In this fourth commentary leading up to Christmas, let me affirm some of the things that those who are atheists, agnostics, or of another faith remind us; that are true!
First of all Jesus was NOT born on December 25th. There is no reference in the Bible as to the date of His birth. I won’t try to go into historical details that few would care about, other than to say that shepherd’s usually were not tending to their sheep in the cold Judean winter of December. Most historical scholars think he was born in the month of September or maybe March. Whatever!
Secondly, I understand that December 25th was the Babylonian celebration of the feast of the sun god. Isis, the Egyptian queen is said to have given birth to a son at this time. By the way, it was a virgin birth as well, or so history records. Interesting how we can pick and choose which virgin births we want to believe and not believe, isn’t it. Before the 4th century, there was no Christmas celebration. But, when Constantine declared Christianity as the religion of the land in 312, Christmas was combined with the pagan holiday celebration.
Thirdly, over centuries we have adopted traditions that have become part and parcel of the holiday season. Yule logs, mistletoe, and Christmas trees were not a part of Christmas celebrations in the 4th century. And all those Christmas cards so many people spend hundreds (and the White House hundreds of thousands of dollars) of dollars on each year, where’d they come from? Most people would be surprised to know that Santa Claus and all that stuff are recent American traditions.
Finally, we have gotten so far off course over the centuries that Christians have little standing to complain of the habits of those who do not enjoy Christmas. Instead of trying to defend WHEN Christ was born, WHERE, and HOW, why don’t we simply EMBRACE & ENJOY the FACT that HE WAS BORN and that no one can deny. Well, they can but, you get the point. Maybe if we would go back to the “reason for the season”, those who do not embrace Him, would!
Those who do not share our faith in Christ see our Christmas habits and ask themselves why they should even think about joining us in our: drunkenness at parties, stress at over spending and buying presents, impatience at merchandise counters, and lack of joy and peace. We sing Joy To The World, but our countenence reflects something other. We speak Peace To The World, and yet our agitation speaks louder.
We need to more than just CHILL, we need to come back to our first love and have our hearts BURN again with His love. There’s just too much stuff (can you say crap?) that gets in the way of us truly celebrating His birth! May this weekend be the most calm, peaceful, and loving ever.
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