Rejoice The Lord Is King

I openly confess that I am a humbug. Indeed, I dread this time of year. I am afraid that Bible College finished off this holiday for me. Once I was told about the paganism, the date, the Mass and such it pretty much turned me off. Sadly, the truth about Christmas is that there is very little truth in the practice past the quoting of Luke 2. After that, you add to the previous stuff the craziness of the materialism and the secularization with Santa Claus and the politically correct "Happy Holidays" nonsense it becomes more a tragedy rather than a true holy day. The following poem pretty much describes the current truth about Christmas.

Twas the night before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas

and all through the town

not a sign of Baby Jesus

was anywhere to be found.

The people were all busy

with Christmas time chores

like decorating, and baking,

and shopping in stores.

No one sang "Away in a manger,

no crib for a bed".

Instead, they sang of Santa

dressed-up in bright red..

Mama watched Martha Stewart,

Papa drank beer from a tap.

As hour upon hour

the presents they’d wrap.

Then what from the TV

did they suddenly hear?

’Cept an ad, which told

of a big sale at Sears.

So away to the mall

they all flew like a flash...

Buying things on credit...

and others with cash!

And, as they made their way home

from their trip to the mall,

did they think about Jesus?

Oh, no... not at all.

Their lives were so busy

with their Christmas time things

No time to remember

Christ Jesus, the King.

There were presents to wrap

and cookies to bake.

How could they stop and remember

who died for their sake?

To pray to the Savior...

they had no time to stop.

Because they needed more time to

"Shop till they dropped!"

On Wal-mart! On K-mart!

On Target! On Penney’s!

On Hallmark! On Zales!

A quick lunch at Denny’s

From the big stores downtown

to the stores at the mall

They would dash away, dash away,

and visit them all!

And up on the roof,

there arose such a clatter

As grandpa hung icicle lights

up on his brand new stepladder.

He hung lights that would flash.

He hung lights that would twirl.

Yet, he never once prayed to Jesus...

Light of the World.

Christ’s eyes... how they twinkle!

Christ’s Spirit... how merry!

Christ’s love... how enormous!

All our burdens... He’ll carry!

So instead of being busy,

overworked, and uptight

Let’s put Christ back in Christmas,

and enjoy some good nights!

"author unknown"

A cartoon in the paper was pretty much to the point as well. The mother is yelling at the daughter for making an online purchase with the mother’s credit card. The daughter had bought a doll for her mother. She explained that since that was the doll that the mother had always wanted and now she finally had it maybe Mom would find her Christmas spirit. Mom replies, "Yeah, the true meaning of Christmas…buying things with money that we don’t have. Thanks for reminding me."

Sadly, for most Christians that is the bulk of Christmas spirit as well, buying stuff and stuffing themselves with a dab of church and Jesus thrown in. Heck of a concept. It is supposedly His birthday and yet many Christians cut back on their giving to the Church in order to buy Christmas presents for others. How about we send a gift in the name of a loved one to a missionary or to the Rescue Mission or something and use money other than the tithe? If the kids get one less X-Box© or Sega© product it will not kill them. You know, generic jeans often last longer than brand names and the fads last even less. Does Aunt Hilda really need a Super Deluxe combination vegetable and paper shredder? Most of the stuff we buy folks gets exchanged the day after Christmas or put in a drawer or in the next garage sale pile. How about we finally get sensible?

Is it not interesting that while the birth of Christ is really tremendous, we are not instructed by Him or the Apostles to remember it in any special way? We are told to remember only His death via the Lord’s Supper and that also teaches us to look forward to His coming. He doesn’t even call for a day to do it or even a frequency, but "as oft as you do it." We set up a day and messed that all up as well. We have a fairly accurate date for the Resurrection and we went and tied that to the new moon. We should have stuck with the Passover dates. Do you think He might have had a clue that we would get so wrapped up in stuff that we would forget the purpose so He didn’t set up a day intentionally? Do you think He might have just had a real sense of how men do things? I believe so.