Ready or not, Christmas is HERE! Just last week I was having a discussion with two young ladies. One of them said, “I sure wish Christmas was always on Sunday like Easter!” I agreed with her but that is just not the way it works out. However, I do like it when Christmas comes on Sunday or like this year, Christmas Eve. To me it just makes it a little more special.
Easter always comes on a Sunday because we know for sure when Jesus died and when he was raised by God from the dead. That most important event was centered around Passover and Passover takes place on the very same Sabbath day that it has for somewhere around 5,000 years! Christmas, however is different! We have not “proof-certain” when Jesus was born. The date of his birth is not mentioned in the Bible at all. We do have two Gospel accounts of his birth (Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-56, 2:21) but neither mentions a date. The truth is that the early church did not celebrate the birth of Jesus at all! The first mention of a date for Jesus’ birth appears around 200 ACE and places the date as January 6. There is no plausible explanation for that date unless we take the approximate date of Jesus death as April 6 and couple that with the myth that a prophet always died on the date of their conception! For a long time, the birth of Jesus was celebrated on January 6. By the mid-fourth-century, the date was changed to December 25. Some say it was the Pope who changed the date while others argue it was changed to coincide with the Julian calendar which has the winter solstice as December 25. At that time, the belief was that December 25 was the date of the “nativity of the sun.” It seemed logical then to celebrate the birth of the Son of God who had participated in the creation of the sun on the same day – December 25. Regardless of when Jesus was born, the important thing is we believe his birth was special. We believe that God came in human form; born to poor parents and his first bed was a feeding trough. He came so that you and I can have life eternal. And, just to add some more to this story, January 6 is still an important date in the life of the church. Today, we celebrate January 6 as Epiphany and from December 25 to January 6 we have “the twelve days of Christmas!” Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night… Comments are closed.
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This blog consists of reflections written by the minister each week for the Sunday bulletin. We hope that you enjoy the musings! Archives
January 2020
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