Heard a really decent sermon the Sunday before Christmas called “An Apologetic for Christmas.” The pastor was giving all the reasons why Christmas does not necessarily line up with the actual birthday of Jesus, quoted Charles Spurgeon saying Christmas and Easter are not worth celebrating, and then turned to 1 Corinthians: 19-23:

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I may save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

The pastor then said, “I don’t need another day put aside to worship Jesus – I worship him all year. But I make use of Christmas to tell people the gospel.”

Great thought.

And my mind went to how we are going to talk to Lylie about Christmas. Continue Reading »

No profundity.  (That’s profundity, not profanity!)  Just a hello, hope you have a good Christmas celebration with whoever you have a Christmas celebration with.  There will be no internet access where we are going, so this is goodbye for a time and all the best in Jesus.

Alistair and Paula…well, it would be Paula if she knew I was writing this.

Happy because of the result, not because of the process!

Every holiday season committed Christians are found questioning the origins of holidays and traditions they have, up until then, taken for granted.  The concern?  They want to please the Lord and avoid all kinds of idolatry.

Now that Easter is coming up, those questions are starting again.

So, how should we approach Easter?

Origins vs. Today.

A quick Google search shows that it is pretty well accepted that Easter originates from a pagan holiday celebrating a goddess.  As always, though, there is more to the story.  Confident assertions about history are not always as certain as many people make out.  For a more balanced look, check out the article on Easter at Wikipedia.

From my point of view, however, it doesn’t matter how much the English Easter celebration and tradition actually relies on a pagan festival because for 99.99999% of people who celebrate Easter in our society, the idea of worshipping a pagan goddess doesn’t even enter their minds!  Easter in the West - even for those who think it really did originate from a pagan festival - is saturated in Christian symbolism, and that is all the eggs, the bunnies and the celebrations represent to people - if they think it represents anything at all!

Days of the Week.

Consider the days of the week.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday all originate from the names of pagan gods, and it could be argued that we show those gods honour by invoking their names every time we use one of the seven words above.  But it does not occur to most Christians to question that practice, because the meaning of these terms in our minds and hearts are now completely unrelated to the pagan gods they originally came from.

Easter is just the same, except in our society if it’s not neutral, it’s Christian.  What I’d like to suggest is if Christians are concerned about Easter’s non-Christian religious elements, commercialism is a far more relevant form of religious devotion to expose and deal with than any possible pagan roots.

Maybe so, but I still feel stink!

For many people, the above information just won’t be enough to put their minds at ease.  If you are concerned about the pagan roots of Easter or some of it’s traditions and your conscience bothers you about taking part in any or all of the celebrations, by all means, leave well alone.  As it says in Romans 14:

5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

And we can add: the one who celebrates Easter, celebrates in honour of the Lord, while the one who chooses not to, chooses in order to honour of the Lord.

And that’s how I approach Easter.

In lieu of a Christmas post, I have just cut and pasted my Christmas Communion message here.  It has done strange things with the formats, and I’ll get on to putting links in later.  At the moment we’ve got guests, so this’ll have to do…

The Feast.

As I was doing a bit of surfing on the internet in preparation for tonight, I came across a blog entry written by an atheist declaring that Christmas doesn’t belong to Christians, it belongs to atheists.  He uses a number of “interesting” arguments, and one of them is that Christmas reflects moral values that are against the Christian ethic.  One of those, he thinks, is feasting.  This is what he says:

Nothing in the Bible encourages feasting.  There is a verse that encourages drinking, but only to dull your suffering (Proverbs 31:6-7).  In fact, the Catholic Church made gluttony a “deadly sin”.  Christianity is definitely against “worldly” pleasures, and feasting is one of those.  So this element [of Christmas] goes against the spirit of Christianity.

Now, there are good arguments, and there are bad arguments.  Good arguments actually show that the person knows what they are talking about.  Bad arguments show the person hasn’t got a clue.  This is a bad argument.

