Monday, December 22, 2008

Coming to a Town Creche Near You

The Denver Post (December 14, 2008) reported on a small New York town trying to be all things to all people this Christmas. The town in Armonk, NY (not far from my hometown), just north of New York City. This year in the town square a Christmas tree stands proudly in the little gazebo to commemorate the season. For fifteen years, the town has also displayed a menorah in commemoration of Hanukkah. Along the way, the town added a Kinara candle holder for Kwanzaa.

This year there is a new addition: a star and crescent to celebrate Islam. Although there is no special Muslim holiday slated for celebration in December, the town and Asad Jilani the sponsor thought it would be culturally appropriate to represent Islam during the Christian holiday.

So, the city threw out the welcome mat to Buddhists and Hindus to display their symbols at this time of year in the spirit of inclusivism. Judy Wesley, director of the Armonk Chamber of Commerce, caught the spirit of the age when she said that although she was raised as a Catholic, "in my opinion there's nothing wrong with having a spirit of inclusion. Jesus Christ himself would have gathered everyone around him."

Naturally, there are odd guidelines for adding to these displays: formal applications must be made, the symbols must be privately funded (i.e., no government money), the board will not try to distinguish between religious and secular symbols (whatever that means!) and "the symbol will be displayed only during the Christmas season." Huh?

All of this comes courtesy of an American culture racing toward the philosophical positions of inclusivism and diversity. But I'd have a few questions for the town of Armonk or any town trying desperately to avoid the nasty fight and court challenges that come every Christmas. First, why not display a cross at Christmas? After all, the accepted Christian symbol is not a Christmas tree but a Roman "tree" of execution. Jesus' birth is not the most important event in the gospels, evidenced by the amount of ink not spent on it. Only two of the four gospel writers took the time to write anything about Jesus' birth and both of them focused their attention on the birth of Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promises to send a Messiah. The birth itself gets only one verse in Luke (2:7). But compare that to the fact that all four gospels spend several long chapters on Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection. That is the central message of Christianity.

Second, why display all these symbols only at Christmas time? Here I think the town has shown its wishy-washy hand. Symbols are powerful reminders of what is believed by the adherents of a religion. Symbols are rooted in history and are meant to capture at a glance the meaning of signature events. Every religion offers some "plan of salvation." However, the menorah is not the most significant event in Jewish history. Most Jewish people work on the days of Hanukkah and celebrate it as "spiritual" but not "religious" in meaning because there are no prescribed religious obligations as in the observance of Sabbath or Passover. The star and crescent, as the Muslim Asad Jilani admitted, has no historic event rooted in the month of December. In fact, Islam denies that Jesus is the Savior sinful men and women need. He may be one of the prophets but not the necessary Substitute standing in the place of sinners to make atonement for them to a holy God. No one can be saved in that way; we must save ourselves claims Islamic teaching, and hope that we can appease Allah by our good deeds of prayer and alms. So, the two symbols clash in their understanding and remedy for humanity's greatest problem.

The presence of other symbols in December makes no sense if those symbols have no historic link in the yearly calendar or contradict each other's claims. I say it makes no theological sense but it all makes cultural sense. Even though the symbols lay no claim to significant events in their yearly religious calendars, yet for the city to omit them would be culturally unacceptable, insensitive and intellectually arrogant. The spirit of the present age is called accommodation. In the name of accommodation, I wondered if it would it be alright with the city if Christians displayed the cross of Christ during Ramadan? Or Passover? It would be appropriate since Christ is reigning until all his enemies are placed under his feet but the problem is it would also be offensive.

Judy Wesley is right about one thing: Jesus would have gathered everyone around him but it would have been to explain his claims -- exclusive claims -- to be the Source of salvation to all who believe in him. He often gathered people around himself to tell them exactly this thing: that he was "the way, the truth and the life [and] that no one comes to the Father except by him" (John 14:6). In an earlier gathering, Jesus told the crowds that "no one can come to him unless the Father grants it" (6:65).

The church must be ready to accept the same response today that Jesus got immediately after saying those words to the crowd that he gathered: "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him."

Those who are married to the spirit of this age, will be divorced in the next. Beware of making accommodations that leave you bankrupt.

Standing together with you with an exclusive and joy filled gospel,
Bob

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