Advent-Christmas
We all know that the four weeks before Christmas are “Advent.” We know about Advent wreaths and Advent logs, special music, and reënactments of the birth of Jesus, done with various degrees of professionalism. We even know that we’re supposed to be minimizing the Christmas shopping rush which began before Hallowe’en, and preparing our hearts for the celebration of the coming of the Christ-child.
Now the questions. To us, is this primarily sentimentalism, inspiring because of its warm-fuzzy familiarity? Is its regularly-recurring ritual simply a landmark in the calendar of our church? Is this time of year a grand excuse for changing gears and mouthing Christian principles? To gather with family to overeat? Compulsively to swap expensive gifts lest we be beholden to someone whom we forgot? All of the above??
Do we believe—really believe—that Jesus was conceived by God the Holy Spirit and born in a manger of a virgin? For that’s the core of the story. No matter what else we believe, if the start of the Christian story is in doubt, can any of the rest be credible? There have always been utra-liberals who insist that such a belief is peripheral to Christianity—that it’s simply not relevant whether the recorded details of his conception, gestation, and birth are accurate.
Each of us must face this question for himself. If we cannot, with the eyes of faith, accept beyond question this story at face value, we may still be active, involved church-members, doing good and spreading kindness. But oh how dry we must be inside, how empty our relationship with this remarkable Man-who-is-God, and how much we need his precious truth to illuminate our hearts and enrich our lives!
May the incredible joy of knowing and nurturing the Christ-child within us shed abroad through our lives his message of indescribable, indiscriminate, and unconditional peace and love. May Advent grow in our hearts, and may we know and give a Merry Christmas!
Now the questions. To us, is this primarily sentimentalism, inspiring because of its warm-fuzzy familiarity? Is its regularly-recurring ritual simply a landmark in the calendar of our church? Is this time of year a grand excuse for changing gears and mouthing Christian principles? To gather with family to overeat? Compulsively to swap expensive gifts lest we be beholden to someone whom we forgot? All of the above??
Do we believe—really believe—that Jesus was conceived by God the Holy Spirit and born in a manger of a virgin? For that’s the core of the story. No matter what else we believe, if the start of the Christian story is in doubt, can any of the rest be credible? There have always been utra-liberals who insist that such a belief is peripheral to Christianity—that it’s simply not relevant whether the recorded details of his conception, gestation, and birth are accurate.
Each of us must face this question for himself. If we cannot, with the eyes of faith, accept beyond question this story at face value, we may still be active, involved church-members, doing good and spreading kindness. But oh how dry we must be inside, how empty our relationship with this remarkable Man-who-is-God, and how much we need his precious truth to illuminate our hearts and enrich our lives!
May the incredible joy of knowing and nurturing the Christ-child within us shed abroad through our lives his message of indescribable, indiscriminate, and unconditional peace and love. May Advent grow in our hearts, and may we know and give a Merry Christmas!
posted by Bill Stecher at 9:02 PM
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