The Reality that Must Flavor Every Fiber of True Christmas Festivity

My Confession Exhortation from last Sunday (Dec 12):

Saints of God, what day is this? 

(Congregation) It is the Lord’s Day! 

Why is it the Lord’s Day? 

(Congregation) Because Christ rose from the dead on this day! 

What kind of day is it? 

(Congregation) It is a gift that is glorious and joyful! 

This is advent or Christmas season: a time which, as we will see in the kids’ play this morning, we focus on the birth of Jesus. However, we must remembering that beginnings mean very little if there is no proper ending. There needs to be a fitting finish. This day is the Lord’s Day because God always finishes what He begins. It is the Lord’s day because Jesus, the baby born in the maternity barn; the one who shared his newborn moments with cattle and goats and smelly shepherds, because Jesus lived, obeyed perfectly His father, died on the cross conquering the dragon-Satan, and rose from the dead in three days. He is King and He will never surrender His title…world without end. This reality must flavor every fiber of our Christmas festivity and manger remembrance! We know the end from the beginning because the Author has let us in on this one…baby Jesus is now King! That old Serpent, Satan, has been defanged! We the Church are a new creation by the Holy Spirit; we are a new people from the seed of the woman who were rescued by that great dragon-slayer (namely, Jesus) and the gates of hell will not prevail against us! This is glorious, this is joyful and the best is yet to come!

Do we believe this? Rather, do we live, think, sing, pray, hope, give, and talk as though this is a reality? This should remind us of our need to confess our sins and look to Christ.

God Wired Us to Party With a Vengeance

My confession exhortation from this past Sunday:

I think it’s fair to say, as far as our culture is concerned that we are now into the “Christmas season” in full force. Sadly this does not mean our nation’s attention is reverently and joyfully focused on the birth of the Christ, the King of the world. Stores are packed with consumers, and online shopping is ripe with sweet deals and free shipping. All around us we see lights and icicles; Santa and scented candles; reindeer and wise men; candy canes and silver bells; snow men and nativities; Bing Crosby and Shrek Christmas; blockbuster movie openings and constant jingle bell commercials; carols and endless cookies, Handel’s Messiah and It’s a Wonderful Life: as Johnny Matthis reminds us annually – “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”

Now I am not here to pull a Grinch or Scrooge on you (or to use biblical terms – a “Pharisee” on you) because this season IS the birthday month of King Jesus. Festiveness is in order and I don’t mean the kind that constantly grumbles about silly decorations, materialism, traditions, gluttony and family get-togethers. God wired us to party and to party with a vengeance. Decorations, traditions, get-togethers, gifts, special songs, trees, lights, feasts, partying and much, much more can and probably should fit into a proper Christmas celebration--yet the question of WHY must always be at the forefront of our minds. When we’re asked “What’s this all about?” Do we clear our voices and sheepishly say—“mmmmm. Oh yah, Jesus, I guess” as though we had a brain freeze? Or does our celebrating find its beginning, middle and end with the radical and world-changing reality of Christ becoming man for our salvation and the worlds’?

We should sing till our voices are raw, because our hearts demand the release of joy in God! We should give in loving, wise and sacrificial ways to show off the one who gave His all for us! We should feast with full vigor while reminding our kids and others that all this is blood-bought by the one who was born in a Manger! By all means, put Chevy Chase to shame in your decorations—but for a much different reason. Embrace Christmas traditions, honor your family in get-togethers, be patient and kind to those who miss the point—but by all means – DON’T MISS THE POINT. I mean JESUS. We are His disciples, and as His disciples, we have more reason than anyone to enjoy the month that remembers His birth.

The Christian Christmas by Kevin Bauder

Want to know a secret? Something really personal? The kind of thing that could actually end up in a tabloid?

Well, here it is.

I love Christmas.

No, really. I love Christmas.

I love seeing trees and buildings aglow with colored lights. I love the smell of fresh-baked gingerbread. I love the red of bows and berries against the deep green of pine and holly. I love the jingling of sleigh bells and the soft sound of carols wafting in the streets.

When I was a kid in Michigan, we began to celebrate Christmas right after Thanksgiving. We would always drive into Midland to see the lights. Midland was the location of Dow Chemical, and in those days the city had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world. They spent a good bit of that wealth putting out one of the best Christmas displays around. To a child’s eyes, it was dazzling.

