Meaning of Christmas - a sermon

With Christmas a day away (no, I'm not done shopping!), it is important to remember the meaning of the holiday:

'Christmas means

Carnage!'

When I was in A² last weekend, I had a chance to watch Babe with two young nephews (the exceedingly cute Pete and Derek). It was a lot of fun. I watched the movie while they wrestled with me like sheepdog pups.

I love the portrayal of joyful innocence in the character of Babe. Such pure innocence isn't shown very much these days. It is what informs Babe's kindness and respect for everyone. For me, the highlight of this innocence is when Babe breaks into singing 'Jingle Bells'. I'm only a tiny bit ashamed to admit that I fought back tears the first few times I watched that part. There is something powerfully right about innocence. Something we don't like to admit. Something we choose to deny. It is one of those things in the world that just seems too costly. I think, deep down, we know that we are meant to be innocent and have chosen not to be. Somehow we have this sense that we once were innocent or could have chosen to remain innocent, but we made the choice to go down the other way at the fork in the road.

We all seem to have this primordial recollection of going happily down the road and, to our total and rude surprise, being confronted with this fork. The fork has a big sign that gives directions. This sign is what we call reality. In the movie this is expressed as 'just the way things are'. That's a pretty good way to put it. Here are some of the things written on that sign:

• Life is not intrinsically fair.
• Bad things happen to good people.
• You cannot have life without death.
• Our relationship with 'the Boss' is very different than we feel it should be.

What makes Babe different from the other animals is that he doesn't just roll over and accept 'the way things are'. He hangs on to the way things could be. This inevitably leads to crisis. After all, reality is real. As expressed in the movie, the boss really does eat bacon. The cat is right (though, notice that Hogget had already decided to spare Babe).

Then, some very interesting things begin to happen. Having hung on to innocence to the point of crisis, Babe starts to be transformed. This transformation is what is lost to those who simply accept 'the way things are'. The means by which this transformation takes place is trust. Babe takes the water from the bottle Hogget is holding.

In the sheepherding competition, we see the consistent reaction of those who have chosen the path of acceptance when confronted by the transformation in another. First comes ridicule, then speechlessness and, finally, applause. This is the progression by which the fruit of the transformation is born. And, that fruit is glory. It is what all of us most deeply long for.

Having read the sign of reality, there is no way back to where we were before we read it. But, no matter how far we've walked down the path of acceptance, we can always backtrack and choose the path of transformation. This is the meaning of Christmas. But, what about Christmas meaning carnage? Well, in the real story, of which Babe is but a partial allegory, it is 'the boss' who dies, becoming the meal for the farm animals. This real story is so preposterous that it must be divine. At least, that's how I see it.

Merry Christmas.

Confessions of a music snob

'Hi, my name is Stu... and I'm a music snob'.

At least, that is what CJ says and I guess she's probably right. I've been one for a long time. It probably started when I was about 10 and a friend introduced me to the music of Alice Cooper. I became an instant fan (still am). That sort of launched me into being about 4 or 5 years ahead of my peers in terms of musical preferences (at 10, my peers were mostly listening to 'The Partridge Family' and 'The Cowsills', for God's sake).

So, while my classmates listened to CKLW, I prefered Arthur Penthollow on WRIF and while they went gaga over Barry Manalow and Abba, I listened to Yes, Zep and Pink Floyd. In my defense, my tastes were (and are) very broad. I also liked Chicago, Earth Wind and Fire, Cat Stevens, CSN&Y and James Taylor. But I liked them before anyone else my age knew who they were.

It is interesting to me that music was, perhaps, the one thing that I did not completely abdicate during my years in The Word of God. Not that they didn't try - my type of music was a 'tool of Satan'. But, it was a time when I allowed myself to have an internal double standard. I only wish I would have paid more attention to why I felt I needed to do that. Part of growing up I guess.

After college, a friend introduced me to classical music. I had worked at liking classical music during college and had made some progress, but it took this guy to really get me hooked. So, now I'm a walking classical music encyclopedia rather than a Rock music one.

So, back to the snob thing. Yes, I am very opinionated about music. And, sometimes, I get too vocal about it. In a way, I'm not apologetic about that. After all, my distaste for 'KC and the Sunshine Band' or 'Bachman Turner Overdrive' is, for the most part, due to the objective fact that they made bad music. :-)

But, there's more to it than that. One of my favorite music related movies is Mr. Holland's Opus. There is a scene in it when he is trying to get through to a student who plays clarinet but is on the verge of quiting. He plays 'Louie Louie' on the phonograph, pointing out how simplistic it is, but adding that he loves it because 'it is fun'. I guess that's the downside to being a snob - being unable to put aside one's opinions for the sake of fun. Maybe, someday, I'll grow up enough to do that.

The sad thing is that I'll probably lose my hearing first...