My family and I have lived in neighborhoods that had Homeowners Associations and and other ones, like our present one, that did not. I could make a cogent case to have them, and also not to have them. The devil, as they say, is in the details.
But this takes the cake. Now an HOA has decided that it is a theological-decision panel.
A family in Raleigh, North Carolina were shocked when their homeowner’s association (HOA) tried to force them to remove a six-foot Christmas cross that the family put up as a holiday decoration, stating that crosses can only be displayed during Passover or Easter.“Lo and behold, after putting it out right after Thanksgiving, we got a notice in the mail. It shocked us,” James Faison said to the local ABC affiliate in the city. “We believe that the cross is symbolic of hope, salvation and deliverance. It’s so important that we have this cross up for Christmas time.But the HOA disagreed.In a letter, the Faisons were told, “The board does not consider this a Christmas decoration, but Easter/Passover seasonal decoration.” Ironically, James reports that there are many Christians on the board, but they believe that there should be a distinction and separation between Christmas and Easter.Perhaps they forgot that you need Christmas to get to Easter, or maybe they haven’t gone to a Christmas Eve service that serves communion as a reminder of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice.Either way the Faisons were given notification that if they didn’t come into “compliance,” they would be forced to pay a $100 fine.“They didn’t mention anything in the bylaws, they didn’t say go look here in the bylaws as far as it relates to the HOA in the community, this is the reason why. They didn’t say any of those things,” James said. “They asked me to provide biblical references.”The Faisons did as asked.Part of the HOA’s response included, “The cross represents the death of Jesus Christ who died for our sins so we can have eternal life. The Christmas season is associated with the birth of the Savior such as nativity scenes would be appropriate representation of the season. The Board believes that the Bible is very clear on the distinction between these two major events in Christ’s life on earth. The cross is appropriate for display during the Easter season, but not as a decoration during the Christmas season. Unless biblical references can be provided noting the cross as a symbol of the Christmas season for the board to reconsider, the cross is not considered to be a Christmas decoration.”
So this HOA thinks it can meet for what - 15 minutes? - and refute about 2,000 years of Christian theology, as well as hundred of years of Christian iconography.
Well.
"For the glory of the Lord shall be revealed," promised the Scriptures, and the glory of God can hardly be beheld impassively. One either runs to embrace the Lord or runs from him. Neutrality is not even possible.
So the passages for Advent typically include reminders that, absent God’s gracing presence, we mortals are lost in our sins. Almost every Advent, the lectionary passage for the first Sunday is of the severity of God's judgment. We are reminded that, “Christ has come, Christ will come again.” And his next advent will not be so innocently or unthreateningly accomplished.
Yet Advent also shows that by being born the baby in the manger God was not going on the offensive against us. He joins us an our ally. In fact, God’s kingly, overwhelming power is found there literally to be defenseless, so much so that Joseph and Mary had to flee the town to save Jesus’ life.
Is there power in such weakness? No, not in weakness per se. Jesus’ Godly power, or our own, is found neither in human in weakness nor in strength, but in faithfulness. It is God who is strong, not we mortals. Compared to the God’s strength, human weakness is inevitable but it is also inconsequential. God knows this, so he did not shrink from being born of woman, just as we are, nor from enduring the travails of human life in all its triumphs and disappointments, its joys and frustrations.
And at the end, death on a cross. But death could not hold Jesus because God is stronger than death.
Manger scenes became a popular artistic motif during the Renaissance. In almost all such paintings, the artists included the cross somewhere in the scenery. Sometimes it was on the horizon outside the manger. One artist, Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556), painted a cross on a shelf on the manger’s wall, such as many homes would have had. Let us take a cue from those theologically-trained artists. They knew the connection between the manger and Calvary. So did Jesus. As his last trip to Jerusalem loomed, knowing what it portended, Jesus told the disciples, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour” (John 12:27).
As for scripturally connecting Jesus' birth with his death, read these passages.