We always had a real Christmas tree. The night that we decorated the tree was always an event. Each child participated, including the variety of foster children who lived in our home through the years. Dad and Mom would wind the lights around the tree, but each child would hang decorations. When every bough was festooned with a paper chain or a bulb or a string of beads, we would layer everything with cascades of tinsel foil.

As Christmas drew near, brightly wrapped packages would appear under the tree. On Christmas Eve, we would be permitted to unwrap just one present that had our name on it. The effect was to heighten the anticipation for Christmas morning, for we knew that overnight the number of gifts around the tree would multiply mysteriously. We also hung stockings on Christmas Eve—not our own, but Dad’s big hunting socks. Since we children were always up earlier than our parents, ransacking the stockings was the first thing to happen on Christmas morning. Invariably my father’s footwear yielded a trove of candy, fruit, and small gifts.

Over time, a host of other Christmas experiences were added to these family traditions. While I haven’t done some of these things for years, I still have pleasant memories of going caroling and drinking hot chocolate, of pasting together wreaths of construction paper, of watching Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life (not to mention Natalie Wood in Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street), and of participating in public-school Christmas programs. And the very words “Christmas dinner” can bring tears of joy to my eyes.

I love Christmas. I love it all, just as I did when I was a little child. Every Christmas arrives as a fresh gift, newly wrapped in the memories of every preceding Christmas. It is my favorite time of year.

In fact, there is only one problem with Christmas as I have just described it. That kind of Christmas has absolutely nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a purely cultural festival that can be celebrated by completely secular people. It is as innocuous as it is fun, but there is nothing particularly Christian about it.

Of course, Christians also celebrate Christmas, but the Christmas that they observe has an entirely different meaning. For Christians, Christmas brings into focus an event that they ponder throughout the year. That event is the incarnation of the Second Person of the Godhead. For Christians, Christmas is precisely the adoration of that person.

In many Christian traditions, Christmas is preceded by Advent. The difference is this: Advent is the season for remembering why Christ had to come into the world. It is a time when Christians recall the sinfulness and hopelessness of lost humanity. It is a sober time of reflection and self-denial. The sensibility of Advent is admirably captured in such lyrics as “In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan; Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone,” and “O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.” Advent recalls the despair in which we would be trapped without the Savior.

Into the grim reminiscences of Advent, Christmas bursts like an explosion of joy. Christmas is the announcement of peace on earth and goodwill toward men. It is the declaration that a Savior has appeared. It is a proclamation of a King born in a manger, of the Mighty God humbling Himself to be made in the likeness of men.

For Christians, Christmas is filled with both joy and mystery. The One who was born is the Son of David, but He is also the Son of the Highest. He is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, and the Prince of Peace. He who is of one substance with the Father, He who was begotten but not made, has added to His eternal deity a complete human nature. The Creator has entered His creation and become one with it, not only in substance, but also in suffering. The Omnipotent One took upon Himself the weakness of a little baby in order that He might learn obedience and demonstrate piety.

These are great and mighty wonders. So imponderable are they that we will never truly fathom them—not even in eternity. We struggle to find words to express these truths, and we are constantly aware of the inadequacies of our understanding. For Christians, Christmas is a season to be reminded of these mysteries, to grope toward some greater degree of comprehension, and, above all, to bend our knees and lift our voices in praise to Jesus our Savior, who is Immanuel, God with us.

As we marvel at the beauty and wonder of the Son of God, the lights and tinsel of the cultural Christmas become alien intrusions. This is not to say that they are bad in themselves or that we should not enjoy them as we experience the world at large. When we gather as Christians, however, our purpose in Christmas is to ponder and celebrate the incarnation of our Lord. At such moments, if we must think of a tree, let it be the one that was lifted up on Calvary. If we must ponder a wreath, let it be the one whose thorns pierced our Savior’s brow. If we must consider a gift, let it be the unspeakable gift of God’s own Son, deity robed in flesh, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, who for us men for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

I still love Christmas. I still love the red and the green, the holly and the ivy, the bows and the bells. But I leave them outside the temple, for they are but profane things, and there is a Christmas that I love even more. Within the holy temple, assembled with the New Humanity as the One Body, I wish to know nothing save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

God rest ye merry.