So, although the stores have put all the Christmas stuff on clearance and many of you have bought Christmas gifts for next year - the Church is technically still celebrating Christmas. For Christmas is a season...not just a day. But enough with technicalities.
So what is Christmas all about? Well for one - the "religion" behind Christmas is not what we have come to know as the Christmas story and is far from the nativity scene we all display proudly this time of year. I believe for most of us, celebrating Christmas is not about being authentic to Christ but is instead what the oral traditions have made it.
Yup the early Church fathers established this holiday to compete with the popular pagan holiday and in order to encourage more people to convert - is this a bad thing? No, many missionaries did and do the same thing - they help cultures understand how an already established celebration can in fact be religious - or Christian in nature. We can think of the Church fathers as we will, but the bottom line is that by moving Christ's birthday (for we all know through scholarly understanding that it was probably closer to May) they were blending a new understanding into an common tradition in order to evangelize.
Therefore, I am very confused about those who are campaigning to put Christ back in Christmas or for those who are upset that we have "lost" Jesus out of this holiday...for I wonder every year if Jesus was ever truly a part of this "holy day." Let us face the Biblical facts...Christ birth narrative is pretty much a skeleton compared to the oral tradition we hold. Did you know that in the Bible there is no Inn Keeper - only the words "for there was no room in the inn" WOW! And there are in more mind-bending facts that we have only in our oral tradition of this birth. Also, back to the Bible for a moment - only Matthew and Luke have any reference to Jesus birth. And their details don't always add up. Now, am I saying this to debunk Christ? NO NOT AT ALL but what I am saying is that, as the story of Christ began to spread and as people began to wrap their mind around the whirl wind of his death, resurrection and ascension clearly the murkiness around his birth became an issue - how could he be both divine and human? When did he become divine?
With that said...do I believe that Jesus was born to Mary - conceived by the Holy Spirit? Yes I do! Do I believe that Jesus was born in a manger? Shepherds were the first to hear? Well, that part, I'm undecided on. Was Jesus born to a humble family and born into poverty? Yup.
Do saying any of this make Christ less meaningful? NOPE...at least not to me. For my faith isn't in the actuality of the events that took place but in the actuality of who Jesus is, for I know the end of the story - God Incarnate - Emmanuel - God with us. And it doesn't down play the generosity of our Creator who through Jesus' death on the cross made us all worthy (despite ourselves) of forgiveness and grace.
AS FOR CHRISTMAS? At least today - Christmas is a time of year when more people then ever seem to be open to the Spirit of God working - when more then ever people are willing to experience the God winks in their lives and see them for what they are...more then ever Christmas is a time when all are OPEN to the generosity of God - the forgiveness and grace that Jesus teaches and the Love that the Spirit spreads.
Thus Christmas - in all its secular definition should be celebrated by all believers, by all seekers and those who just don't know. The purpose of Christmas day isn't to give Jesus a birthday cake and present celebrating his 2000+ birthday; but is instead about spreading all that Jesus gave to us - through love, generosity and peace. Christmas is about celebrating the Christ who dwells with in us and who works through us throughout the year OR perhaps for the seekers out there it is a time of year for you to feel the God you seek working within your own life.
Christmas isn't found in the details of the Bible or even in the truth behind Jesus' life but instead is found in the hearts and minds of Christians hopefully throughout the year.
