Spiritual Hiccups - "Happy Holidays" and Weightier Matters

Given all the attention lavished on this subject, I'm not sure I need to weigh in, but while reading this morning's gospel, I could not help thinking about "Happy Holidays," Holiday Trees, and the "War on Christmas."  Jesus is blessing out the scribes and Pharisees.  He drops a bunch of "Woe" on them.  Woe is not a big word in our world.  Perhaps it would be better if we heard Jesus say, "Shame" or "Cursed" to those who sought to instruct others in matters of faith.

Jesus says to them, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean."

I don't know much about tithing mint, dill, or cummin, but I have a strong suspicion that getting upset if they don't say "Merry Christmas" at Target falls into that category.  Worrying about whether or not a mostly secular holiday wears a bit of Christmas window dressing strikes me as the epitome of worrying about the outside of the cup.

Sometimes I think those Puritans who settled in Massachusetts centuries ago had it right.  They banned Christmas celebrations altogether.  You could be arrested for not working on Christmas Day, unless it happened to fall on the Sabbath that year.  I realize that this may have been an overreaction to the drunken celebrations of Christmas the Puritans knew from England, but if we'd followed their lead, we might not have the orgy of consumerism we now call Christmas.  

Seems to me that people who are serious about following Jesus might be happy to divorce Christ from that consumer orgy.  Leave it to Santa Claus and the shopping malls.  Let us get back to the "weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith."

But I suppose that all of us at times prefer to deal with the outside of the cup, to make sure it is shiny and clean without worrying too much about the inside.  Jesus accuses the Pharisees of being "full of greed and self-indulgence" on the inside.  But isn't that what Christmas, at least the one at the Mall, is all about?

Before we get too distracted by mint, dill, and cummin, or by "Happy Holidays" on the banners at the local department store, maybe we ought to think for a moment about the "weightier matters" Jesus warns us not to neglect.

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