If you are looking for our annual family Christmas newsletter, I have dropped the ball, and I am woefully tardy in its publication. I thought maybe it would be a good idea to at least release my "sermon" so that you can have a head start. We're still going through the millions of pictures and trying to remember what we did this year, so it may be a few more days before you see the final product. Incidentally, if you enjoy our newsletter or want to see something different added or changed up a bit, or even if you want us to deliver it in a different way, let us know -- we're always looking for new ways to keep in touch with our family and friends!
I was reading an AP story just before Christmas about how the tradition of celebrating Christmas on December 25 may have begun at a church built near a pagan shrine in Rome. Ok. Fine. So what does that mean for us?
Is the story meant as an affront to Christianity in general? That one of the religion’s most important holidays is only a reaction to an already established tradition? So what if December 25 was already claimed by the ancient Roman culture as the holiday of Saturnalia? I don’t want to turn this into a chicken-and-the-egg philosophical discussion, but I would like to set this news in the proper perspective.
What it means to me is that even the very day we legally call “Christmas Day” was rescued by God Himself from the depths of human depravity. He took a day on which we chose to cavort and revel in wickedness, much like Mardi Gras, and preemptively redeemed it four centuries earlier with the innocence of a baby.
When and where we celebrate Christmas – whether on December 25, April 3, or June 15 is completely irrelevant to the meaning of Christmas. It doesn’t matter whether we are at our own homes or those of extended family. The importance of Christmas is the beginning of the end. The beginning of a solitary life which ended in ultimate sacrifice, even for those who, two millennia later, ridicule and twist the meaning into something that it is not and seek to eliminate it altogether.
So now, I look back to the church built near a pagan shrine. Isn’t every Christian church built near a pagan shrine? Isn’t that the point? Whether the AP story was meant to cause us to question the validity of the Christmas story will play out over time, but as for me and my house, we’ll celebrate Christmas whenever and wherever the opportunity arises.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.” Col 1:15-16
Jim
