Two weekends ago, Alice and I took a trip over the Santa Cruz mountains to RSV trees to find a Christmas tree. We could have just stopped at a street side vendor, but I thought it would be a lot more fun to make a trip out of it. You get to cut your own tree down when you go to RSV trees. When you get out of the car, you are greeted with a saw and a map. All of the trees cost the same. Check out their web site for more details.
It was a lot of fun. We walked most of the farm before we finally found a tree that we really liked. Alice held it up while I cut it down.
We also got to enjoy some marshmallows by the fire while we were there and Alice built a wreath. They have a wreath making station. You pay $5 and you can build a wreath with whatever you find on the property. Alice did an amazing job. Here is a picture of the wreath she made after we put it up on our front door.
The woman who was helping us was impressed with Alice’s first wreath. The picture probably doesn’t do it justice. She spent some time asking around for the best advice from the other families that were building wreaths. I think it paid off. It smells great too. Fresh.
The trip was a lot of fun. We are thinking that it might become a tradition.
Alice and I were also asking the question “Does a Christmas tree have anything to do with the baby Jesus?” I think there likely is a connection between Christmas trees and pagan festivals. I don’t think that means we can’t celebrate Christmas with a tree though. See also the wikipedia entry for Yule and the connection to Christmas.
Perhaps the celebration of Christmas around the time of the Winter solstice was an attempt at contextualizing by early Christians. I wonder how they went through the process of deciding what to encourage and what to discourage from the local culture and the established traditions. It seems that at the time, the Pope was open to recasting the pagan rituals as a way to subvert them. It makes you wonder what really is ‘Christian’ and what is cultural. In this country it seems that one might think that consumerism is part of celebrating Christmas. While the act of gift giving and remembering a greater gift is good, it seems that we have taken a good thing and taken it to a whole other level. Maybe the ritual has been recast yet again in a different direction.
The idea that God did some similar recasting with the ancient Israelites and their pagan sacrifices raises some interesting questions (see the Yule entry and the connection to modern Christmas). I’m think specifically of the practice of sacrifice as an atonement for sin. Was God working through a long process of redeeming our inclination towards ritual violence by forever siding with the victim through Jesus? Does God really approve the practice of ritual sacrifice? I desire mercy and not sacrifice he says. If not, why would he enter into it through the law and ultimately in Jesus?
Maybe God was slowly recasting ritual sacrifice in an act of love meant to transcend violence once and for all. Maybe the birth and death of Jesus wasn’t about atonement for sin but identification with the victim and the redemption of murderers by enduring the violence. Maybe God was putting an end to all mythologies of violence once and for all. This brings new meaning for me to the peacemakers being sons of God.
For more info on this idea, see Was Christ Just Another Scapegoat and the wiki entry for Rene Girard.
“Does God really approve the practice of ritual sacrifice? I desire mercy and not sacrifice he says. If not, why would he enter into it through the law and ultimately in Jesus?”
good questions. You have some good thoughts here…and some radical ones. I like how you process in the light of the current cultural context.
God was the one who set up ritual sacrifices in the OT, so I’m sure he’s approved of it (except for sacrificing of human beings)…and I think the second verse that you quoted was in the context of the Israelites only superficially offering the ritual sacrifices and neglect the ‘heart’ matter. Jesus later on in NT also affirms that…that mercy is the more important matter. The atoning sacrifice is still important because it is the only way in which we can be reconciled with God. Thank God now we don’t have to deal with the hassel of it all b/c of Jesus, who died once and for all. I’m sure though, like you said, in the light of today’s world and culture, his death brings other meaning and implications than merely ’saving us’ from our sins.
Hi Cindy,
I want to learn more about this idea. I think I have always been fascinated by myths, culture, and history. In a sense our greatest stories ever told. The suggestion that through Jesus, we have an end to the cycle of myth and sacrifice sounds like another layer to the climax of the great story of God and his people.
Damon