Peeved by a post on Facebook saying, “Jesus is not part of the story of Christmas,” put there by a fellow classmate from seminary, I wondered if he was losing it until he added, “Christmas is part of the story of Jesus.” He wasn’t attacking Jesus at all, but making a brilliant point about how Christmas fits into the story of Christ, not the other way around.

The other way around looks like a school planning to have 14 religions represented at Christmas. Though the plan wasn’t implemented, it would have made Jesus 1/14 of Christmas as if Jesus is only a fraction of Christmas.

Someone spoke of a long tradition at another school of having the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah featured at the end of the concert. All stood out of reverence when that masterpiece of praise to God was performed. This year the grand chorus was not part of the program.

Would a jazzed-up version of Jingle Bells suffice as a substitute for the magnificence of the King of kings and Lord of lords? Thank you once again to the Jamestown A Capella Choir for capturing the essence Christmas so reverently well.

On the other hand, there’s a real Grinch at work stealing Christmas from more than the fictitious residents of Whoville and it’s not just the offensive Satan Temple altar in the same area as the Nativity in the statehouse of Iowa that’s defrauding Christmas.

Like paper money decoupled from gold, Christmas without connection to Scripture sets off inflation and it has nothing to do with the value of the dollar, but everything to do the devaluation of Christ. Culture has so inflated Christmas (as if we don’t have enough inflation already) that it greatly diminishes the value of Christ. Together with a mythical man in a red-suit, the parties, festivities, concerts and get-togethers make Christmas equivalent to an inflatable inflating more each year.

What can make Christmas inflate even more than it is now? Getting an earlier start on Christmas shopping, wrapping, lighting, decorating, advertising music, shows, performances, plays, pageants, parades, and please don’t forget the candy, cookies and all the other fattening foods? Did I miss something? Oh yes… the trunk-load of packages and presents!

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with these things, but is Christmas just the sum of inflatable parts? Is anything greater than the cultural balloon of Christmas?

Exceeding the sum is Jesus because the greatness of Christmas is part of what makes the story of Jesus greatest. The story of Christmas begins the true story of the Son of God coming to earth incarnated as a human in a crude cradle leading to a cruel cross, then a cold tomb, followed by an incomparable resurrection, not to mention his incredible ascension to heaven and his coming again someday in glory as the only hope of overcoming sin and death. See Christmas for what it really is when its story is in His story.

The Rev. Mel McGinnis is a Frewsburg resident.