What Ifs

What if the apostle Paul had gone to Asia instead of Greece on his second journey?

Instead of Christmas in December, we'll have Christmas in February.
Instead of turkey, ham, and goose, we'll be dining on fish, suckling pig and Peking duck.
Instead of log cakes, we'll eat sticky rice cakes for dessert.
Instead of stuffed stocking, we'll have stuffed red packets.
Instead of Christmas trees, we'll decorate with pussy willows and cherry blossoms.
Instead of wreaths, we'll hang upside down "Shen" at our doors.

What ifs.

Christmas Reflection

Christmas is no longer celebrated by Christians. Almost the whole world is. How do I feel about sharing it? Lousy. I feel like I have lent my great-grandma's priceless heirloom soup tureen only to find that it will be used by the borrower as a spittoon or worse, a piss-pot. However, I realize that if I keep the 'soup tureen' selfishly, I will not get to tell the story of how great my 'great-grandma' was.

Take the Christmas song for example. Secular and insipid songs composed by non-Christians about Rudolf, Santa Clause, Frosty the Snowman, Roasted Chestnuts, I'll be Home for Christmas, and etc has taken over the more traditional and spiritual Christmas carols composed by Christians. Christmas became a celebration of the winter solstice and everything attached to it.

The commercial exploitation of Christmas has reached gargantuan level that the meaning of Christmas has disappeared. In Singapore Christmas is about the lights on Orchard Road shopping belt, eating turkeys and hams, log cakes, garland of hollies, mistletoe, gingerbread boys, christmas trees and presents. Unbeknown to people, even to some Christians, some of these symbols have its origin from ancient pagan worship in Europe. In the mean time, the true symbols associated with Christmas such as the star, the angels, the shepherds, the baby Jesus, the manger, the magis are almost forgotten.

People of other faiths who live in Singapore probably will say, why I am grumbling about it when the city is helping me celebrate with no expense spared. It's true the Muslims and the Hindus did not get such lavish attention. Neverthetheless... the soup tureen and the piss-pot...? On the other hand, would I prefer to celebrate on my own, with only my own Christian friends? Of course not. I would like the whole world to know the hopes and dreams that is made possible with the birth of Jesus.

The perversion of Christmas began centuries ago. It may started off as a christianized pagan holiday with the adaptation of pagan symbols. Today, the perversion continues. For these reasons, Christmas will continue to be a disturbing holy day for me. Nevertheless, I will celebrate it with a thankful heart, giving thanks for the holy Son of God, who submit himself to a short life on this wretched earth and end it with suffering on the cross, to pay for the price of my sins.

Pretenses

I saw pictures of a Thanksgiving service on facebook. In it, groups of people, young, old, children were on stage dressed up in rented ethnic costumes (with exception of the Chinese garbs of course). I believe that the people wearing the traditional clothes were all Chinese and yet they were wearing Indonesian tribal costumes other countries' national costumes.

I am trying to understand from the pictures what the goals they were trying to accomplish. What was the purpose of potraying diversity when diversity was never achieved or even attempted? After all, this was a church where some people in the leadership periodically emphasized "going back to their root" which was being a "Mandarin Church."

In the end, I came to the conclusion that it was either a pretense or just something different to do to generate novelty experience, excitement or a good colorful show.