The other day, we went to the lake for a picnic dressed in shorts and short sleeve shirts. On December 20. Five days before Christmas. The day before the winter solstice. It was 74 degrees. I’m still not used to the December winter in Arizona. Having spent most of my seven decades in Michigan, December means snow. Christmas is supposed to be white. Even though every horizontal surface and much of the vertical surface in our home is covered with Santas and elves and reindeer and angels and nativities, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas.
As I thought about this incongruity, it occurred to me that
I had fallen prey to the ghost of Christmas present: the consumer driven
marketing program of this age. It seems harmless on the surface, but even my
favorite seasonal movie, White Christmas is about romance and revenue
with a dash of philanthropy tossed in for good measure. Having watched it every
Friday after Thanksgiving for fifty-some years, I can safely say that the words
Jesus, Bethlehem, Savior, or God are not in the script. I’m ashamed to say that
all our favorites score a zero on religious theme presentation: Miracle on
34th Street, Scrooge, The Santa Clause, Yes Virginia; There is a
Santa Clause. The only movie we watch every season that hints at a
Scriptural meaning in Christmas is Scrooge, and although It’s a Wonderful
Life implies that there is another dimension, I wouldn’t recommend
getting your theology from Frank Capra.
Unless you tune in a Christian radio station, the same thing
holds true in music of the season. Popular Christmas music has nothing to do
with Christmas. “Deck the Halls,” “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause,” “Jingle
Bells,” “Silver Bells,” “The Christmas Song” aka “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open
Fire,” etcetera ad nauseum. It isn’t hard to imagine that in 336 A.D. when the
Roman Catholic Church replaced a pagan holiday with the Christmas celebration,
the drift from its true meaning began. Emperor Constantine may have thought he
was doing Christianity a favor when he substituted it for emperor worship as
the state religion, but it hasn’t worked out that way. For all but the devout
few, Christmas is for all intents and purposes a pagan holiday today.
The true meaning of Christmas is what makes Christianity
unique among world religions. Only Christianity has a Creator God who makes the
necessary sacrifice to bring people into a right relationship with Him. In
every other religion, it is the people who must sacrifice to appease their god.
The worst of these involve human sacrifice, but all require giving something of
value to assuage the god’s wrath. Our God poured out His wrath on His
one-and-only beloved Son on our behalf. That is unimaginable!
The prophet Isaiah was one of the earliest to detail how
God’s righteous requirements would be met. The prophet foretold how God’s
righteous Servant would suffer and die for His people. His
message begins with this imagery: “Even though your sins are like scarlet,
they will be white like snow.” There it is. I am dreaming of a white Christmas
– one in which the scarlet stain of sin is made snow white, one in which the
Babe from the manger changes the swaddling cloths for the white robes of the
King of the universe. I know that will not fully happen until the whole world
is made new, but I can dream.
Related Posts: Why Witness?;
Understanding
Salvation; Redeem the
Time; What
happens to people who never hear about Jesus?; That’s Not
God
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