What is Christmas?
It originated in some strange mix of worldly religions and state churches. In different nations, the practice of Christmas varies. In England it is Father Christmas who brings the presents. In the USA it is Santa Claus. In the Netherlands it is Cinta Claus. In Australia it is kangaroos not reindeers who pull the slay.
Whatever its origins, when I am asked, “What is Christmas?” my answer is that it is one of the greatest opportunities we have each year to share the real Jesus with our neighborhoods.
We try month after month to try and get people to come to church or come to some outreach activity and so we should. The gospel enterprise is a twelve month a year commission. Yet there is once or twice a year when a large number of folks in our community actually want to come to church. Christmas is one of them. I’m not into celebrating Christmas as divinely ordained act of worship but that doesn’t mean I am going to ignore it either. My neighbors want to come to church and I want them to come to Christ’s church at Glendale. There are some many counterfeit Christ’s out there. My neighbors deserve to hear about the real Jesus.
So, I will exhort the church to celebrate Jesus. That always right to do. If the angels could worship the Christ then so can we. And if my neighbors are deluded enough to want to go to church for a “Christmas” event then I will use that to get an opportunity to reach them with the gospel.
So let’s celebrate Jesus. Let’s sing some songs about Jesus. Let’s raise Him up to the glory of God. Let us take advantage of any opportunity we can. Like Paul said, “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22).
