Christmas Vs Xmas

It's been said that xmas is Christmas with Christ crossed out, I guess that for a lot of folk Christmas has got Christ crossed out as well. I know some Christian folk who almost seem afraid of Christmas, afraid of its commercial enterprise pushed by the big money people seeing an opportunity to make more. I think this time of year is a great opportunity to celebrate JESUS, not his birthday "it was probably spring time anyway" says Shane Claiborne of the "Simple Way", but to celebrate the greatest rebel with a cause who has ever lived...
I found a Christmas carol on Brian Mclarens blog... "The Rebel Jesus". Jackson Browne sings "I bid you pleasure & I bid you cheer from a heathen & a pagan on the side of the rebel Jesus" Seems like even the heathens and the pagans want to be on His side... "But!! they won't get into heaven unless they are born again, saved, washed in the blood, etc, etc, I guess there's more than one way to cross out Jesus.

The Rant

We shout, we sing, we act, we dance, we march, we write, we serve, we bring in the guest speaker, take a retiring collecting, (but he doesn’t retire), he just comes back next year. There’s a year team, a gap team, and a trainee team. We print, we e-mail, and we paint. We are relevant, current, risk taking radicals, and sometimes we’re just rude. And still the Church doesn’t grow

Perhaps we need to be... honest, open, real and revolutionary. Perhaps we need to talk about the things that are left unsaid; maybe we should stop acting and get about the real business of the kingdom.
Is this blog going to help with this, I doubt it, after all I want you to read it to the end and so I will fill it with warm heart tugging stories and triumphant testimonies with clichéd sayings so that you will feel lifted and blessed, Uhmm, SORRY that last comment has already put you in a box, or assumed that you, the reader, are a touch shallow.