Times does to language in the long run what alcohol does
quickly – it slurs words. The word ‘Christmas’ is an example of this. The word
is a slur or contraction of Christ’s Mass. Mass of course is the Catholic
worship service of God and Christ’s Mass is where we come together to offer the
Thanksgiving Sacrifice and celebrate the birth of our Lord. Time has further
shortened ‘Christmas’ to ‘Xmas’. ‘X’ comes from the Greek Xi, or Chi, and is
used to abbreviate the work Christ.
For a Christian, Christmas is supposed to be about the birth
of Jesus, the second greatest event in human history. The creator of everything
hung up his divinity, took on human flesh, and became one of us to dwell with
us and show us through his example how to live in right relationship with God
and each other. He did not choose to come forth as a mighty king demanding
worship, but as a tiny, fragile baby born in a cave. In the beginning God said
let there be light and it was good. Then the Light chose to dwell among us and
we, in our great arrogance, have tried to snuff that light out so we can live
in darkness.
Christmas is a time to celebrate the Light coming into the
world. Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Christmas begins
with Christ and ends with Mass. Without Jesus this season becomes nothing more
than a time of greed and commercialism. People all around the globe, not only
children, are excited to see what they will get and many get disappointed when
the gifts received don’t match expectation. All over this country there are
long lasting grudges between family members over something as small as not
receiving a Christmas card from the other. Christmas is a time where we
celebrate the birth of the baby God and trample over each other trying to get to
the deals on Black Friday.
Today I enjoyed looking at the many posts on Facebook of the
way many churches have decorated their sanctuaries to prepare for the coming of
the light. Let us prepare Him room so he finds a warm resting place in our
hearts and no longer has to lay his head in a manger. Then I came across one
that utterly upset me. It was from the Heartland Community Church in Rockford,
Illinois. Heartland is the largest non-denominational church in the area and
has a large following.
“Experience something
more this year at a Heartland Christmas!
Great music, videos,
sound, lights, and a whole lot of Christmas cheer. No tickets needed…”
Music, videos, sound, lights, and Christmas cheer. All we
had was beautiful worship of Jesus. No wonder so many are leaving the
conventional faith traditions for Heartland. Nowhere in their post did the word
‘Jesus’ appear. In fact this wasn’t even referred to as worship.
“Come to one or all of
our 7 experiences this year!”
Worship is about giving to another. Experience is about
receiving for the self. Being Christian in today’s age has become more about experience
than worship. There is nothing more than Christ in Christmas and all of the
great music, videos, sounds, lights, cheer, and all the presents in the world
are meaningless if the birthday boy isn’t front and center. If you take Christ
out of Christmas you are left with ‘mas’, which in many languages means ‘more’.
Without Christ in Christmas you are left wanting more.
Did Christmas morning find you talking about what you got or
what you gave? Did you have a great experience or a beautiful worship?
