Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Jesus Made Every Day CHRISTmas

What Did Jesus Do?

“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20


It has been bugging me for a good month now, and, thanks to an article I read in The Week magazine from December 2011, I have come to a conclusion—with Christmas we should either be all in, or we should drop it all together. You see, for the last month I have been posting on Facebook about keeping CHRISTmas every day. Every year we all hear, and many of us say to one another, “Gee, I wish it could be Christmas throughout the year.” But then we all take Christmas and box it up and shove it in the attic, or the basement, or the garage for eleven months or so and forget about it. I’m sorry, but that’s just wrong. Why? Because when he came, Jesus made every day CHRISTmas.

Did you know that the Puritans, you know those folks who brought us Thanksgiving, were strongly, almost violently, opposed to the observance of Christmas? And, did you know, that opposition to Christmas lasted through the colonial era and the birth of this nation, right on into the 19th Century? What? Were the Puritans a bunch of Scrooges? Were we a nation of Grinches? Not at all. Let me explain briefly.

You see, the Puritans were really big on the Bible, particularly its authority. And the Bible, specifically the New Testament, instructs us to put no stock at all in special feast days, new moons, and holy days (Colossians 2:16), even as it never says one word about Christmas or Easter. What’s going on? I think the confusion is largely the result of our not getting Christmas. Christmas, or, if you will, CHRISTmas, is all about the birth of Emmanuel, God with us. And this is a big deal, a VERY BIG deal. Oh sure, Zeus supposedly liked to come and masquerade on the earth, but that was for the purpose of trying to hide his many adulteries. When God, the one true living God, became flesh, it was for a very different purpose. He came to die for us, in order that, by believing in and through him, we should live, and live for ever with him.

Even more, when God, in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ came, it was with the sovereign intention of never again leaving. God, in the person of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, came to stay, even to the end of the age. Again, Jesus came, and promised to never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). What does all this have to do with the Puritans aversion to the observance of Christmas? Well, because they, unlike most of us, truly believed what the Bible says, they understood every day to be a holy day (holiday) because they truly believed that God was with them, literally, in spirit and in truth, not merely as some kind of intellectual or philosophical construct. Though they didn’t actually come out and say it, I believe the Puritans felt that the observance of Christmas belittled the Incarnation, because, for the sake of one day of celebration the other 364 were lived in tacit denial of the abiding presence and power of Christ.

Again, though they didn’t say it, the Puritans sought to live each and every day as Christmas, or CHRISTmas, believing that the Lord, Emmanuel, was and is among us 24/7/365. Our trouble is, we either don’t believe that Jesus is truly here to stay, or we prefer to live most of our lives as if he isn’t here. Maybe we’ll put the spotlight on Jesus for an hour or so most Sundays. And perhaps we’ll make kind of a big show of Jesus being Lord and Savior on a few special days of the year (Christmas and Easter). But, truly acknowledge and live each day affirming Christ’s active presence in us and in the world, well, don’t you think that’s a bit much? The Puritans didn’t.

So, I am going to keep posting on Facebook about keeping CHRISTmas every day. And, I am going to offer a “Merry Christmas” or two each day in affirmation that every day is CHRISTmas. In and through Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, I am going to live each day in celebration, service, and worship of God, the Father. I invite you to join the observance of CHRISTmas, of God with us, every day. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenmiistries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

No comments:

Post a Comment