What Would ET See?
Luke 2:8, John 3:16-18
I. This morning I am going to re-write a movie. Let’s suppose that you were a character in the movie ET. Do you remember that one?
A. The movie about the ugly but lovable space alien that strayed too far from the ship and got left behind.
B. Let’s suppose that you were the person that ET ended up with when he was left on Earth.
C. And that you found ET in your storage building, and since we live in Texas we will also have to write into the script that you didn’t shoot the little burglarizing midget that you found, because that would make the story short.
D. But, lets say that you found him and you didn’t shoot him, and after you overcame the complete fear of finding something like that, and totally abandoned all sense of sanity you took this little creature into your house.
E. But, at this point we need to make a major change, because our ET is going to come at Christmas time. Lets say that he came on Dec 22nd.
F. So you take ET into your house, and as you walk in he sees all these things that he doesn’t understand, and starts asking questions.
G. The first thing that he would probably notice since he is not from around these parts would raise a question something like, why is there a dying evergreen tree with lights and shiny stuff on it in the middle of you living quarters?
1. So what would we tell him. Do you know how we came to have Christmas trees?
2. Well there is a big debate about all that. There is a story that the Christmas tree tradition was started in Germany about 700 AD.
3. Some say that the tradition began in when St Boniface, who converted the German people to Christianity, was said to have come across a group of pagans worshiping an oak tree. In anger, St Boniface is said to have cut down the oak tree and to his amazement a young fir tree sprung up from the roots of the oak tree. He took this as a sign of the Christian faith. But it was not until the 16th century that fir trees were actually brought indoors at Christmas time.
4. Some people say that Martin Luther was the first to light a Christmas tree and he did it with candles. He hadn’t been to fire safety school.
5. Others say that the Christmas tree was something that came to be when the Pagans of the Roman empire became a part of the church when Christianity became the official religion of the Rome.
6. And there is definitely evidence in the bible to show that pagans worship trees, and made them idols.
7. The Christian traditions about the Christmas tree say that the evergreen tree represents everlasting life that comes with salvation, and that the tree’s pointed top, that is aimed at heaven symbolizes that everlasting life comes from God.
8. There is no way for us to know exactly how the Christmas Tree came to be, or if Paganism had anything to do with it or not. I believe that if it symbolizes everlasting life to us, that there is nothing wrong with having a Christmas tree, but it shouldn’t be the focus of what Christmas is.
9. Oh, and if ET was to ask you why there is a star on top of the tree, the star is suppose to represent the star that appeared over the stable when Jesus was born.
H. Well if we have ET straight about the tree now, I’m sure that we will have to explain all the brightly wrapped boxes under it.
1. Tradition says that we give gifts at Christmas, because the Three Wise men brought gifts to Jesus.
2. Christmas is about giving because it is suppose to be the celebration of the greatest gift that has ever been given, and that was God giving His son to us as the gift that would bring salvation.
3. The Christmas celebration among some people was a solemn affair though. Religious puritans reminded Christians that the Magi gave gifts only to Jesus, not to His family or to each other.
4. In the 4th Century AD, a very shy man named St. Nicholas, was a Christian leader from Myra (in modern-day Turkey). He was very shy, and wanted to give money to poor people without them knowing about it. It is said that one day, he climbed the roof of a house and dropped a purse of money down the chimney. It landed in the stocking which a girl had put to dry by the fire! And you can fill in the rest yourself.
5. Through out the years the giving of gifts to each other has really become too much of the emphasis of Christmas.
6. I have no problem with giving gifts, but I think that we should be very careful that giving and getting gifts doesn’t become what Christmas is about.
7. I think that its ironic that Christmas time is the time that churches can count on giving to the church to go down, because it is the time that everybody is so focused on buying gifts for others that God gets left out.
I. Well, once ET has gotten past the tree he would want to know why the bright red poisonous plants were sitting in the room. By the way they say that a child would have to eat about 500 bracts or leaves) for it to hurt them.
1. Poinsettias were first introduced in the United States in 1825 by Joel Poinsett, who was serving as the American Ambassador to Mexico.
2. Poinsettias are probably the only Christmas tradition that can’t possibly be linked in any way to a Pagan festival.
3. Many people believe that the red bracts (they’re not petals) make a shape like the Star of Bethlehem, and the blood of the male infants that King Herod had killed, and the blood of Jesus.
4. According to a Mexican legend, long ago a poor boy was afraid to enter the church on Christmas Eve because he had no gift to bring the baby Jesus. In prayer, the boy told God that he really wanted to bring a gift but couldn’t afford one. When the boy opened his eyes, a poinsettia bloomed at his feet, and it was called the Holy Flower.
J. Now if you outer space visitor notices the brightly colored cards on your wall, or littered across your table what would you tell him about that?
