Christmas brings the generations together

We live in a culture beset with age consciousness. Every generation is named (Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennium Generation, etc.), and described and analyzed. Thanks to the work of writers like Gail Sheehy (in the 1970s), we are also keenly aware of the “passages” or stages we each go through from birth to death. These too are described and analyzed.

Perhaps this is possible only in a society where survival can be assumed. Perhaps only in a society of relative affluence, free from revolution, repression, famine, and other dire circumstances, is “self-realization” so strongly linked to, and shaped by, demographic or age-stage considerations.

In the church too, we often divide by age. This Herald carries a report on the recent 55+ retreat in Banff, Alberta, the second such event for seniors in the Canadian MB Conference. The previous issue told of children’s camps and schools. The one before that highlighted “Hearing the Call,” a program designed for high schoolers.

Please don’t misunderstand me. These programs are important. We’re determined, in fact, that they should be talked about here and supported. We must attend to people’s needs for growth, inspiration and encouragement, and programs like the ones mentioned are ways of doing just that.

At the same time, however, we should not live our faith in generational ghettoes. A ghetto quickly defines who belongs and who doesn’t; it can easily enlarge the grievances of one group against another, or prevent meaningful interaction across the spectrum of the church. We need to find and promote ways of being together across the generations.

All of which brings me to Christmas.

If there’s anything with the potential to bring the generations together in home and church, it’s our special festivals like Christmas and Easter. Biblically, festivals had a strong family and community focus. (Family meant household – whoever ate from one cooking pot.) Most were joyous times of singing, dancing, storytelling and feasting. Work, with its gender and generational roles, was suspended.

Some festivals like the Passover included rituals of children asking questions and adults answering. This insured, it seems to me, that children’s natural curiosity and need for guidance were given room in the lives of adults. It also insured that the respect befitting the knowledge and wisdom of the older generation was given room in the lives of the younger. Their exchanges enacted generational interdependence and were witnessed by everyone present.

In an address to the Canadian Mennonite Health Assembly recently, David Kuhl, author of What Dying People Want, said that if it takes a community to raise a child it also takes a community to usher a person to life’s end. It reminds me of a Christmas scene we rarely feature in holiday tableaus: the wizened (I’m assuming!) Simeon taking the infant Jesus in his arms at the temple and pronouncing his blessings, and the aged Anna speaking of the child to all who awaited the Messiah. There they were, the very oldest and the very youngest members of the Incarnation drama, with Mary and Joseph in the middle and worshippers milling about, united in the “consolation,” “light” and “glory” God had “prepared in the presence of all peoples” (Luke 2:25, 31–32).

This scene doesn’t make it to Hallmark cards, and to be honest, neither would most of our Christmas gatherings. In any inter-generational mix, somebody’s bound to be grumpy or tired or bored. Gatherings are work and can be stressful. Yet they’re worth it. Let’s make sure we spend time with someone of another age-stage this Christmas. Let’s bring curiosity, respect and love. Let’s celebrate God’s lovingkindness “from generation to generation.”