Conventional Wisdom and Those Twelve Days of Christmas

 by Ray Keating

The Keating Files – December 26, 2020

 

(The following column is included in Behind Enemy Lines: Conservative Communiques from Left-Wing New York. It originally was published in December 2005.)

 

Is the Christmas season really over once we pass December 25?  That’s what conventional wisdom tells us, but as is so often the case, it is just plain wrong.

 

The conventional wisdom actually has the Christmas calendar backwards.  Retailers, for example, say the Christmas season kicks off some time around Thanksgiving and wraps up on Christmas Eve.

For Christians, however, Advent, which begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas, really is a period of waiting. Often noted is what Jeremiah said: “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:26)  This contrasts quite sharply with how hectic daily life usually is leading up to Christmas.

It is the twelve days of Christmas, as referenced in the carol of the same name, that mark the Church’s celebration.  The true Christmas season starts on Christmas Day and ends with the feast of the Epiphany on January 6.  

 

And what about that song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”?  Again, the conventional wisdom seems to view it as a silly, indecipherable tune.  But it is rooted in Christianity.  Historic Trinity Lutheran Church in Detroit explains on its website: “The carol originated in England during a time when Catholics were persecuted. Seeming to be nonsense, each verse, in fact, contains coded symbols for ancient Christian themes associated with the days of the Christmas observance.”  For example, “four calling birds” refers to the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and “twelve drummers drumming” are the twelve doctrinal points in the Apostle’s Creed.

 

The Christmas season, whether properly defined or not, also is widely viewed as the easiest time of year to be a Christian.  While everybody can be Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, it seems like almost everyone, in some way or another, celebrates at Christmas time. 

 

Part of that is simply the appeal of giving gifts and being with family.  But the Christmas season also brings many Christians back to church because they love the idea of a baby being born in order to save the world, as they should.  And at the other end of the twelve days, Epiphany reveals Christ to the world, as the Magi, or three wise men, bring gifts to the Lord.

 

It is easy to warm up to the most innocent of babes and wise men bearing gifts, especially compared to what Holy Scripture and the Church have to say at other times about, for example, sin, the need for forgiveness, suffering, death and redemption.

 

However, a closer look at the Church calendar between Christmas and Epiphany might reveal a couple of surprises. One day is set aside to remember St. Stephen and another marks the Holy Innocents.

 

Stephen was the first Christian martyr.  He was stoned to death for speaking the truth about Jesus Christ.  The Holy Innocents were the boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem murdered by Herod in his attempt to kill the newborn King.

 

These two festivals during the twelve days of Christmas remind us that the birth of Jesus Christ does not mean that Christians will experience no suffering, loss and sadness.  In fact, as Stephen made clear, the mere public act of proclaiming the faith can bring down the wrath of others.  And the death of the Holy Innocents reminds us that evil is still very much at work.

 

The birth of Jesus provides the strength to carry on no matter what challenges we face.  After all, this baby would experience the most brutal of deaths as well.  But it was a death packed with significance for all. 

 

As the angel said to the shepherds: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)  What does that mean?  Well, before he died, Stephen said: “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:56)  It means salvation.

 

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Ray Keating is a columnist, novelist, economist, podcaster and entrepreneur.  His new book Vatican Shadows: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel is the 13th thriller/mystery in the Pastor Stephen Grant series. Get the paperback or Kindle edition at Amazon, or signed books at www.raykeatingonline.com. 

 

The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?

 

You also can order his book Behind Enemy Lines: Conservative Communiques from Left-Wing New York  from Amazon or signed books  at RayKeatingOnline.com. His other recent nonfiction book is Free Trade Rocks! 10 Points on International Trade Everyone Should Know.

 

One of the best ways to enjoy Ray Keating’s Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries is to join the Pastor Stephen Grant Fellowship! For the BEST VALUE, consider the Book of the Month Club. Check it all out at https://www.patreon.com/pastorstephengrantfellowship

 

Also, tune in to Ray Keating’s podcasts – the PRESS CLUB C Podcast  and the Free Enterprise in Three Minutes Podcast  

 

Check out Ray Keating’s Disney news and entertainment site at  www.DisneyBizJournal.com.

Mad Men - What is Happiness? Don Draper and St. Augustine

 by David Keating

The Keating Files – September 28, 2020

 

One of the most enduring shows to have aired on television in recent years is AMC’s Mad Men. 

 

Mad Men features the character of Don Draper, an advertising executive whose creative pursuits, marital affairs, and drinking exploits we follow throughout the course of the series. Of the things that I love about Mad Men’s character study of Draper is that it explores what it means to truly be happy. 

