Creative Cures for the Common Christmas

When I got my daily dose of Sojourners this morning I was interested to read an article entitled "Creative Cures for the Common Christmas" written by Shane Claiborne. He also wrote the book, "The Irresistable Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical," which several people I know have read and have heard good things about. It fits beautifully with the thoughts I had the other day. This is how it starts:

"A few years ago I remember a pastor friend telling me they tried something a little different for their Christmas services. Instead of the usual holiday décor and clutter of the sanctuary, they brought in a bunch of manure and hay and scattered it under the pews so the place would really smell like the stank manger where it all began. I remember laughing hysterically as he described everyone coming in, in all their best Christmas attire, only to sit in the rank smell of a barn. They even brought a donkey in during the opening of the service that dropped a special gift as it mosied down the aisle. Folks looked awkwardly at each other, and then busted out laughing. It was one of the most memorable services they've ever had. Certainly folks came face to face with the "reason for the season" and the reality of what it must have been like for the Savior of the universe to enter the world, far from the shopping malls, as a refugee who found no room in the inn.
Imagination.
That's what our Church and our world seem to be so hungry for–that "renewing of the mind" that will allow us not to "conform to the patterns of the world" as Romans says. I am incredibly hopeful this Advent, because there are so many signs of Christians who are longing for new ways to celebrate our Savior that are not cluttered with the noise of shopping and infected with the myth that happiness must be purchased. " If you want to read the rest of the article, here is the link:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2007/12/creative-cures-for-the-common.html

I will end with a reminder to myself:

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.
- Matthew 23:25-26