I’m setting politics aside today, everybody, even political junkies, need a break from it. So here are my picks.
1. Sarah Palin’s Christmas greetings (no this isn’t political). An excerpt:
At a time when our country is divided on so many things, Christmas unites us. It’s a beautiful part of our culture, and for many of us it’s a beautiful part of our Faith. In fact, for believers it’s “the main thing.” In today’s tumultuous times we can remember the Bible’s record of Three Wise Men from the East who received an angelic message of Jesus’ birth. They may have been unsure of the message, so they sought truth. They trekked to Bethlehem to find out more. There, they found Jesus and they honored Him. The story of the wise men reminds us that today wise men still seek Him. So in this season especially, let’s seek truth.
Actually the Resurrection is the main thing (1 Corinthians 15), but you couldn’t have it without the Incarnation.
2. Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s Christmas Sermon from 1871, an excerpt:
But why is it that the coming of Christ into the world is the occasion of joy? The answer is as follows:—First, because it is evermore a joyous fact that God should be in alliance with man, especially when the alliance is so near that God should in very deed take our manhood into union with his godhead; so that God and man should constitute one divine, mysterious person. Sin had separated between God and man; but the incarnation bridges the separation: it is a prelude to the atoning sacrifice, but it is a prelude full of the richest hope. From henceforth, when God looks upon man, he will remember that his own Son is a man. From this day forth, when he beholds the sinner, if his wrath should burn, he will remember that his own Son, as man, stood in the sinner’s place, and bore the sinner’s doom. As in the case of war, the feud is ended when the opposing parties intermarry, so there is no more war between God and man, because God has taken man into intimate union with himself. Herein, then, there was cause for joy.
3. The uplifting truth of Jesus
Expressed in song – Forever Reign by Hillsong United, Jesus is why we celebrate CHRISTmas.
4. Three ways people respond to Immanuel.
This is a post I wrote yesterday at Caffeinated Theology about three different ways that people responded to Jesus, our Immanuel (God is with us) then and now. Go check it out, which way best describes you?
5. When was Jesus born?
Paul Maier did a study and landed on November in 5 BC as a possible time frame, but he thinks December is possible as well. I find this interesting. I had thought the general consensus was likely Spring, not that it really matters. (HT: Justin Taylor)
Have a very Merry Christmas everybody! I’ll be taking a break from posting tomorrow as I’ll be taking time to enjoy my family, but most of all, enjoying my Savior.
Shane Vander Hart
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I think it’s interesting that in earlier eras, celebrating “the twelve days of Christmas” was common. (It’s also interesting that the Early Church didn’t celebrate Christmas at all.) From a Wikipedia article called “Twelve Days of Christmas”:
The Twelve Days of Christmas are the festive days beginning Christmas Day (25 December). This period is also known as Christmastide and Twelvetide….
In England in the Middle Ages, this period was one of continuous feasting and merrymaking, which climaxed on Twelfth Night, the traditional end of the Christmas season….
The early North American colonists brought their version of the Twelve Days over from England, and adapted them to their new country, adding their own variations over the years.
I think there’s a lot to be said for these mostly forgotten traditions. (The modern world has lost a lot of other significant traditions as well, which contributes to the shallowness of today’s society IMO.) Something about confining Christmas to a single day makes it seem way too short and elusive. But if you think about it as something extended, I think that it’s likely to be much more fulfilling, satisfying, and meaningful. Apparently the popular carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is just filled with Christian imagery as well, with “true love” referring to God, “two turtle doves” referring to the Old and New Testaments, etc.
So, Merry Christmastide, everyone! 🙂