It’s that wonderful time of the year when people start complaining about coffee cups not being the color of Santa’s suit or why can’t we put a cross on the top of the mountain or is my Christmas tree big enough to convince everyone I am a follower of Jesus. The cries of, “There’s a war on Christmas!” or “Why do we have to say happy holidays?” abound – so many thin-skinned ninnies who have it all seem to be just looking for something to complain about. As I drove around one of the nicer parts of town last night, I appreciated the beautiful light displays and wondered, “Why can’t we just be happy with what we have and respect what others have?” I like all kinds of religious symbols – I serve a guy who got killed on one of them – but I don’t want them everywhere I look.
I see them around the necks of people who have told me they haven’t been to church in years. I see them on billboards with messages telling me that I am bound for hell because I think everyone is equal. I see them on flags and cards and tattooed on people’s chests (which goes against Leviticus, by the way), and I think – Religious Symbols? Meh. What is the point of a religious symbol if you don’t really believe in what it represents? Why have a picture of white Jesus on your wall if you don’t feed the poor and house the homeless? Why bother with all the whining if you aren’t going to back it up with the way you live your life? Religious symbols, like T-shirts, tell people what we believe in, but they are meaningless without action. In fact, if we live the exact opposite of their meaning, we disrespect their meaning.
I don’t care about what you wear or how you dress or, honestly, most of what you say – you will tell me who you are by what you do. If you spend more time watching the Simpsons than you do in a faith community, you have told me what you believe in. If you spend more money on pizza every week than you give to your place of worship, you have told me what your priorities are. Symbols are representations of what matters to us, and if we don’t live up to what they represent, we are hypocrites. The cross, and symbols like it, isn’t a fashion accessory – it’s a way of life. It defines who we are and what we believe in. We decide if people will think we are for real, or not.
Prayer – Holy God, thank You for Your real love and challenge to do good in the world. May we honor the symbols that we wear. Amen.