From "Everday Liturgy":

I first saw this billboard commuting into the city.

I thought it was in poor taste in general, and shrugged it off. I try to not let such things upset me. As the weeks went by and I saw it out of the window each week, it struck me how ironic the billboard actually is. What truly is reasonable is that Christmas in our culture is a myth: one of consumerism, individualism, crushing debt, abundant waste, gluttony and materialism. Yet, of all the images they could have chosen: Christmas dinner, shopping malls, snowmen, jingle bells, Rudolph, or Santa Claus, which are all myths, they chose the image of the nativity along with the Magi. They had a plethora of myth to chose from and they chose to display on their billboard the entire Advent, Christmas and Epiphany stories.

In reality, once all the fluff and pageantry of Christmas is gone, when all the gingerbread men and silly songs are retired, and all the decorations packed back into the attic, there is one story that will never leave. It’s pesky. It drives into the narratives of our culture: the ones perpetuated by Christians and atheists alike. It is the gospel accounts, and all of their significance and symbolism. In the atheist group’s attempt to paint the Christmas story as myth they were still, ironically, forced to use the story itself. Whether they agree with it or not, they are helpless in their attempt to mythologize Christmas because of the fact that they are still relying on the very narrative they are trying to discount!

In the end, they really didn’t think this one through. And next year, if you want to put up a billboard, put a picture of shopping malls behind it. That’s a myth both Christians and atheists can agree to snuff out.

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