12-26-25

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
December 26, 2025
How many of you remember shopping at a Ben Franklin store? I purchased many comic books at one located at a shopping center in Lincoln, NE. I was recently thinking about it when singing along with Bing Crosby on the song, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” The opening of the song is,

“It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Everywhere you go
Take a look at the five and ten, it's glistening once again
With candy canes and silver lanes that glow…”

The words “five and ten” are a poetic modification of the old Five and Dime stores. It was a little like Dollar Stores, but many things were 5 cents or 10 cents. I remember going to a Ben Franklin Five & Dime to buy my mother a Christmas gift when I was quite young. But those words caught my attention because I saw on tv a young singer offering his version of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” and I wondered if he had any clue what the line referred to. How often, and not just with music, does a phrase come off our lips without knowing its origin or even its meaning? In today’s culture, I find a lot of people making an argument, yet it’s clear that they do not know what they are talking about. It is nothing more than a series of talking points, based on generalizations, with the occasional word that is used for no other purpose than fear-mongering. Whatever happened to the words, “I don’t know what that means? I’d like to have some time to educate myself so that I am able to engage in a meaningful conversation.” It almost feels as if we don’t want to have meaningful dialogue where my opinion might even be changed. Proverbs 12:18 says, “…the tongue of the wise brings healing.” It might not always bring healing, but it does seek to speak the truth without arrogance.

When a discussion has become a shouting match of insults and empty rhetoric, provide me some wisdom, Merciful God, even if it is nothing more than stepping away from the nonsense. Amen.