Happy Holy-Days From Brunswick Church of Christ!

I love Holidays! Holidays are days of celebration. Days of recognition. Days to reflect. Days for ceremonies and festivals. Holidays are those days which bring us back to our roots and drive us onward to build the future. Holidays in my home, no matter which one it is, are those days which bring us to our knees in prayer and thanksgiving and compel us to keep building life around Jesus till He returns. But as with your first full-time, minimum-wage job, if performed enough over a certain amount of time in the same prescribed way with the same uninspiring results, a Holiday can lose its luster. In fact unless a Holiday remains strongly connected to the holy event which sparked its beginning we will soon wonder why we celebrate it at all.

In the same way that a broken tow-line renders useless both the barge and the tug-boat, so a Holiday detached from meaningful-event centered-celebration can render both the holiday and those who celebrate it useless. An important point about a holiday (or "Holy-Day" as it is derived from) is that it is always tied to an historical event. No one ever celebrated America’s hopes for independence. No, America celebrates her Independence Day- the actual historical day commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 which declared America independent from the Kingdom of Great Britain. When Columbus Day rolls around in October of next year we will all celebrate Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492. None of us will feel all that inspired to celebrate Columbus' high aspirations or noble intentions. No, we will celebrate Columbus' actual arrival in the New World.

In the same way, the many Holy-Day celebrations found in the bible were celebrations of what God had already done. They were celebrations of actual-historical days. The weekly Sabbath holy-day, for example, was a celebration/recognition of the day the Lord rested from His work in creation on day 7 (Genesis 2:2-3). The Sabbath was celebrated not because of what God would do or because of what God intended to do in the future. The Sabbath was a celebration of what God had already done on a specific day in history many moons ago. The Passover and Feast of Tabernacles were of the same sort: they celebrated actual events in the past. If we wish to be faithful to the term Holiday we must understand this important concept.

The “Holiday Season” is not about celebrating peace, hope and joy because peace, hope and joy are not historical events. I might as well throw a Holiday to celebrate the concepts in this blog post. What is an historical event, however, is the incarnation of Jesus Christ which makes peace, hope and joy possible! If we intend to celebrate Hanukkah this Holy-Day season then by all means let's celebrate the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE and note its implications for our lives today! But let's not celebrate freedom on Hanukkah for freedom is not an historical event. To limit a Holiday to a lofty ideal is really to cut the tow line and make celebration void of meaning.

Having said that, the real power of a Holy-Day, the real power of Christmas for us as Christians, is in what Christmas compels us to do after the celebration is done. When celebrating Independence Day as an example, the question for me needs to be, "Am I more strongly committed to fighting for the men, women and children under my care as a result of celebrating those that fought for the freedom of men, women, and children under their care?" If the holiday does not compel me to action then, again, I might as well cut the tow line and go frolic in the sea.

So what about Christmas? What is it that December 25th, 2010 aught to compel me do to on December 26th and all the days following?

1. The first thing I believe Christmas Day aught to compel me to do is bow my knees in worship to the God Who would dare incarnate Himself. If I were God I could probably think of a number of better ways to spend my time then by submitting myself to mistreatment and even death by those disobedient creatures I created. As I think of myself I don't see that I am much worth that cost. But I am not God! And thank God I am not God because Christmas Day may never have happened if I were! As one Bible writer said,  “What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him?" (Hebrews 2:6). But on Christmas Day (maybe not the actual day I know) the eternal Creator sent Jesus so that "He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone" (Hebrews 2:9. Folks, Christmas is not about the celebration of Jesus' noble teachings: it is about His inconceivable sacrifice begun at His birth!
2. Christmas Day aught to compel me to take a serious and strong stand against evil. When God became man He placed his flag post on enemy territory and said, "If Satan is going to take this world to hell in a hand basket it will have to be over My Son's dead body". Through His incarnation God would make a way for all nations to receive the blessing promised to Abraham from the beginning. The angel said to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11). In Jesus God took a serious and immovable stand to restore the world to its original goodness and my life aught to reflect that restoration as well. My life aught to be about living by heaven's laws here on earth. It aught to be about living like Abraham in lands like Sodom.
3. Christmas Day aught to compel me to build my life around Jesus at every point! Through believing the story of Jesus we allow our minds to be continuously renewed by the normative narrative of God. As Greensdale (2002) stated so well, "Jesus calls us away from a faith in which God is available to bless our business and into a faith in which we are available to be a part of His business. And God's business is a multi-national company with branches everywhere!" (ps. 42-43). The incarnation brings God right alongside us and calls us to embody Christ ourselves.

If you choose to celebrate a holiday this season then ensure for yourself that two things occur:

• You celebrate an actual historical event.
• You let that historical event change the way you live today!

May your faith in Jesus Christ increase this season as you allow yourself to be changed by His birth, life, death and ultimate resurrection.

In this year of our Lord 2011,

Shaun