1. The first Christmas cards were sent in Britain in 1840 when the first ’Penny Post public postal deliveries began.
2. As printing methods improved, Christmas cards were produced in large numbers in about 1860.
3. All Christmas cards used to show religious pictures like Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, or other parts of the Christmas story, but more and more through the years they have become more commercialized with winter scenes or Santa and Elves.
K. By this time I am sure that our alien friend would want to know what this day that we were preparing to celebrate was all about, and why we celebrated it when we did.
1. Well I hope that you would tell him that the holiday was about celebrating the birth of our savior, but how did we come up with December 25th as the day to celebrate it.
2. Well that’s probably one of the most debated things about Christmas.
3. One thing is pretty sure Jesus was not born in December, the bible says in (Luke 2:8 NIV) And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
4. Shepherds in didn’t live out in the fields at night in the Winter time. It was too cold and they usually brought their flocks into some kind of a stable at night.
5. It can’t be proved or disproved but it is very likely that The date that we celebrate Christmas was directly related to a Pagan Roman Holiday.
6. It’s very tough for us North Americans to imagine Mary and Joseph trudging to Bethlehem in anything but, the bleak mid-winter, surrounded by snow.
7. To us, Christmas and December are inseparable. But for the first three centuries of Christianity, Christmas wasn’t in December—or on the calendar anywhere.
8. If the celebration of Jesus’s birth was celebrated at all it was usually lumped in with Epiphany A holiday on January 6, that was said to be the time of Jesus’ Baptism one of the church’s earliest established feasts days.
9. Some early church leaders even opposed the idea of a birth celebration. Origen preached that it would be wrong to honor Christ in the same way Pharaoh and Herod were honored. Birthdays were for pagan gods.
10. Not all agreed that Christ’s birthday shouldn’t be celebrated, and some began to speculate on the date (actual records were apparently long lost). Clement of Alexandria favored May 20 but noted that others had argued for April 18, April 19, and May 28.
11. Hippolytus another church leader was for January 2.
12. November 17, November 20, and March 25 all had backers as well. A Latin treatise written around 243 pegged March 21, because that was believed to be the date when God created the sun.
13. The eventual choice of December 25, was made maybe as early as 273 A.D. . December 25 was already the date of two other related festivals: natalis solis invicti (the Roman "birth of the unconquered sun"), and the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian "Sun of Righteousness" whose worship was popular with Roman soldiers.
14. Seeing that pagans were already using these dates to honor deities with some parallels to the true God, church leaders decided to confiscate the date and introduce a new festival according to some.
15. Emperor Constantine had decided that Christianity was the recognized religion of the Roman Empire. Christians in the Western part of the Roman empire began to celebrate Christmas on December 25 in 336.
16. Churches in the eastern part of the Roman empire held on to January 6 as the date for Christ’s birth and his baptism, but almost every body eventually adopted December 25, celebrating Christ’s birth then and his baptism on January 6th.
17. The Armenian church still celebrates his birth on January 6th by the way.
18. The date of, as well as a lot of the customs, like gift-giving, feasting, greenery, lights, and charity; Yule logs and various foods, may have come from some of the pagan traditions, and have always fueled arguments against the holiday.
19. But at the same time Christians have always been involved in trying to point the world to Christ even in changing the way that holidays are celebrated.. And I don’t think that it is necessary to say that the birth of Jesus is Paganized because there are similarities.
20. As a theologian said in 320, "We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made it."
II. Now I have subjected you to this history lesson about the origins of Christmas to make a point.
A. Yes, there are many things that are associated with the celebration of Christmas that could be said to be connected to Pagan religions, but that is not why I celebrate Christmas.
B. Even today there are so many different ways that Christmas is celebrated.
C. In Africa, Christmas day itself begins with groups of carollers walking through the village, along the roadway, and by the houses of the missionaries, singing carols.
D. They go home to make final preparation as to the clothes to wear and the offering for the Christmas service.
E. People have Christmas dinners after the service, preparing tables out in front of their home and inviting many of their friends to share with them.
F. The Christmas season in Italy goes for three weeks, starting 8 days before Christmas known as the Novena. During this period, children go from house to house reciting Christmas poems and singing.
G. In some placess shepherds bring musical instruments into the villages, play and sing Christmas songs.
H. Presents and empty boxes, are drawn from the Urn of Fate, or lucky dip, which always contains one gift per person. Candles are lighted, prayers are said, and children recite poems.
I. In Iraq, In the Christian homes an unusual ceremony is held in the courtyard of the home on Christmas Eve. One of the children in the family reads the story of the Jesus’ birth from an Arabic Bible. The other members of the family hold lighted candles, and as soon as the story has been read a bonfire is lit in one corner of the courtyard. The fire is made of dried thorns and the future of the house for the coming year depends upon the way the fire burns.
J. If the thorns burn to ashes, the family will have good fortune. While the fire is burning, a psalm is sung. When the fire is reduced to ashes, everyone jumps over the ashes three times and makes a wish.
