authorized by the New Testament’s original Christmas story. Eventu- ally Christianity understood itself as a theater of Incarnation with the church as its festival house. Paul was certain that Christ’s body born in Bethlehem could still be located on earth. The church is the extension of the Incarnation, acting out the presence of God. The Christian Year became a perfor- mance season, with Christmas the annual opportunity to do the play about God’s coming. Pastors and musicians and artists are the direc- tors, and the congregation itself is the theatrical troupe.
The performers must be believ-
able if the play is to ring true. The retrieval of Christmas comes not through nostalgia for the good old days or hectoring the public to keep Christ in Christmas, but through imaginative efforts that bring December opportunity captive to the obedience of Christ. To practice a sacred calendar is to save the date for the presence of God. Worship, a planned running into mystery, is a mode of resistance to the relentless claims of the everyday. In a culture that has lost heart and art, the church is called to stage heaven on earth. Christmas Lite is for sale every- where, but weightier celebrations mean facing the risks of incarna- tion. Did God foresee how coming among us would turn out? The gritty New Testament story, not suited for eggnog and tinsel, includes Herod’s rage, treacherous crowds and fool- ish followers, the dangerous road to Jerusalem, and ultimately the cru- cifixion. To become a divine child within earth’s grasp is to risk being taken into the hands of strangers and carried to unknown destinations.
Advent attention So we come prepared. Advent prac- tices the spiritual discipline of paying
attention. The parables of Jesus (Mat- thew 25:1-13) and the admonitions of Paul (Romans 13:11-14) make us alert and well-rehearsed. Many modern Christians scarcely notice their own heavy investments in a worldview that contradicts the gospel story. Even as we look at Christ- mas, consumerism is what we look through, the glasses we can’t take off. The church is easily construed as just another religious merchandiser. Christian liturgy is a guerrilla theater that subversively stages alternative realities to the ones play- ing on television. Christmas worship occurs amid the ever more aggres- sive encroachments of a culture that buries the good under an avalanche of goods.
How to proceed? If the church’s mission is to be the theater of God in the world, the temptation will be to endlessly do the old plays with noth- ing changed. But the incarnation authorizes fresh ventures that mimic God’s risks and lay new claims to all earthly things in the name of Christ. Our calling is to do the play with imagination and integrity, to entice new audiences to leave their seats, rush the stage, and claim their roles in God’s ventures with humanity.
And do not forget to advertise to the world the festival of Christmas as not-to-be-missed when hosted and performed by the church, whose great commission is to get the play right.
Public worship should include surprises that jolt the congregation into discontinuity with the world outside. As in dramatic theater, a convincing performance must achieve the suspension of disbelief by all who stop by on their holiday tour through a consumer culture. For this hour, the world out- side, with all its exhausting frenzy, becomes less real than the good news the church is staging inside. When it’s over, the world outside looks dif- ferent too. The audience will under- stand they have been summoned as pilgrims to a sacred festival, not as seasonal shoppers. The wonderfully disturbing presence of God has once again become available. Getting Christmas right means
getting ourselves right and ulti- mately getting God right. To see how Christmas is faring is to see how we, and Christianity, are faring today. A religiously robust Christmas enables the church to re-gift the incarnation to the modern world.
Download a study guide for this article (free to print/Web members) at
www.thelutheran.org (click on study guides”).
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