The Christmas "secret" must be put back into the Christmas "spirit."

Madison Avenue has a problem. In the last two decades, consumers have built up their immune systems to resist traditional advertising methods and slogans: Hence the ever more outrageous tactics to reach us. Ad execs are desperate to find that new gimmick or jingle that will reel us in.

Additionally, our attention spans have withered and shrunk like grapes into raisins. If something doesn't grab us immediately, we simply flex our index fingers and remote our way out and on to the next message. All public speakers are prisoners of our need for quick, in-your-face kinds of communication. Speeches and sermons are no longer composed to inform and inspire so much as they are sliced and diced into "sound bites" media-designed snack food that too often only sounds good and stays fresh for the three seconds of on-air time their life span is allowed.

Postmodern culture does not make it easy to philosophize or theologize about life. What comes easy is a handy slogan we can slap over our unexamined existence so that we feel we are actually headed somewhere.

Yet there is a need for strong sound bites, good slogans and bumper-sticker bandages. Indeed, there are some few "slogans" out there that have stood the test of time. One of the most enduringly powerful is carved into the simple headstone of a country doctor.

When Albert J. Wildberger died in 1987, a piece of Americana died with him. A family doctor (now he would be called a "Family Practitioner") in Georgetown, Delaware, for 33 years, Dr. Wildberger also served as the team physician for the Sussex Central High School, and during the course of his life, was a member of most of the town's leading voluntary associations and clubs.

His tombstone epitaph bears witness to the philosophy by which he lived for 61 years:

Albert J. Wildberger, M.D., November 11, 1926 - May 26, 1987, "The Secret of Living Is Giving"

Dr. Wildberger's "secret" is the "secret" of Christmas.

How many of us this Christmas, if we really examined our lives and our lifestyles, have got the Christmas secret?

How much of ourselves this Christmas are we giving to others willingly, joyfully, without reservation or resentment?

On our Main Streets and in our malls, the "Christmas spirit" seems without the "Christmas secret." Dalton's is filled with stocking-stuffer "self-help" books that show us how to be good to ourselves, excuse ourselves, save ourselves, pamper ourselves. The Christmas market is flooded with products designed to help us achieve self-centered fulfillment.

Perennial favorite Christmas gifts of home Exercycles, weight systems and exercise videos promise us a healthy body that will make us feel completely alive. This is not to speak of home Jacuzzies, saunas and massage machines which offer us the relaxation we "deserve."

So why do so many still feel that something is wrong with the way we are living? It's because a self-absorbed life ends up absorbing life. In order to experience life, we must get outside ourselves and our own concerns.

Back in the 1980s, the city of Detroit recognized the faithful, quiet work of Irene Auberlin who, at the time she was honored, was 88 years old. When she was 56, this wife of a prominent executive who traveled a great deal, felt the need for new stimulation. She conceived of gathering the multitudinous free samples of medicines and drugs available in this country and shipping them to mission hospitals overseas. In the past 32 years, she has shipped $16 million worth of healing medicines and enlisted 500 volunteers from all walks of life to carry on this tremendous work.

There are millions out there wondering what to do with their midlife crises. Here is someone who turned her need into a creative ministry that drew in hundreds of others.

You want the "secret" to a healthy, happy, whole life? "The Secret of Living Is Giving."

Consider the predicament of a young woman, excited at the prospect of her upcoming marriage, looking forward to creating a home of her own, when suddenly all her plans, all her expectations are shattered.

When Luke's gospel reports the annunciation of Jesus' birth to Mary, we proclaim her blessed and "favored." But Mary may not have felt "blessed" or "favored." She had to accept first that all her life plans were about to be changed forever. She would bear a child, under truly unusual circumstances, and be transformed by that process in ways she could not ever imagine. Surely her relationship with Joseph was also now altered for all time. How would he react to her news? What could he say?

But despite the tumult that welled up inside her heart, Mary's response to the angel Gabriel's message is straightforward: "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word" (Luke 1:38).

In these words, Mary discovered the "secret" of living. It is giving! Mary offered up herself, all of her, to God's mysterious will and way.

I can think of no better way to observe this fourth Sunday of Advent than to celebrate those in our communities who, like Mary, have discovered the "secret" of living. Consider inaugurating this Christmas Sunday an annual ritual "The Order of the Keeper of the Christmas Secret" given to those who have kept the faith this past year by keeping the secret for everyone to see.

At this point, why not have a formal induction into "The Order of the Keeper of the Christmas Secret" of a few members of the congregation who have lived the "secret" in a particularly powerful way this past year? Have a formal "declaration" read by a lay leader (the kind that mayors' offices issue when individuals have days or weeks dedicated to them), itemizing exactly what they did to give themselves away, and then present them with a certificate and/or symbol of "The Order of the Keeper of the Christmas Secret."