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December 08, 2005
What happened to Christmas?
Years ago, the manger scenes were removed from public lands. Santa Claus replaced Jesus as the all-knowing and seeing one. Rudolph and Frosty helped cloud the issue of what Christmas is all about.
Stores are now joining the push to eliminate even the word "Christmas," which more and more is being replaced with "Season's Greetings" and "Happy Holidays." What if there was no Christmas? What would your life be like without Christmas?
If there had never been a Christmas, the world would be far different than it is today - in ways you may never have imagined. Christmas represents the birth of the Christ-child. His coming changed history. (We number our calendars by it.) He taught His followers to love their neighbors as themselves (Luke 10:27).
To live out this idea, His followers invented the idea of organized charity. The early Christian communities stressed support for widows, orphans, the sick and disabled. They organized efforts to help those who were dying. They built, staffed, and paid for hospitals. In recent times, Christ's followers have founded virtually every charitable organization on earth, including the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, World Relief, World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, Food for the Hungry, and Compassion International. It was Christians who encouraged the building of schools, to teach young people to read the Bible. Christians founded the first 123 American colleges and universities.
But even more important, without Christmas, there is no hope of life after death, no hope of heaven, for it was at Christmas, that God Himself became a man, that He might offer His life as a sacrifice for sins. Without Christmas, we, along with the Jews, are still living in the Old Testament, hoping, waiting, longing for a Savior. But this is how the Chronicles of Narnia begin. In the first chapter of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, we read of how four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, enter a magical land called Narnia, where animals walk and talk, and the land is ruled by a wicked witch whose magic spell keeps the entire land always winter, but never Christmas. But then, as the story unfolds, the Christ of Christmas enters the land. In The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Christ comes in a different form than He came to our world. He comes in the form of the great Lion, Aslan.
Last week, our son Josh wrote asking for a number of recipes. He and his roommate were going to have a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. Katie was coming down to join them. He wanted to prepare all of the family favorites. Kay sent him the recipes, and for days they were busy, preparing to make this holiday special. I want to give you some recipes to help make your Advent Season special. Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, is a time to prepare for the coming of Christ. While we live in a culture that does not even want to mention the name of Christ, and encourages us to have a "Happy Holiday," we have the opportunity to season our world with His name. Our children will not here the name of Jesus in school, but I want to encourage you to make use of every opportunity to let our world know what Christmas is all about. If you want to read the Christmas story in the Bible, you can turn to Luke 1-2 to get the most detailed account, which is the story of Christmas from Mary's perspective. You can supplement this account with Matthew 1, which gives us Joseph's side of the story. But John is the one who gives the theological significance of the story: Read John 1:1-14.
Probably most of you have a box somewhere marked Christmas. Inside our box are decorations and Christmas ornaments that have special meaning to our family. Some are reminders of our children. During the years, they have added many ornaments to our collection. Some are reminders of significant events from the past. Vacation trips we have taken, Packers glory years, the Badgers (my wife makes us put these ornaments toward the back of the tree). But then, there are also ornaments that remind us of the real meaning of Christmas. One is a nail, hanging on a red ribbon, reminding us of the reason Christ was born. Putting up trees and decorating them is a very ancient custom. It began as an old English tradition But Christians adapted that old tradition, using the opportunity to tell the Christmas story. Apples were put on the tree, first known as a Paridise Tree, retelling the story of Adam and Eve. Wafers were put on the tree, as a reminder of Jesus, the bread of life, and candles were lit to remember Christ as the light of the world. Some churches and families make Chrismons, special ornaments shaped as symbols of Christ, which they hang on their trees. We use evergreens, as a reminder of the gift offered to us of eternal life. Every year, as we put up the Christmas Tree, one of my goals is remind everyone of what Christmas is all about: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)
In the Scriptures, God has revealed to us the way to experience the very best of life. (Deuteronomy 6:1-9) Because these truths are so important, God wants us to take every opportunity to talk about them with our children, to teach them. God gave the Israelites an annual ceremony, the Passover, to perform as a reminder of who the Lord is, and what He has done. He told them, "On that day tell your son, I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt."
Advent is a time to use our Christmas traditions as an opportunity to teach our children. It is also an opportunity to share the message of Christ with others. (Read Colossians 4:2-6). We begin with devotion to prayer. Take time during Advent to pray regularly, that the message of Christ might go forth, from our lips, from our lives, from all that we do. Make use of every opportunity to share the message of Christ.
As you decorate, present your decorations to the Lord, as a tribute to Him. Pray before you decorate. Worship Him as you decorate. Give thanks to Him as you decorate. Through traditions of putting up the Christmas Tree, and decorating the house, sending our cards, entertaining family and friends, meeting and speaking with the people around us at the store and wherever we go, we can make sure our words are "seasoned with salt," making the most of every opportunity to share the real meaning of Christmas.
Posted by Pastorkeith at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)