I often wonder if as Western Christians we have missed that mark and often in teaching other cultures how to evangelise help them to miss it too. I've been having interesting discussions with friends and family over this so thought I would share.
The reason we celebrate the birth of Jesus now here in Britain, now of course across the world, is that the Celtic Christians knew about the solstice festival and the feast of the sun on 25th December as the sun started its journey back up into the sky and the days started getting longer and saw that this perfectly showed about how Jesus came to give peace and rest and reflection, as the sun went lower in the sky, but that He was the true light and the true giver of hope, warmth, life and purpose and so taught and showed the pagans this. They saw it all so clearly and grabbed at the True God with both hands because the Celtic Christians had showed them something in their culture that showed God.
So often Christians get embarrassed about Christmas being at solstice and get in a muddle with it all. Yes it has become a materialistic festival and we do need to redeem that but the Celtic Christians use it to show that God is in everything.
The other thing was the whole story of the Glory of God coming down. We sing it in some amazing carols which actually where many still need healing from school assemblies we miss the awesomeness of them.
I listened to a talk about the Glory of God coming down but it was done, as so many churches at that this time of year do - in a twee please everyone sort of way. I sometimes think we see the Glory of God and the awesomeness of the Christmas story as a bit of an embarrassment we are not quite sure what to do with. Instead of seeing it as a time to celebrate in even bigger amounts than we should do each Sunday we decide its time to open doors to those who haven't yet encountered Jesus but then we don't want to offend so we down play things and those who have come see gentle Jesus meek and mild rather than awesome Jesus who came to die for us.
My daughter had a great discussion with college friends wondering why there were so many songs that were given to depict this gentle baby and yet there seemed to be so few that dealt with His death and the fact that He conquered death.
In fact that was the reason the Celtic Christians got so much notice from the pagans of their time because it was a festival that showed that the death of winter had been beaten, and they just showed that Jesus was the one who did that
Oh I could go on about the significance of Shepherd and wise men but I will save that till another time as I have Christmas cards to email. :>
Living through one of the darkest autumns I have ever lived through due to the rainy gloom, I can understand why the Celts used the solstice to show the glory of God, at this time of year. In the Northerly parts of the Northern hemisphere there is definitely a need to celebrate something that overcomes the darkness. God in the Old Testament set aside times to celebrate times and seasons so there is nothing wrong in celebrating and I agree we have to stop being so embarrassed. To be honest I wonder if people are less offended than we think they will be and it is our problem not theirs
ReplyDeleteI think that is so true Joanna. There was an article recently from one of the top Muslims in UK who said he was fed up of the Brits downplaying Christmas. He said that they had chosen to come to Britain, loved so many of their customs and really wanted to celebrate the fun bits of Christmas!!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes i do think in all aspects people want to hear what we believe and wonder why we make so much fuss about something we are embarassed about!!
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