I'm sure the first time this phrase was used it was used correctly, that the person uttering or writing it was actually talking about worshiping God for his incarnation, that he (or she) was referring to God's love, and a time that should be spent reflecting on one of Jesus' greatest miracles: the very fact He, eternal God, became one of us.
That's not the "reason for the season" that has tired me out. No, that's the only reason that I'm not out burning "Christmas" trees, punching Santas, kicking elves...
I'm tired of hearing multiple different "reasons for the season" that are lies, or only partial truths. No mr-self-esteem-guy, Christmas is not about feeling good. No mr-get-our-economy-going-guy, Christmas is not about giving as much to as many as you can. Christmas is not just about family, not just about loved ones, not just about giving to and getting from each other.
Also, we tidy up the Christmas story a lot. When was the last time you actually thought of Jesus Christ, God's Son, being born? Isn't it amazing that he would humble himself to coming out of a woman's body? Actually being born, no sudden apparition, no coming into existence clean and well-groomed, but being born to a young woman who just rode cross-country on a donkey... wow Mary, sorry, that must have been a bad day... except for the God's Son thing...
I don't know, I haven't had a special revelation here or anything, but I bet Joseph had to deal with some anger when there was no room in the inn. How did he feel that this woman, that angels, God's messengers, talked to him about, would in all likelihood give birth among cows, donkeys, and goats?
How about the good people of Bethlehem? When the shepherds ran through the streets proclaiming a king, how many of them cursed those shepherds for waking them? Then again, I wonder if the shepherds doubted the angles as they came into town, "swaddling cloths"? "manger"? ... that's not where we'd expect to find a king!
However, doubts aside, they went, and they found a newborn child where there should be cow's food, they found him in the smelly stable, where a king's dinner should be born, not a king! They saw his parents, worn and weary from traveling, a carpenter and some lowly young woman. I really doubt Jesus was glowing like he is in all the pictures, nor were Mary or Joseph. No, it wasn't that the baby looked special, that the manger or the strips of cloth wrapped on him looked exceptionally kingly, it was God's word, given through angels to Mary, to Joseph, and to the shepherds, and their faith in that word, that revealed God's son to them in this child.
Sorry if I recounted too much of the story, I'm sure most of you heard it earlier this evening, but I just wanted to say, it's not a pretty story, but it is an awesome one. It's not about making us better, it's about making us right with God. It's not about gifts, it's about God preparing his sacrifice, born, surrounded by smelly animals, in a stable.
Just and Unjust Wars & the Ukraine Crisis
2 years ago
You're so right about this whole 'reason for the season' idea- one of the reasons(haha) why I don't like to watch most of those Christmas movies. How they like to come out with new ones every year! And they all claim to have the reason for the season, but fail to mention anything about our Lord. Yes, fail. Big fail. They mention good things, perhaps. But not the greatest- not the 'reason for the season.'
ReplyDeleteThanks, Chris, for reminding the audience about who it is really about, if we are to have this holiday at all. It's about Jesus, our Lord, humbling himself, and setting an example for all of us just by being born. And it leads to him saving us in the most humiliating and convoluted ways ever thought. I mean, even though all of the clues were there, no one could ever put it together! Thanks be to God!
Your post reminded me of this passage:
Php 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
Php 2:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Php 2:7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Php 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Php 2:9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
Php 2:10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
Php 2:11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)
Thank you Kelsey,
ReplyDeleteGotta love that passage!
And I love how Paul presents this short summary of Christ's birth, life, death, glorification: Not as a cute story, but as a call to transformation.
Christmas is something I have struggled with the last few years, does the season do more harm, or more good? Do the consumerist, feel-good, relativist, and pseudo-Chistian messages that circle during this season do more harm than the true message does good? Does Christmas make people think about real things, or about "nice" "cute" things? Do we think that preparing for Christmas means shopping for gifts, or stopping and talking with God about the state of our hearts and minds?
-- I think each of us needs to answer those questions when we think about what we tell kids, what we tell others, and what we do to celebrate "Christmas"
Sometimes I think the season is in need of a great big iconoclastic hammer, sometimes just a nudge in the right direction...