Christmas is and always has been about stark contrasts. For some today, it’s about politically correct or incorrect conflicts. Which other historic person do some try to erase their name from the celebration of their birth? Perhaps Christmas should cause us to ask, can one life or one person influence others for good or ill?
To answer that, look briefly at a very different life than the One celebrated on Christmas.
Who would have thought that a corporal from a losing army could in subsequent years threaten the freedom of all Europe? Who would have thought that one misguided foot soldier, using big lies, could inspire the Shoah and lead others to cause the deaths of millions?
The Holocaust (Shoah) and other acts of genocide, mass murder or wars proves that it isn’t religion that causes most conflicts and deaths.
In spite of the facts, we still hear false narratives…
War, great sadness and horrors are caused by godless acts or by megalomaniacs. A Hawaiian university professor has documented the fact that some 60 times more have died from 20th century communists, socialists, nazis, atheists, fascists and other dictators than all the religious wars in history combined.
Please give me and all the good caused by faithfully motivated religious souls rather than the ill caused by those godless souls or thoughtless acts that would deny good to us and billions of others.
Changing Names…
It was Saul, once an oppressor of the followers of Jesus Christ, who after his conversion as Paul said, “salvation is from the Jews.” Jews and Christians share the same roots. The Babe from Bethlehem – some forget, overlook or never knew – was Jewish.
Would anyone deny a Jew (or other believers) their celebrations? Then why do some want to erase even saying the word, “Christmas?” After all, Christmas is a global birthday party.
Shepherds and Wise Men
Then and now, the weak and the powerful are drawn to the Jesus who’s birth is celebrated on Christmas. Some are drawn for selfish reasons, others for pure love and joy; plus the whole range of human emotions in between.
It was Luke – a doctor – who said that Mary was a virgin who conceived the divine child, in fulfillment of an ancient Jewish prophecy. Jesus, writes Luke, would be called according to the prophecy of Isaiah, “Emmanuel” meaning, “God is with us.”
The Longing of the Human Heart
We all need and secretly long for God to be with us. When God is with us and moves us, we are saved from our own destructive deeds and inaction.
It is evil – sin – that causes all divisions, while God is at the root of all unity.
Herod so believed that prophecy – and was so jealous to keep his political power – that the ancient king ordered the death of every baby and young child in that town, just to be certain the would-be Messiah would be killed. Herod’s minions murdered many, but missed the One they aimed to kill.
So too, then and now.
Some today say they can’t believe in a virgin birth. How then can they believe in the birth of the universe from a big bang? Scientists say that an explosion at a single point in space and time allegedly created everything material in the universe to spring into being from nothing.
If we can accept the big bang, why not a virgin birth?
If we can believe in science’s big bang, why not accept that it was caused by a timeless. all powerful Creator who is immaterial – pure spirit – always was and always will be?
Why not say that same Creator caused the birth of His Child through the maiden Mary in the virginal way that Isaiah’s prophecy foretold? Shouldn’t God give us advance notice through the voice of a prophet, performed in some miraculous way?
By the way, about the big bang. Did you ever see an explosion create order? Has any explosion at a printing plant resulted in a dictionary?
Yet in the universe caused by the so-called big bang is one in which order – stars, planets and life – has resulted. If the big bang had been a normal explosion, wouldn’t we see cosmic chaos instead?
God’s ways are higher than the heavens are above the earth, so the prophet Isaiah said.
Darkness from Light
Christmas is about light from darkness. The winter solstice has just past. The shortest – darkest – day in the northern hemisphere is over. Light is coming. If darkness is the metaphor for death, then with the light comes hope.
The Christmas star, some say, was the alignment of the planets, an actual astronomical event. Whatever the cause, it drew from afar the wise astronomers who knew it meant a historic birth was to occur. Millions still put a star on top of Christmas trees.
The real Santa Claus was the jolly Saint Nicholas, who gave gifts to the poor some 17 centuries ago, motivated by the same joy of Christmas birth we celebrate today.
Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, “If God does not exist, everything is permitted.” Godless behavior is at the root of all conflict and evil. Believers aren’t perfect, but they are motivated to become ever more good. By contrast, the godless do whatever they want to justify.
The evil in the world will only be overcome in the way that Virgil summarized as, “Omnia Vincit Amor, Love Conquers All.” Not by a wimpy ‘kumbaya’ love, but rather a strong love that saves us and others, even when we don’t want to admit that we need to be saved.
Oh, please give us all a God-filled Merry Christmas! ##
