December 9, 2001

Dear Friends,

It’s the second Sunday of Advent and yet you’d never know from the way this service is being conducted. No candles, no carols, and no mention of the word Christmas either. Actually, Christmas was mentioned two or three Sundays ago—the preacher made an announcement about a sign-up sheet for people who wanted to perform in the church’s Christmas service. But that was it.

Is the whole Advent season just a Western-culture Christianity thing? I wonder if African churches celebrate Advent? I guess they’d have their own carols, too, for all the ones I’m used to singing are from the West. I also wonder if Easter is given more attention here, or if it is also celebrated in the same way that
Christmas seems to be: just on that day.

So do I miss the Advent season back home? Yes. I miss the excitement, preparations, decorations, carols, etc. associated with the Christmas season. I wonder, though, how much of what I miss is just what I could call “commercialized fluff.” For example, Christmas trees, decorations, lights, pine-scented candles and Christmas music that plays in my home, the mall, and the grocery store. How much of those things are really centered on the true meaning of Christmas?

When I’m at home for the holidays, how much of my attention, besides the crèche scene I set up at home and the religious carols I sing at church, is really focused on the gift that Jesus Christ was to the world? Instead, I find that much of my time is devoted to figuring out what to buy for whom and how to make the money I use to buy those gifts stretch the farthest without coming across as Scrooge-like. I’m also concerned with helping mom around the
house and just hanging out with the family. Yes, I go to church and recite the Advent liturgy, sing the carols, listen to the sermons and pray the prayers, but is there greater depth and meaning to my American Advent reflections and meditations? I’m not so sure that there is.

So is it better, dare I say “right,” to keep on plugging away with “standard” church services and then just celebrate Christmas when it arrives? Not quite, for I think the anticipation of the coming of Christ that is associated with Advent helps to emphasize the dire importance of Jesus Christ to our lives. I do think, however, that there are a few lessons that can be learned from the current situation of my church here in Yuncheng.

First of all, their eyes are totally focused on Jesus. Granted, Advent is also supposed to focus on the coming of Christ, but many times churches back home are more focused on who will light the Advent wreath candles, how many Christmas pageant costumes will need mending or upgrading before the Christmas Eve performance, and whether or not the Christmas Eve family service will keep to its one-hour time limit. Where is Jesus in any of that? Without all of the extra hassles and worries created by certain traditions, my
Yuncheng church is freed from petty concerns that take believers’ focus away from Jesus. Instead, they continue holding “regular” services, singing hymns like “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Living out Christ” and preaching about Jesus being the only way to salvation.

Secondly, they do not spend frivolous amounts of money decorating their sanctuary (both inside and out) for the holiday. This could be due to lack of funding. For, the church still has concrete floors, backless wooden benches for pews, and zero heating. However, just last week a church family donated a piano to the congregation. If needed, money for decorations could be provided. Now you may tell me that Christmas decorations aren’t Chinese, so why should this church have any? Well, you’re right, Christmas decorations aren’t Chinese, they’re Western. However, like so many other products from the West, Christmas decorations have also invaded this country.
Just last week I bought a set of colored lights for my apartment for $1.20, I found a store that sells Santa masks, dolls, and paper cut-outs in this small city, and the middle school where I live even owns a Christmas tree! Yet despite this knowledge and relative availability of Christmas decorations, for whatever reason (be it ignorance or indifference) this church chooses not to decorate for the holiday.

I wonder how much money churches in the United States spend on twinkly lights each year? What about money spent on those specially colored Christmas bulletin covers? I do find those bulletins very pleasing to the eye, but only for as long as the service lasts. Where do they all end up after the service? I don’t know how much money those extra bulletins cost, but I do know that 50 dollars can help fund the yearly education of a poor child from China’s countryside. If all the churches in the U.S. cut back on their Christmas
decoration budgets by a mere 50 dollars, think of the thousands of children who would be granted the privilege of a real education?

At this point you may think I am coming down too hard on churches in the U.S. Good, that’s what I want to do. You may say that my being away from home makes it easier to be more critical of life in the U.S., right? Not exactly. In fact, I find living here makes it easier to be more critical of China and less critical of the U.S. I’m constantly running into some “strange local custom” (like spitting on the floor during church or always being asked about my monthly salary), which causes me to wish I were back in the U.S. where people behave
“normally.” That’s when I realize my cultural bias is taking charge of my emotions, elevating my less-than-perfect homeland culture to that of superior and mighty. So I do not believe that being away from home for over four months now has jaded my reflections.

This time, however, I believe that Chinese Christian culture (or maybe it’s just the Yuncheng Christian culture) is helping me to shed light on my deeply ingrained American Christian culture. It has made me think about my attitude towards Jesus Christ during Advent and Christmas, the seasons of our Lord’s coming and birth. It has challenged me to shed my frivolous concerns and money-spending and, instead, put on an attitude of awe, reverence, and worship for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the whole reason for this wonderful season. No, I’m not going to burn all of my Christmas music and boycott the sale of Christmas decorations in this country. I shall continue listening to Christmas tapes in my apartment, but instead of using them as energizing background music, they will aide me in worshiping Jesus, my Lord and King.

Caroline Sunquist

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p 179