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Christmas meaning lost in making merry, boosting sales

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem, in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler.” – Matthew 2:3-6
The scriptures record that when Jesus began his earthly ministry he began by assembling his disciples. One of the first recruits was Philip who on meeting Jesus became too excited and rushed to tell his brother Nathanael that he had met the Messiah about whom the prophets had talked about and that the man was from Nazareth. To which Nathanael sarcastically asked: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Make a killing
More than 2,000 years later if you pose the same question today, many will answer with a resounding “yes”. More so, those interested in a business boom. As time goes by, it looks like Christmas is no longer about the birth of Jesus Christ but a good season to boost sales.
Christmas shopping.
Customers shop for Christmas decorations at Nairobi's River Road on December 22, 2016. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
From the big malls to small shops, from big hotels to dingy drinking dens, it seems everyone is out to make a killing. Journalist turned entrepreneur who is a staunch believer Maureen Mhando feels something went amiss along the way.
“What we feel over this time called Christmas, what we want as opposed to having Christ as the centre of the occasion and how we can better walk our faith in reverent recognition of the fact that He came,” she says.
In the Bible story of Jesus’s birth, we read of the three wise men or the Magi who were led by a star to where Jesus was born. According to Bible scholars, these gentlemen most likely came from Persia so they must have covered some 900 miles on camels.
Reaching their destination, the question they posed was: “Where is the newly-born king so that we may worship him?” These folks trekked almost 1,000 miles just to go and worship at Christmas but for many of us, this seems like such an arduous task.
In our modern Christmas, worship is the last thing on most people’s minds. For many, it is a season to make merry and engage in debauchery.
Christmas shopping.
People look at Christmas decorations on display at a shopping mall in Singapore on December 16, 2015. PHOTO | MOHD FYROL | AFP | MOHD FYROL
Season commercialised
Ms Mhando says: “We go for holidays, spend, over spend, indulge, over indulge. And even in hotels where they try to set up a Christmas service, only a minority attend. The rest are having too much fun to be bothered. Plus over the years, purchasing power has increased so commercialisation of the season has significantly increased. Hence, malls decorate as early as October, something that used to happen mid-December.”
Another staunch Christian from Embu, Mr Vincent Mwangi, agrees. According to him, the problem runs much deeper and the blame should not be laid at the door of commercial enterprises only.
Miserable and depressed
He says the church is also complicit in this new state of affairs. “If even the church has become commercialised it follows that Christmas and even Easter have to be commercialised,” he says.
The downside of this extravagance is that it leaves those without the economic wherewithal to participate feeling miserable and depressed. In most cases they are left feeling like the children of a lesser God.
Writing in the premier Christian magazine Christianity Today, Esau McCaulley, who is an assistant professor of New Testament and early Christianity at Northeastern Seminary in the US and who grew up fatherless, captures this very well. “I have no problem with churches that laud family togetherness during the holidays. Nonetheless, for children without a mother or a father, it can feel like a second Christmas story reserved for the elite.
As a boy, I was envious and curious about the kind of family Christmas we didn’t have. Were our festivities second-class because they did not resemble what I saw on television? As I looked to the church, I wondered which Christmas story we celebrated the most and which had room for the prayers of a child who had been abandoned,” he says.
Christmas shopping.
A customer (right) bargains for a chicken during Christmas in Karuri, Kiambu, on December 25, 2016. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
True meaning
However, Seventh Day Adventist church elder Osborne Osanjo believes that by people engaging in all the revelry at Christmas, they are only practising the original ways of those who started the practice. According to the UK-based cleric, Christmas was never part of the Jesus birth story.
“Christmas/saturnalia is a commercial pagan celebration. It has nothing to do with our good Lord. It was and will always remain a time for extreme indulgence in drink, adultery and spending. That was how the Pagans had it,” he says.
Is there a way of salvaging the situation for those who still believe in the purity of Christmas? Ms Mhando says there is.
“The remedy would be to teach your children. Like the Lord commanded the Israelites concerning their great deliverance from Egypt’s bondage. Teach your children the true meaning of the occasion and if you can, celebrate Christmas regularly in families just like the way we do the Lord’s supper,” she says.
Ms Mhando adds: “When December comes, don’t do it like everyone else. Don’t even pretend you’re celebrating the Lord’s birth. Celebrate yourself and your achievements of the year and enjoy yourself the best way you know how and leave Jesus out of it.”

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