I recently read something in a place I wasn't expecting it:
7. Creates a spirit of unity in the company
It was line item from a job description I was reviewing at work.
Unity generally seems like a good thing. At the very least, not a bad thing (unless it is used as code for 'uniformity').
But, the word that really caught my eye was spirit.
Perhaps because of this time of year, I've noticed the idea more and more lately. Around Christmas, we often hear about Christmas spirit — especially in terms of whether you have it...or not.
But, often, Christmas spirit simply refers more to our cultural trappings (enjoyable as some of those may be...lights, decorations, eggnog, Christmas movies — or parodies of them, gift-giving, etc.). And, it does seem observable that at least some people seem a little nicer this time of year (see below)...perhaps because of the prompts brought to us this season by the likes of Santa or Ebenezer Scrooge.
Cultural themes aside, though, that doesn't seem to really capture a larger sense of spirit about Christmas. The Spirit of Christmas seems more fully rooted in Christian stories about God and Mankind, about how they uniquely intersected at a certain point in time, about what was latent in their relationship and how the future of that relationship was changed. Advent's keywords hope, peace, joyjoy, and love take on a depth of timeless meaning that often seems more submerged the rest of the year.
The idea of the incarnation of God, especially in the form of a powerless baby continues to confound those who truly attempt to contemplate it. Further, the on-going solidarity represented by the Emmanuel-nature of God leads us to an altered understanding (if not experience) of the reality we so often otherwise are caught up in.
The shift from God at the zenith of the great chain of being toward God with us in a great web of belonging is the heart of today’s spiritual revolution.
-- Diana Butler Bass
The miracle of the Spirit of Christmas is the good news that there is no separation of us from God after all and, therefore, the joy of recognizing the unity between God, man, and all of creation both now and forevermore. That is no small thing and is part of the embedded energy in some of the timeless traditional hymns we often sing together this season of year.
