Buy Nothing Christmas

I stumbled across a new favorite web site on Monday: Buy Nothing Christmas.  As far as I can tell, it was started by Canadian Mennonites a few years ago as a response both to rampant consumerism and to the desire to live out a simple life, even around the holidays.  Good stuff.  It's too late for a totally buy nothing Christmas in my world, but it will be a Buy Very Little Christmas.  Actually, I think I may become my own kind of evangelist for the cause. 

I don't have some hokey message about Jesus being the "Reason for the Season," but I do have a strong and growing disdain for the many interfaces that we all have to deal with on a daily basis.  Advertisements are everywhere - Fisher Price is driving me nuts, as if I'd ever think buying a horsey you can hook up to the t.v. would be a good way to teach my child how to count.  And damned if I'll communicate my weekly youth group plans in five ways every day just because this kid prefers text messages and those others prefer Facebook and the parents prefer email and the web site needs to be updated and some need telephone calls to remind them in case they forget.  It's not my responsibility to make others' lives convenient.  Convenience is a market value, and I prefer kingdom values.  Now about that horsey, I'm reviving an old household mantra: when we see an ad, our refrain is not, "Oh, I want that / that looks fun (tasty)."  Rather, we say aloud, "You have GOT to be kidding me." 

The "Christmas Season?"  You have GOT to be kidding me.  As far as I'm concerned, this year, December is about Advent and purple is the color of the season, not red and green.  In fact, I've got a sermon coming up for the first Sunday in Advent: November 29, people, get it on your calendar.  It's hope Sunday as far as the liturgical calendar goes - so where is our hope and what do we hope for?  The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) text for that Sunday is from the prophet Jeremiah, who writes that a righteous branch will spring up to execute justice and righteousness in the land (33.14-16).  Now that I can hope for, and hope doesn't cost a penny.