Sermons for the Month
Hazardous Holidays
DATE: December 3, 2000
SERVICE: Advent I
TEXT: Psalm 25:1-9“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
First they were on cigarette packages and diet soda cans, and now they're on everything from baby strollers to automobile sun visors. Warning labels. A cautionary note on a Batman costume says: "Mask and chest plate are not protective; cape does not enable user to fly." Another is on the sun reflector for my car windshield: "Do not use while driving." Now it seems that a warning should appear on the bottom of every monthly bank or brokerage statement: "Economic good times may be hazardous to your health." Oh, really? How so? Economist Christopher Ruhm has discovered a dark side to our booming economy and a silver lining to economic bad times. The health of Americans deteriorates during temporary upturns in the economy, he asserts in a recent issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and improves when business is in retreat. It's a curious and counter-intuitive conclusion. Not at all what we'd expect. Ruhm claims that we feel bad when times are good, and feel good when the economy is bad. He found, for example, that the death rate dropped in states when the unemployment rate went up, particularly among younger people. In one instance, he estimated that a one percentage-point rise in unemployment decreased deaths involving 25- to 44-year-olds by more than 2,900 in 1990. He also found that as people went back to work, there was an associated increase in homicides, traffic deaths and accidents of all types. Deaths from heart disease, the flu and pneumonia also rise by a smaller but still significant amount. So why would bad times be good and good times be bad?
A big reason is that Americans, particularly younger people, tend to indulge more when the economy soars. You would think that with all the increase in buying and selling that went on last weekend, everyone is as happy as a lark. However, ironically, during good times people eat more and drink more booze, which is largely why accidents of all types increase. Likewise, "obesity increases when the economy strengthens, whereas physical activity is reduced and diet becomes less healthy." So let's keep in mind that good times really can be bad for us as we enter the Advent season and start the chaotic countdown toward Christmas. While it's no mystery that overindulgence of food and drink can hurt us, so can excessive decorating, shopping and holiday activity. We need to stand with the psalmist who pleads in our text: "Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long" (25: 4-5). According to Ruhm Good economic times can be hazardous to our health, and so would I add, can holidays. To get through the season to come, we need to know the ways of God, the one who calls us to use these weeks to prepare ourselves prayerfully, to simplify our activities and to focus on steadfast love, faithfulness and keeping covenant with God (v. 10). But first, what's the cause of all this pre-Christmas chaos? It has its roots in the fourth century when the church chose December 25 for its celebration of the birth of Christ, laying a Christian celebration over the riotous Roman Saturnalia - a time of uncontrolled feasting and frolicking to laud the approach of spring. Puritan minister Cotton Mather was responding to this situation in the 17th century when he criticized the season's "Reveling, Dicing, Carding, Masking and all Licentious Liberty" - a sentiment that was tied to the passing of laws against celebrating Christmas in Puritan New England. "Shall it be said," Mather asked, "that at the birth of our Savior we take the time to do actions that have much more of Hell than of Heaven in them?" Mather was raising a basic question that more and more of us want answered these days. It seems that the gods of consumerism have taken such control of the season - in the guise, incidentally, of the Christian virtue of generosity - that Christians are turning increasingly to the church for guidance in finding alternative ways to celebrate. Members of the ChristBody are looking for ways to observe the holiday in a way that stands a chance of bringing us some peace and joy, and that involves a generosity that is more of spirit than of shopping lists. One way to avoid the hazards of the holidays is to see Advent as a season of expectation - not gratification. Oddly enough, "less is more" when we use these weeks as a time of prayerful preparation, a time of mystery and awe instead of madrigal feasts and parties. At the very least, we can sing Advent hymns on the four Sundays before Christmas, instead of rushing straight into carols. I know, we have this argument every year. "Joy to the World" was already bouncing off the walls of Summit Mall the day before Thanksgiving. Most of you are at least tolerant of our not heading headlong into singing Christmas Carols until later in the month. In our sanctuary can we not be singing "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," which is slower and more mysterious and awe-inspiring as we prepare for the true reason for the season? Bill Parent, a Catholic priest who has served churches in the Washington, D.C., area, goes even further. He won't say "Merry Christmas" until December 24 - a not-so-subtle reminder that the true Christmas season begins only on that day. He has found that many people, fed up with the commercial aspects of the holiday season, are receptive to