presents on Christmas Eve. There are many traditions in Germany that are unique to Germany as well as those traditions that are unique to where you and I come from. But the one thing that is the same – we can worship with other Christians in places around the world and share the common bond of the birth of Jesus Christ which we now celebrate. Tonight we sang common Christmas hymns together (although the German words were difficult for me to pronounce, and so I reverted to singing along but with English words.) It was a beautiful Christmas service. David also talked in his sermon about the problem, particularly in the US but certainly not limited to it, of trying to be politically correct about Christmas. This issue is in the media a lot, and we see it also when watching CNN or FOX or even jokes on US late night shows. In a country, like the US, where nearly 85% of the nation is Christian why is it that we allow small, though vocal people to say we can’t say “Merry Christmas” but only “Happy Holidays” or call our beautiful Christmas tree a “holiday” tree. Why do we allow others to take the Christ out of Christmas? While listening to David’s sermon, and filling in a lot of blanks between the words I didn’t understand I came to the conclusion that no one can take Christ out of Christmas for me or other Christians. For Christians around the world, Christ is Christmas and that’s our common bond!

posted by stuckinthemiddle @ 9:36 PM