What's in a word?

When I was in second grade, my teacher told us that the usage of the word Xmas as a way to represent the celebration of Jesus' birth "took the Christ out of the Christmas. I was appalled. I certainly did not want to be guilty of taking Christ out of Christmas, so I promised myself not the use the word Xmas again.

Little did I know that the X, which is the Greek letter Chi, was probably closer to the original word Christ than my English representation of it was.

We do this to ourselves all the time -- we focus on tiny, inconsequential aspects of religion to the detriment of our faith.

Take, for instance, the hullabaloo last year regarding the use of the phrase Happy Holiday vs Merry Christmas in the department stores. I realize that some people see this as a symptom of the general "de-Christianization" (I made that word up) of our society. Maybe it is, but if it is, do we solve anything by crying foul at the symptom? When our children have colds, do we fuss at them for having a runny nose, or do we try to find relief for them by giving them cold medicine? Which is more effective?

I received an email the other day. It was an image of a Christmas tree. Below the picture was the sentence, "It's a Christmas Tree! Say it with me --> CHRISTmas tree, CHRISTmas tree, CHRISTmas tree." OK, I understand. It's a Christmas tree. It is not, however, Christ himself!

What needs to be our priority during this season? If our mission from God is to go and make disciples, do we do that by boycotting stores which use the phrase Happy Holidays? Is there anything about that that convinces those who need to be brought to Christ that God is waiting for them? If we are trying to love God and to love each other, do we accomplish that by sending grumpy emails which proclaim that a holiday decoration needs to have the word Christ in its name? Shouldn't we be more concerned with spreading the Word than we are with the wording of sales signs and the label on a decoration?

If our goal to to work with God for the transformation of the world, then aren't we doing it backwards?

Images: First two are my CHRISTmas tree in the lab. In the first one is proof that I don't always pay attention to the things that I should. See the calendar? See the year on the calendar? I print those out each year, altering the ones from the previous year. I changed everything from 2005 to 2006 except the year. And I've lived with it wrong all year. The last image is an evergreen tree on the VA hill.