reclaiming older traditions, such as focusing on Saint Nicholas - a true saint! - instead of Santa Claus. When Saint Nick showed up at the annual parish photo-op for children in one of his churches, Bill was pleasantly surprised to see how content the little ones were to whisper their Christmas lists to the fourth-century bishop of Myra. Of course, it's tough to set limits on Santa when you have grade-school children, and in many instances, it's the desire to be good parents that lures us into holiday excess. The gods of the mall seduce us with the Siren song of generosity, and even the old elf himself can be seen as an illustration of Christian grace - he always gives us more than we truly deserve. Problem is, even GOOD excess can be hazardous to your health. Have you seen the "Life Change Index"? It's a chart developed by a stress researcher that assigns numerical value to the amount of stress various life-events bring. For any one event, 100 would be the maximum amount of stress, while zero would indicate no stress at all. This researcher's claim is that if, within a one-year period, you accumulate 300 stress points, you are likely to experience some negative change in your health. Predictably, the death of a spouse yields 100 points on the stress scale. Divorce gives 73 points, while a marital separation is a 65-pointer. Personal injury or illness, 53 points. Being fired, 47 points. But what is surprising is that several events which we normally consider to be good things also show up on the stress scale: Getting married, 50 points. Marital reconciliation, 45 points. Gaining a new family member, 39 points. Outstanding personal achievement, 28 points. Vacation, 13 points. And closest to our congregational concerns today: Christmas, 12 points. Slap on the warning label! Even good times can be stressful and hazardous, so with the threats of this season's activity-exhaustion and shopping-mall-mania, we should do whatever we can to reduce our stress and simplify our lives. Some conscientious Christians are moving away from store-bought baubles and toward a group of items and services called "alternative gifts." There is, for example, the Heifer Project International, which provides livestock and training to families in more than 40 countries. Donors are invited to purchase such gifts as a flock of chicks for $20, a trio of rabbits for $60, a pig for $120 or a heifer for $500. Churches can display the project's catalog, and members can give cards saying that an animal has been purchased in the recipient's name for a struggling family. It sure beats another gift basket. Others set limits on the amount they spend on gifts at Christmas. Some congregations are promoting the "Hundred Dollar Holiday," in which families promise to spend no more than a total of $100 on Christmas - an act that forces simpler, more personal and often handmade gifts. Christian environmentalist Bill McKibben has been spearheading this program among Methodists in New York state for about 10 years with some success - although retailers surely wish it would die a quick death. So, too, McKibben's ideas for the simple gift of time - baking a pie, recording a song, whittling a walking stick or visiting a nursing home resident. Parents: Why not encourage your children to give you coupons - redeemable for "setting the table" or some other household chore? Family members can exchange coupons for a monthly back rub, baby-sitting, house painting or a trip to the zoo. A joke making the rounds these days asks what would have happened if Three Wise Women had gone looking for Jesus instead of Three Wise Men. Answer: They would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole and brought practical gifts! Stable cleaning beats frankincense and myrrh any day of the week. In a time of holiday hazards, such truly valuable ACTIONS are ways that the Lord can move us toward a deeper appreciation of the gift of Christ at Christmas. Investment of precious time and talent remind us that "all the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees" (v. 10). Some are choosing to follow this path by "adopting" a low-income family through a local interfaith social service agency - a project that might involve buying and wrapping gifts for children, or delivering a Christmas tree. There is tremendous value in exposing our children to life beyond the bubble of affluence, introducing them to a family that worries more about paying the rent than picking up the latest Pokemon merchandise or robotic dog. Christmas can help weaken the walls that isolate us in our own economic niches. All these activities - Advent expectation, limit-setting, alternative gifts, outreach to neighbors - can reduce the risk of holiday hazards and prepare us much better for the central, spiritual event of Christmas. This is not to say we have to plaster a warning label over the entire season and proclaim that good times are always going to be hazardous to our health ... but let's do what we can to turn down the volume and find some peace and quiet in "Silent Night." If we're careful with our time in the days to come - focusing more on activities than on acquisitions - we'll be able to arrive at Christmas feeling some energy and expectation instead of sheer exhaustion. And we'll come to it with the satisfaction of knowing that we are celebrating the season in a way consistent with our deepest beliefs, having followed the peaceful paths and the wonderful ways of the God of our salvation. AMEN