 

Don is a character that, when we first meet him, appears to have it all. He has a lovely home in a suburb north of Manhattan. He has a beautiful wife named Betty, who is portrayed by January Jones. He has two children, Bobby and Sally, a white picket fence, the whole American dream that is envisioned in 1950’s America. Yet, the most consistent theme that we see Don struggle with is how to define happiness. It comes through in his creative work for his advertising firm, and it certainly comes through in conversations he has with the many different women in his life. 

 

In an early episode of Mad Men, Don describes happiness in this way, “Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you're doing is OK.” Much of Don’s work in the marketing world seems to reflect this view, especially early on in the series. It seems as if Don reflects a view that many have in our culture as well. Happiness is whatever brings us a sense of comfort and peace, perhaps even a sense of distraction, that helps us to put our minds at ease when compared to the many things which worry us in our day-to-day lives. 

 

Later on in the series, Don offers a similar take when pitching DOW Chemical on his agency taking over the marketing division of DOW. The DOW executives explain that they are happy with their agency since they have a good relationship and sales are strong. After all, they have 50% of the market share for what DOW chemical provides. To this, Don replies, “Are you? You’re happy with 50%? You’re on top and you don’t have enough. You’re happy because you’re successful for now. But what is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness. I won’t settle for 50% of anything. I want 100%. You’re happy with your agency? You’re not happy with anything. You don’t want most of it. You want all of it. And I won’t stop until you get all of it.”

 

What viewers come to realize in this exchange is that Don isn’t really talking about DOW Chemical. Instead, he is offering insight into his own character’s struggles. Don has defined his own happiness in two ways: whatever provides a sense of comfort, and the idea that in order to acquire happiness, you need to be chasing the things we want, even until we have acquired everything there is to have. 

 

Christians, especially in North America, can often fall victim to the same kind of thinking that Don puts on display here. We assume that if we had a little bit more money, possessions, leisure, etc., then we would finally be happy. But what we find when we acquire these things is that they quickly become passe. Our happiness, when defined along the lines of what Don Draper describes, only becomes one moment of satisfaction before we need more. 

 

St. Augustine offers us some comfort in response to the struggles to which Mad Men gives voice. St. Augustine once wrote that, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” In other words, when left to our own devices, we will constantly be unsatisfied with the things we require. Simply put, when our faith, trust, or satisfaction is found in things other than God, we will always be dissatisfied and looking for more, even when we seemingly have acquired everything, or at least everything our culture tells us to acquire. 

 

Matthew reminds us of a similar idea in his Gospel account. He records Jesus' words which tell us, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” 

 

Christianity’s answer to Don Draper’s dilemma then is to remember what our wants are versus our needs. Focus on the things that are within our control, but, ultimately we trust that God will care for us in those things which are out of our control. Surely, God does provide for our needs. We have a Heavenly Father who cares for the Church, and therefore not only do we have the gifts of food, family, and home which stem from God, we also have the most precious gift of all: the satisfaction that comes with the eternal life which Christ Jesus offers. At the end of the day, our hearts can only truly be satisfied not in the acquisition of more happiness, but in the rest which our Savior provides. 

 

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The Reverend David Keating is pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Curtis, Nebraska.

 

Previously by Pastor Keating…

 

“Zack Snyder’s Messy Super-Jesus”

 

“Short Message: How Do, or Should, Christians Witness?”

 

“Amazon’s ‘The Boys’ - Does Christianity Have a Culture Problem?”

 

“Reflecting on 9/11: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?”

 

Why Are Conservative Christians in Retreat?

 by Jerry Bowyer

Guest Column

The Keating Files – September 24, 2020

 

Me: "Company X did something really bad."

 

Conservative Christian Kneejerk Response: "I'm going to sell Company X from my portfolio."

 

Me: "If Congress does something stupid do you instruct the department of elections to remove your name from the list of registered voters?"

There is something deep in the current Christian psyche that automatically opts for retreat. There is something in the general conservative psyche of the moment that is drawn to the role of standing outside the castle yelling at those inside.

 

The other side, on the other hand, seems to have a governing mindset. They don't have a good governing philosophy. They've left a wide trail of failure behind them. And yet, they still tend to govern our institutions. 

 

They take the mandate of Jesus to “occupy” more seriously than we do - but without His true principles. They take more seriously than we do the command to “disciple the nations,” except not the part where Jesus said to teach them all things HE commanded. They disciple the nations away from his commandments, while we don't really think in terms of discipling them at all.

 

Of course, I'm not talking about all of us. If you are reading this, you probably do not fit the standard pattern. But there is a factory installed default to conservative Christians when it comes to nation building and that default setting is “retreat.”

 

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Jerry Bowyer is the editor at Townhall Finance, and his new book is The Maker Versus the Takers: What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice and Economics.