Christmas is under attack again.

This year’s attack started when a national coffee chain started selling cups of joe in plain red cups. The company’s logo is the only artwork on the cups. If you followed the uproar, you would think the company is a corporate Grinch.

About the same time, a large mall in Charlotte came under attack. Instead of setting up a Christmas tree in the mall, as it has done since its opening in the 1970s, mall administrators decided to replace the annual Christmas tree with a glacier display. Social media once more buzzed with comments and online petitions. In a matter of hours, the mall officials decided to replace the glacier with an artificial Christmas tree. It’s safe to say, social media melted the glacier.

Signs are popping up on the lawns of houses in our county that read, “Keep Christ in Christmas.” I agree. As a result, I want to share some ways you and I can honor this desire and avoid the silly Christmas wars.

Matthew 25:31-40 gives us some strong directions on how we can honor Christ in this busy season of the year. In the passage, Jesus talks about ministering to the hungry, stranger, naked, and sick and imprison. His disciples did not understand. It was a teachable moment. Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that you minister to him when you minister to the least among us.

Based on the spirit of this passage, allow me to offer a few suggestions that will help you “Keep Christ in Christmas:”

— Buy some extra groceries and take them by Project Inasmuch. Virginia Ray needs your help as she fulfills her mission to feed hungry children in Scotland County.

— Go through your closets and gather items that Church and Community can distribute to people in need.

— Look through your attic and garage for items that Helping Hands can share with the needy and don’t forget Habitat for Humanity.

— Call the sheriff’s office and see if you can take a platter of cookies by for his staff and inmates.

— Check with Morrison Manor and see if you can volunteer to brighten someone’s day with a brief visit.

— Get some family and friends together to visit shut-ins and sing Christmas carols to them.

— Give something to the church’s benevolent fund.

Keeping Christ in Christmas is not difficult. It’s really a matter of us looking around and asking “How can we honor Jesus with some act of compassion for those less fortunate?”

In the meantime, don’t worry about red cups of coffee.

The Rev. Wayne Wike is senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Laurinburg. Reach him at [email protected].

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Wayne Wike

Contributing columnist