Our current series KNOWING THE CHURCH will continue next week.
A thought about the Christmas Holiday
How the Meaning of Christmas Differs Among People
What does Christmas mean to you? I could ask what Christmas means, but does it mean the same thing to everyone? Surely not! For many, it will conjure up thoughts of gifts, a merry elf in a red suit, and a time for family gatherings. In that context, for some, it will mean not having enough time to do things, struggles with family members, and anxiety. For others, it will mean party time, festivities, and a way of escaping their life toils. Still, some overlook the religious side, while others are upset because it gets overlooked. In short, the world will be what it always is - divided.
The Condition of two people that did not need Christmas
There was a time when things were not as they now are, according to Genesis 2. "...the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought [them] to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name." First, there was harmony between God and the man. Adam was brilliant and in sink with the God who created him.
Furthermore, "...but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man." God took away the man's loneliness by giving him a gift of enormous proportions. Something from within side the man became another being in perfect harmony with him because she was part of him.
Afterward, the man had something to say about what God had done for him. "The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
There was a perfect oneness between the man and the woman, so much so that God said, "For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."
Furthermore, we are told. "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." Just think for a second about a world without shame of any kind. Nakedness meant nothing to Adam and Eve; they were like two toddlers, completely nude and laughing and having fun and without any concern about what they were.
The Reason for the Season We Know as Christmas
The world is filled with moral people who are utterly oblivious to the present condition of humanity. When sin entered, it tore the fabric of everyone's soul to shreds and made us all self-aware and in such a way that we live self-centered, proud, jealous, idolatrous toward God, and covetous of all others. We can't enjoy anything without sin's mark on all our lives.
I haven't even mentioned spiritual beings, the forces of evil that wage war against God. So powerful are they that after a thousand years of plenty, harmony, and Christ's rule, when they are released from their prison, they will gather all the unsaved to wage war against the God who ruled perfectly for a millennium.
The Present Condition of the Church in America
In Conclusion, does the Church that you attend radically alter the condition of relationships between the people who attend? Is transparency the norm or hypocrisy? Do people act one way an hour before "church" and another way during? Could you even know? Is Church about learning without a transformation in behavior?
Many more questions could be asked, and I do not ask them to insinuate that things are bad but to raise awareness that the Church, above all other institutions, is here to reveal what Christ can do for a lost soul. Christmas reveals just how separated we all are from one another. We miss the point of Christmas because we miss the point of life as it now is and has been since our failure in the Garden of Eden. If faith in Christ does not transform a sinner into a saint, imperfect as that might be, then it is not faith in Christ. Salvation reveals what Christmas could and should mean to people.
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