K. On Christmas day a similar bonfire is built in the church. While the fire burns the men of the congregation chant a hymn. The there is a procession where the officials of the church march behind the bishop, who carries an image of the baby Jesus on a red cushion.
L. In India, Christians decorate banana or mango trees. They also light small oil-burning lamps as Christmas decorations and fill their churches with red flowers. They give presents to family members and baksheesh, or charity, to the poor people.
M. Even today different people have different ways of Celebrating Christmas.
N. If we want to have evergreen trees and lights and presents, and poinsettias, and Christmas cards, I don’t see any thing wrong with that as long as we don’t in the process lose what it is that we are really celebrating.
O. A poll by the Barna Research Group in America found that only 37% of adults thought the birth of Jesus is the most important aspect of Christmas. 44% said family time is the most important part of the Christmas celebration. 3% said presents or parties were the most important part of Christmas. And, 3 % said the best thing about Christmas was getting a paid holiday.
P. That is where the danger is, not in what we do to celebrate Christmas, but in letting what we do to celebrate become what it is about.
Q. As strange as it might seem Linus is the one that brings it all into perspective. We’ve all read and heard the Bible verses about the shepherds before and we can even hear these verses on TV each year if we watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Charlie Brown spends the show the way so many people do today, looking in all the wrong places for the true meaning of Christmas.
R. He thinks that maybe putting on a Christmas play will do it, or finding just the right tree to decorate. But the other kids all argue over the details of the play, and call him "stupid" for the scrawny little tree he buys. But, in the end, his friend Linus tells Charlie Brown the true meaning of Christmas by reciting the Bible verses about the shepherds, and about Jesus’ birth.
S. That is what Christmas is about no matter when the actual birth date was, no matter why the date was set on December 25th, none of the other stuff really matters as long as we make the focus of it all celebrating not the gifts that are under the tree but the gift that came in a manger.
T. Paul Harvey tells a story that probably really makes the point that I have been trying to make better than I have. It’s the story about about a family on Christmas Eve. This family had a tradition where the Mother and children would go to the Christmas Eve service, and the Father would stay home and read the paper. When the family returns home from church, they would all gather to open up their presents.
1. The Father wasn’t a bad man, but he just couldn’t believe in the childhood stories anymore of God coming as a baby in a manger. As the family left for church, he opened up the evening paper and began to read by the fireplace.
2. Suddenly, he heard tapping on the window. It was a bird flying against the glass of his window trying to get out of the snow into the warmth of his home. The man felt sorry for on the bird, and he went outside, hoping to bring it in.
3. As he approached the bird, the bird just flew against the window even harder. Pretty soon, the bird flew into the bushes below the window, half frozen, but too afraid to be caught by this huge man.
4. The more the man tried to reach for the bird, the more the bird flew frantically into the snow and thorns of the bushes.
5. After a few minutes in the cold and seeing the bird continue to injure itself, the man yelled out in frustration, "Stupid bird, can’t you understand that I’m trying to help?" The man paused and thought, "If only you understood you wouldn’t fly away ... if only ... if only I could become a bird, and get you to understand."
6. Just then, the church bells rang, as they always did on the hour. But when the man heard the bells this time, he fell to his knees and began to cry, saying, "Oh, God, I didn’t understand. Oh, God, I didn’t understand."
III. That’s the real question, do you really understand? In all the hustle and bustle that Christmas has become do your really understand what it is all about.
A. Do you realize that Christmas is about God Almighty coming to Earth in the form of a man so that he could help us understand?
B. Its about God wanting to help us, but us not being able to see that he wanted to help us.
C. Its about God wanting us to trust him and give him the place in our lives that he has to have for our lives to be what they should be.
D. But we didn’t understand, so he came so we could. He came and paid for our sin, and gave us the gift of himself, something that we could put our trust in.
E. Is your Christmas celebration about you, and about presents, and food, and trees, or is it about the birth of a savior?
F. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with the methods and symbols that we use to celebrate Christmas.
G. Spending time with our families is something that we should all do more of.
H. Giving to others is something that doesn’t hurt anyone, but we have to remember that the real point of it is not what we get under a tree, but what we got on a Cross.
I. The real point of Christmas is found in the bible and always will be.
(John 3:16 - 18 NIV) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
J. That is what Christmas is about.
K. And, I know that you might think that I am crazy for using ET to talk about Christmas but I want you to keep this thought in your mind as you celebrate it this year.
L. If ET was at your house during the Christmas holidays, would he be able to see what it was that you were really suppose to be celebrating? I hope in what you do he would be able to see that Jesus was what the holiday was about?
M. Or I hope that if he wouldn’t have been able to in the past that he will be able to this year.
N. Because, Jesus is the reason that we celebrate Christmas, and if we lose that we everything.
O. Because what Christmas is about is and always has to be (John 3:16 - 18 NIV) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
