I wrote this some years ago. My sister (Cheri) was gravely ill. They amputated her leg a few days before Christmas and the doctors at Mayo Hospital were fighting a raging infection in her hip that would eventually require a hip replacement. I thought to myself how can we possibly celebrate Christmas with her lying in that hospital bed? How can we find any cheer in this season with so much misery in our lives at that moment? Then I remembered the story of the soldiers during World War I and how for a few hours on that cold starry Christmas Eve in 1914, they stopped killing each other and met in the no man's land between the front lines and there they celebrated Christmas together. Only their common faith in Christ and their common longing for home could suspend the hatred and violence of that war, if only temporarily. It made me realize and remember that Christ came into such a horribly damaged world, a world...a creation that had once been perfect was now decaying and filled with so much evil and so much ugliness and despair. That's why He came. It wasn't all that jolly in Bethlehem, certainly not for Mary and Joseph. Christmas is about healing and restoring and saving after all. What better time to remember the coming of the Christ child than when we are suffering? Christ is the cure for our suffering, for all suffering. So Merry Christmas! Worship Him and rejoice, even through pain and tears. Don't be afraid! Rejoice in His salvation! He will heal you. He has promised that He will.
THEY CAN’T STOP CHRISTMAS FROM COMING
There seems to be a lot of worry lately about Christmas
being under attack. Newspapers are full of stories this time of year…Nativity
Scenes being ordered removed from town squares, children not being allowed to
sing Christmas carols in school programs. Why should this surprise us or worry
us?
Even from within the Christian community there is disagreement
and controversy about whether or not to keep Christmas. In fact keeping
Christmas has always been controversial, ever since the Roman emperor
Constantine replaced the pagan winter festivals with holy days commemorating
the birth of Christ, around 320 AD. Because of this, many sects or groups
within Christendom have, over the centuries, objected to celebrating Christmas,
and many still do today. The Puritans certainly tried to keep Christmas from
coming. They banned the observance of Christmas outright in the colony of
Massachusetts, from 1659 until 1681:
“For preventing disorders, arising
in several places within this jurisdiction by reason of some still observing
such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other communities, to the great
dishonor of God and offense of others: it is therefore ordered by this court
and the authority thereof that whosoever shall be found observing any such day
as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other
way, upon any such account as aforesaid, every such person so offending shall
pay for every such offence five shilling as a fine to the county.”
From the records of the general
Court,
Massachusetts Bay Colony
May 11, 1659
Certainly, an argument can and should be made, that
excessive revelry and merriment should be avoided at any time of the year, as
well as at Christmastime. We should honor Christ by keeping his commandments
always. Statistics plainly tell us that all of the crimes of human weakness and
all the measurements of human misery increase during the season of Christmas,
because we live in a world that is in rebellion against God. People feel the
pinch of sin in their lives at Christmas, if they have not reconciled their
lives to God through Christian obedience. The Christ child reminds them how
far away from home they are, how far removed from God they are.
Christians should share the Puritan’s concern regarding
human avarice, vice and wickedness. We should be careful how we keep Christmas.
We should not allow ourselves to be dazzled or distracted by worldly splendors,
so that we forget the lowly estate of the baby born in a stable, and we should
never forget the poor and the poor of spirit who are always with us.
As to the concerns that all of the symbols of Christmas are
pagan, I would say this:
The lifeless gods of paganism never held any power. They
were hollow manifestations of false gods, created by Satan, to deceive and mock
mankind. If a decorated evergreen tree was a pagan symbol for fertility and
regeneration, so what? Did not my God create the evergreen tree? Does this
history so corrupt the evergreen that I am now forbidden to decorate a
Christmas tree? Did he not also create the holly and mistletoe? If the Germanic
people of northern Europe, and the druid Celts of the British Isles utilized
these as symbols in their animism and nature worship, may I not assign new
meaning to these as symbols of the passion of Christ and life everlasting
through him? Did not the apostle Paul tell us that all things are now clean,
regardless of their former affiliation with idols (Romans 14:14)? God declared
to Peter, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy" (Acts 11:9-NASB).
We should be careful about making declarations that disagree with God’s declarations.
Some have objected to the celebration of Christmas, because
we are not directed to observe it by Jesus himself, or by any gospel writer. It
is true that we are not commanded to observe or remember the coming of Christ,
as we are his death, burial, and resurrection, through the Lords Supper (Luke
22:19). Does this mean that we are not permitted to rejoice at the coming of
the Christ Child? Would God deny us celebration for the coming of light into
this dark world? If so, why did he deliver to us his Word, with multiple
accounts of Christ’s birth that fill our hearts with joy and rapture?
Centuries before Christ came into this world, the prophets proclaimed his
coming. The world had been waiting a long time.
Surely we should rejoice at his coming.
Does it matter to God on what date we celebrate the birthday
of his son? I think it would please him if we celebrated his coming every day.
Whether we celebrate in the winter or spring, summer or fall, every season is
God’s season. Every day in our lives should be Gods’ day. What better time to
celebrate the coming of Christ, than in the dark days of the dead, cold, silent
winter? What better time to remember the words of the prophet Isaiah?
“The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them have the light shined.”
“For unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name
shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:2, 9:6
Don’t worry about Christmas coming. If Satan couldn’t stop
it from coming, then the world can’t stop it either. No politician or Grinch
can keep it from coming. No school board, or city council, or cranky neighbor,
or miserable, wretched creature can keep it from coming. Nor can sickness,
or financial ruin, or catastrophe, or decree.
Christmas will come because He came. Christmas will come
because God loved us enough to send his only son into this world as a little
baby. Christmas will come because Christ chose to empty himself of all of his
heavenly glory, and abide with us. He chose to walk among us so that we could
know him, so that we could know that he understands what it means to suffer,
and work, and live in this world. He came here so that he could save us, by
paying our debt, a debt that could be paid only by him, a gift to the world
from that little baby, born in Bethlehem. He came here to lead us home, to the
light of the home fire and hearth of that heavenly place that awaits us at the
end of our long cold journey, through the winter of life. That is why we should
remember his coming. That is why we should keep Christmas.
Christmas will come again this year, despite wars - pray for
peace, despite famine - pray for plenty, despite sickness – pray for healing,
despite hatred – pray for forgiveness, despite our woes and fears - pray for
his strength, and wait. It will come, because He has come!
M.J.
Smith
12/21/04
