Christmas Eve 2015 - "Christmas(time) or Christmas"

Christmas(time) or Christmas?

"We are creative beings and it makes sense because we are created in the image of God.  God is the Creator who created the heavens and the earth and therefore we resemble Him in our ability to create.  (insert theme from Star Wars here)  So let’s take a look at what we have done with Christmas.  I don’t want to shatter your manger scene this evening but let me give you an example of how we can create something from the tiniest detail. 

From the Christmas account, '...there was no room for them in the inn.'  That is a phrase in the Christmas account and because of the word 'inn' we deduct that there must be an innkeeper even though he is not mentioned.  I have seen whole Christmas pageants focused on someone not even mentioned in the Christmas account.  I even read one that had the innkeeper who had a son and that son’s name was Barabbas who ended up being the man released at the Passover years later as Jesus took his place on the cross.

The Greek word of 'inn' is 'kataluma' and that word can also be translated as 'guest room' or 'chamber' as it was when Jesus tells the disciples to get the room, (kataluma) the Upper Room, for the Passover meal we refer to as the Last Supper.  The most earliest translations of the English Bible use the word 'chamber' instead of 'inn.'  There is another Greek word used when speaking of an inn in a more formal way and it is 'pandocheion.'  That word is used when Jesus tells the parable of Good Samaritan and the Samaritan took the beaten man to the 'inn' (pandocheion) and actually paid the innkeeper who is actually mentioned in that story.  The author Luke uses the more informal word for inn (kataluma) or guest room or chamber in the account of Jesus’ birth rather than the more formal word for inn (pandocheion) in the story of the Good Samaritan.

So the account could look very differently now.  Joseph and Mary are going to the hometown of their heritage, Bethlehem.  Who would they have naturally went to?  Probably to some of their relatives because that was the custom of the day.  Thousands of others were doing the same because of the census so it would be very possible that their relatives didn’t have the 'guest room' or 'chamber' available in their home and therefore they had to resort to another area of the house. 

From archaeological digs and still daily common practices, many Jewish homes, and also homes in other parts of the world and our early American history, housed animals on the lower level, or another section of the home, and especially at night.  Their animals were very valuable to their existence and therefore cared for them as part of the family.  To accommodate the animals, a manger, or a feeding trough, would be brought in or left there for that purpose.  Even though no animals are also mentioned in the Christmas account, we have added them to the scene because of that word 'manger' but a manger, or a feeding trough, in the lower level of a house would have been common.  The manger, the feeding trough, is the focal point because that is where the baby Jesus was laid no matter all of our other created surroundings that we have added.

Another phrase from the Christmas account is '...while they were there, the days were completed.'  We kind of have the picture in our minds that Joseph and Mary traveled and got into Bethlehem and they were in a frantic search for housing before the baby Jesus was born that night.  They found a place just in the nick of time.  But 'while they were there' signifies that they had arrived earlier and maybe some weeks ahead so that 'the days were completed' of the 9 months of a full term pregnancy came about.

So maybe more a Biblical and historical and archaeological view of the events of that night or leading up to that night could look like this.  Joseph and Mary enter Bethlehem prior to the actual date that Jesus was born.  They went around to different relatives' homes to see if they had a guest room or chamber available for them.  Not finding a guest room or chamber available they resorted to the lower level of the house where the animals are sometimes housed in the evenings.  In that lower level was the manger, a feeding trough, used to feed the animals and in that space, where the manger was, the baby Jesus was born and wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in the manger, the feeding trough. 

See how creative we can be and maybe far from the truth because of focusing on a guy, the innkeeper, not even mentioned or the animals added in as present because of a manger being there.  This is just an example of what we have done with Christmas and what I like to call what we created as Christmas(time). 

I love Christmas(time).  I love that our world had set aside time off work and time off school for the purpose of families gathering together.  I love the focus on gifts and helping others in need.  I love that these acts are to be done in the name of love for mankind.  I love the music of Christmas(time).  I love the carols of Christmas but I also love 'Silver Bells,' and 'I’ll have a blue Christmas without you,' and one we needed to sing more this year 'I’m dreaming of a White Christmas,' or 'Christmastime is here,' and another song we didn't see as reality 'Dashing through the snow.'  I love the decorations of Christmas(time) and sometimes they include the manger with a baby Jesus in it.  I love that at Christmas(time) we have an excuse to stop and meet up with others that we probably should be doing more often.  I guess that is what I love most about Christmas(time) is that it gives us the opportunities to do more of what we should be doing all the year round.

The longer I am a Christian the easier it is to see what we have created called 'Christmas(time)' and what is actually 'Christmas.'  The longer I am a Christian the more I look not to the flashing lights and the surrounding elements but zero in on the focal point of the account, the manger, the feeding trough, holding a baby named Jesus.  The longer I am a Christian the more I see the baby as the focal point of the account and I see another image other than the manger and that is of the cross. 

You see, Christmas(time) brings joy and happiness but Christmas brings something so much greater.  Christmas brings salvation to sinners through a baby eventually ending up on a cross and then rising from the grave.  There was a birth that night of a child who was God and is God among us.  He came down already existing from His position in heaven to be physically born on earth to tell us and show us that we who have been physically born need another birth, a spiritual birth, to be born again, to prepare us for a trip the other way to be with Him and His Father in heaven. 

1 Timothy 1:15 says, 'It is a trustworthy statement,...(a statement of truth) ...deserving full acceptance,...(something you can grab hold of with both hands) (And what is that statement of truth that we can grab a hold of?) ...that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.'  (words in the parenthesis are mine)  That is what Christmas is all about.

Christmas(time) is about family and stories and lights and feasts and time away from work and school and good will toward men.  Christmas(time) is about the shopping and planning and baking and tree trimming.  Christmas(time) is about music that fills the streets and the shops and windows that are created for people to stop and gaze.  Christmas(time) is Christmas morning and the gathering of a family around a tree laden with presents below yet to be opened.

But Christmas is only one thing.  Christmas is God sending Himself as His Son to earth to be the Savior of our sins so that we can have forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  Christmas is one thing and that is the baby Jesus in the manger on His way to the cross and the tomb.  Christmas is the start of God through Jesus showing us Himself so that we can follow after Him with our whole lives when He calls.  Christmas is nothing more and Christmas is nothing less than Jesus."

Pastor Adam