Why?  Because the Bible has God encouraging feasting so much He makes it mandatory - you had to feast according to the Law God gave His people, seven times a year!  And on top of that there were the voluntary feasts!  This is not a God who doesn’t like to party. Continue Reading »

I feel the need to tip my hat to Christmas, now that it is all over. It’s a nice time and it’s a nice tradition. If Western missionaries went to another culture they would jump at such a God-given opportunity firmly embedded in the culture and use it to tell people the gospel. And that is what many churches do, but I wonder whether Western people are hampered in their use of the Christian season for gospel purposes by themselves being so firmly embedded in the culture of Christmas and all the extraneous cultural add-ons. I really feel I am, which is why I would prefer to call the day Incarnation Day, though, in reality, that would possibly alienate more non-Christians than open hearts.

Suppose that instead of concentrating on a baby in the manger, we go back and explain why the baby is in the manger. And instead of concentrating on the three wise men and the shepherds in the fields, we make them the periphery and major instead on Jesus Himself. Or perhaps if we don’t start from the conception and birth of Jesus and instead begin from the pre-existent Son and emphasise that this is God in the manger. Not that I think there is anything wrong with more traditional starting points, but they are so common that all impact is gone.

What about fresh, more God-centred ways of looking at Christmas. I mean, often when the Christmas story is told, there is a lot about the characters around the baby Jesus, but never any real explanation of Jesus. The wise men worshipped Him - yes! The shepherds left their flocks to go see Him - yes! He is the Saviour and King - yes! But why? What does that mean to us today? Preachers telling non-Christian listeners that they need to worship the baby too; that they need to leave what they’re doing to find Him too; that the baby can be their Saviour and King too, usually do not explain why. They usually do not push home the full plan and the future. Jesus is left in the manger, or he is suddenly and mysteriously transported to a cross with no real explanation as to why and we are left in the past with a cursory application to the present and no reference to the future - as in the consequences for accepting or rejecting the Christmas message.

Anyway, God still uses the time. Now Christmas is over, let’s look for other opportunities to tell people about Jesus.

(Note: I have written two other posts on Christmas here and here.)

No, he doesn’t! When was the last time you heard of a kid not getting Christmas presents from Santa because they had been naughty that year?

“If you’re not good, Santa won’t give you any presents this year!”

Yeah, right. Empty threats, that’s all that is. Santa is a soft touch. Worse, he has his favourites. Notice how the richer a kid is the better the presents? Why would Santa distribute gifts that way unless he’s trying to get in good with the wealthy few? The whole thing is a crock. Santa never follows through on his threats and he perpetuates economic inequality. He’s a fraud, and yet he receives the adulation of millions around the world. Wake up people, you’re being taken for a ride!!!

Compare that with the God of the Bible. On the face of it God and Santa may look the same. Threats of consequences for wrong behaviour, and still we are given gifts despite the way we act. But the difference is found in Jesus. In Him we find the threats made take on a harrowing reality as the consequences of our sins are beaten into His body during His crucifixion. And through the resurrection of Jesus the gifts we are given are beyond the best and freely available to all - young and old, rich and poor. (In fact, it seems that the poor are more often recipients of these gifts because they seem more able to take them.) And all this is made possible through receiving that one Gift - Jesus Christ.

God has integrity; Santa’s never follows through. God gives the best gifts indiscriminately; Santa chooses the rich over the poor. But Santa doesn’t require anything of you and God does - not just at Christmas, but throughout the year. So millions still choose Santa over God. How sad.

As he wanders further and further from addressing the questions he posed of a couple of days ago, Ali gets caught up in the wonder of Christmas. Christmas…the time of year where radio personalities remind us that the real meaning of Christmas is forgiveness and good family feelings…

[Warning: ramble ahead. Unedited. Interrupted by dinner. Probably will remain that way.]

Ever notice that non-Christians expect everyone to act like Jesus at Christmas? “Come on, give him some money. It’s Christmas.” “Nobody should be alone at Christmas.” “Can’t you forgive her? It is Christmas, after all!” Why? Because Christmas is a time of forgiveness and peace and good-will to all men. But while they may hear that year after year in the Carols they sing, non-Christians have totally missed the point.