"Socrates once famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living. In a similar vein, the unexamined holiday is not worth celebrating."
-Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry, pg. 87
-Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry, pg. 87
A couple years ago or so, I decided to tailor my readings around Christimas time to include actual Christmas related readings. Once the Christmas season rolled around this year, I put all (well, most) of my other readings on hold to read only Christmas related books. That being the case, I recently finished reading Douglas Wilson's God Rest Ye Merry. The book proved a great read for the holiday season, helping shape my theological understanding of Christmas and aid in my battle for an accurate perception of the season.
The book is divided into five parts. The first section of the book contains theological reflections on the great mystery of the Christmas story- the incarnation. This sets the tone for the entire book. Wilson's understanding of Christmas is Christ centered. The second section of the book deals with the political nature of the birth of Christ and how Christmas is still a political matter. If you know much about Wilson, you'll know it's not suprising that his Christmas book contains a section on politics. Like it or not, the first Christmas had a lot of political elements- it involved a king, dignitaries from a foreign land, and the never ending government of the Lord of the earth. After this, Wilson moves onto Christmas and the Puritan tradition. This section essentially boils down to an argument for celebrating Christmas, and celebrating it in a joyful manner as opposed to a solemn one. The fourth section of the book tackles the "materialism" issue in Christmas, which, according to Wilson, isn't really an issue. Without ignoring that it is possible to be too attached to the things of this world, Wilson argues that God became a man, a part of this material world, and therefore we ought not shun our material world, even at Christmas. The last section of the book is a devotional for the Advent season. As I had already committed myself to other Advent devotionals this year, Wilson's devotional portion of the book will sit on my bookshelf until next year.
I loved this book. Wilson discusses aspects of Christmas that are seldom discussed by Christians and challenges some of the "received wisdom" about Christmas. However, there is one overarching reason why I enjoyed and recommend this book- it is a weapon in the daily struggle against the flesh, a struggle that does not take a cease fire just because it's Christmas.
I have to admit, I love Christmas, and not just because we celebrate the birth of the God of glory. I also love all the festivities- the trees, the lights, the music, snow, a warm fireplace, Christmas cookies, family get togethers, all that stuff. There are currently three types of eggnog in my refrigerator and, dare I say, several types of Christmas and winter beers (or at least there used to be, as I drank most of them already). Of course, neither I nor Wilson think there is anything inherently wrong with enjoying these things (both the festivities and the beer). My issue, and I suspect a lot of other people's issue, is making Christmas primarily about these things and not about the Creator and Sustainer of these things. In Wilson's words (or, rather, word), my temptation is to make Christmas about "sentimentalism." Sentimentalism is a problem because it creates false expectations, seeks to replace santification by the Holy Spirit, and ignores the main point of Christmas- the fact that we are sinners in a fallen world and that Christ entered into that fallen world to redeem us and make us holy. It ultimately undermines the only true source of santification and joy. Wilson puts it this way:
One of the reasons why so many families have so many tangles and scenes during the "holidays" is that everybody expects sentimentalism to fix everything magically. But Christmas is not a "trouble-free" season. We want the scrooges and grinches in our lives to be transformed by gentle snowfall, silver bells, beautifully arranged evergreens, hot cider, and carols being sung in the distance. But what happens when you gather together with a bunch of other sinners, and all of them have artificially inflated expectations? What could go wrong? When confronted with the message of sentimentalism, we really do need somebody who will say, "Bah, humbug" (Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry, pg. 98)
This is my struggle, and one of the reasons it is a struggle for me is because what Wilson describes above is the non-Christian message of Christmas, and it permeates our culture. It is there in our holiday songs and TV specials, sometimes overt and obvious and sometimes very subtle. Fighting against this false understanding of Christmas will not come naturally. If we go with the flow, sentimentalism will be our understanding of Christmas. We need to be intentional in our fight for a correct understanding of Christmas, and we need some ammo to aid in our fight. The primary reason I enjoyed this book, and why I recommend it to you, is that it aids in the battle to correctly understand Christmas and, by extension, all of life.
The book is short, so if you order the Kindle version and you're a quick reader, you can buy it and have it read by the twenty-fifth. Or, put it on your to-read list for next year.
Wilson blogs regularly at http://dougwils.com
