Pratt: Pause in all the celebration of the season
Truly, bells are jingling, at least in my head, as I recall the beautiful Christmas renditions of the church bell choir in our December worship services.
Not only does it call us to worship in a beautiful way, just as the performance a few days ago of the classic “Messiah” concert at Lubbock’s Buddy Holly Hall, a gift to me from daughter-in-law and granddaughter who took me to the city for Saturday night’s performance.
A few years ago, I ventured to the city to attend the First Methodist Church’s performance in house, which also featured major updates on their great organ. I did miss a bit the up-close, reverberation in the smaller venue, but I’m glad the concert hall gave a new prominence to this always wonderful rendition of the classic story of Jesus, the Christ, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.
Yet, today, with all the turmoil in the world the Christmas spirit of “love, peace and good will to all” still rings true no matter the efforts to erase this holiday feast instituted by the Christian church and adopted in a variety traditions around the world.
Oddly, perhaps, it was an American minister who wrote a story-poem for his own children that added the secular celebration of Santa Claus, saintly or not, to break across religious barriers and come down chimneys, or not, to leave gifts under a decorated tree. If I recall correctly, the original “santa figure” was a Catholic priest who left gifts of shoes for two little girls in need. From his charity grew the great gift-giving cycle that we both love and dread this time of year.
But it was Martin Luther, the priest who in order to do honor to Christian understanding of the role of “Grace” in God’s message to mankind, established the Lutheran Church. With this break from traditional church feasts and teachings, he was considered an enemy when he posted his thesis on Christianity.
Conflict between humans today is in essence a “religious” war, but not so much in people groups as we might think. In essence, we are both witness and participants in a cosmic war between God and his then chief commander, the angel named Lucifer, or Satan, according to the biblical story that begins with the Genesis account of Creation.
Fast-forward from this “beginning” account and trace the biblical accounts of human ventures beginning with a man named Moses who discovers a burning bush that doesn’t turn to ashes, but is a device to connect him with a holiness so overwhelming that he cannot look upon the face of God without dying.
Here, we learn on Earth of the great Cosmic War – the story of Adam and Eve as they are tempted to achieve great power by Satan. What I find fascinating is the major undercurrent of knowledge of human efforts to achieve power that runs throughout the account.
The cosmic power struggle that underlies these stories gives credence to even the most astounding accounts of human progression. That we are not alone in the Universe is the message. Even more important is the assurance that we are more “different” than the nature that surrounds us because it is the personal intent and hand of God to populate the heavenlies with humans, who will receive an eternal soul and purpose.
But it is a costly purpose for the Creator, who is described as One in three manifestations, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Christmas is the entry of God into human form and bound by flesh and blood to suffer in order that we might become citizens of a heavenly existence beyond our wildest imagination.
The account of human witnesses at the birthplace of the Son, in human form, includes not those who people the halls of human power – kings and queens – but the common people, who must strive mightily to survive under their rulers even until today. The promise of our perfection in a heavenly home beyond our ability to imagine begins with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, humble home of his human parentage.
A virgin birth with no taint of a sin-damaged human beginning has long been a question of disbelief for many. But today, medical advances such as sperm donor into the womb is making this possibility less strange. Worldwide communication realities also are lighting up various other “impossibilities” of the skeptics.
It might be wise this year, to make a list of predictions we once questioned that are now possible right before our eyes and reconsider that God is and always will be ruler and savior of whatever lies beyond our earthly boundaries. Pause in all the celebration of the season and consider more carefully the Gospel Message of Redemption as described in what we refer to as The New Testament.
Read the “Night Before Christmas” to your children, but follow it with the story of the newborn babe in the manger, God’s greatest gift to humanity.
Beth Pratt retired as religion editor from the Avalanche-Journal after 25 years. You can email her at beth.pratt@cheerful.com.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Pratt: Pause in all the celebration of the season
