Christmas Evangelized and Evangelizes the World

 Christmas Eve C  December 24, 2024
Isaiah 9:2-7 Psalm 96
 Titus 2:11-14  Luke 2:1-14

Lectionary Link

There are Christians today who are angry about how Christmas has evangelized our world. The collateral effects of Christmas has reached almost everywhere in our world and some Christians are angry that there is even a Christmas, because biblical literalists remind us that there is no exact date of birth given for Jesus in the Gospels. So if we don't have an exact Gospel birth date for Jesus, why are we observing it on December 25th, or January 6th in some Eastern Orthodox churches? And why have we let it become such a crass commercial season? And why have we let an obscure bishop of Myra morph into the portly mythical Santa Claus of the North Pole who delivers gifts in one night in a sleigh pulled by reindeer through the skies? The secular miracles of Santa Claus are much more fantastic than the the miraculous birth stories of Jesus in the Gospel. It is rather miraculous that Santa can deliver presents in every household on earth all within a few hours on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Such omnipresence of Santa is quite fantastic.

Bah humbug purity Christians are embarrassed by the how Christmas has evangelized the world. If the Gospel of the birth of Christ cannot be preached with the correct purity that it deserves, then Christmas should be observed as but another day on the calendar. Bah humbug to you secular Christmas observers. If love, hope, and joy cannot have Christian sub-titles then you have no right to observe even the profound virtues which pre-existed the arrival of baby Jesus.

I, do not share the bah humbug view of Christmas which some Christians who prize their purity and fealty to the fact that the Gospels do not designate a birthdate for Jesus.

I rejoice in the evangelistic origins of the observance of Christmas. How could it be known that God was with the vast populace of the Roman Empire? They had their celebration of their cult of the Emperor and their many deities, especially at the season when the day of the year in the northern hemisphere became shortest and the darkness of the long night threatened to declare its supremacy over light.

Could there be a light of the world to celebrate on the darkest days of the year? Can there is be a substitute for the Sol Invictus on the Roman Calendar, an event which celebrated the rebirth of the Sun, the Sun unconquered by darkness? Indeed, Jesus the Christ was the perfect replacement Light of the World. The origin of the observance of Christmas is but the evangelism of people whose lives were transformed by the mystical birth within themselves of the life of Christ. This was such an enlightening event for these mystics, they believed it was worth sharing and they believed it was the perfect replacement to be the awareness of a new Light to arise within the Roman World. We can either be ashamed that the origin of Christmas was a movement to evangelize the people of the Roman Empire, or we can continue to be a part of the evangelizing impact of Christmas within our world.

Those who are ashamed of Christmas perhaps have become prideful about their level of appreciation of how Christ as Emmanuel, God with us, is with them. After all, if others only knew how much I know God is with me, how could they participate in such secularization of Christmas? Such pride assumes that they have no more growth into the meaning of what God with us means to them, such that they can criticize the impoverished experience of Christmas that the people of our secular world have.

I think that such bah humbug Christians believe that the power of the sin of the fall has been so great that God has no longer been able to call creation "good." It can only become "good" again after Jesus redeems the people who make that choice to be given permission to call their lives good again.

I, however, do not believe that human sin has the power to dethrone the goodness of God which remains omnipresence within the created order, and the goodness which remains in the image of God which is stamped upon each human being as the light of God within the inner being of each one.

Before Christians can place Christian sub-titles on goodness, hope, love, joy, justice, kindness, gentleness, faith, and the like, they still exists and can be known before any person attains any community religious or spiritual identity any place on earth.

The birth of Jesus is a celebration of the birth of the image of God within each of us as the Christ nature. We can know the collateral effects of the image of God upon us before we can ever profess ourselves as being Christian.

And this reality is the strength of the evangelism of Christmas in the history of the world and in the world today. In every child that is born, there is born goodness, hope, love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, and faith. This is the original blessing which gets observed in many ways during the Christmas season.

Let us not be critical of those who don't experience Christmas exactly like we do. Let us be thankful for the remembrance of the birth of the Light of the Christ nature which is accessible within everyone.

Let the Christmas season be a season of evangelism for us through giving, serving, and promoting generosity and justice for all to stir up an enhanced experience for everyone to know the arising of the image of God within their lives.

And if people never come to know Jesus in the way that we do in our Christmas, let us be thankful if people can know the goodness of their lives and the closeness of God to them through the image of the divine that has been implanted upon them. And if they can't be Christians as we are, let them know love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, faith, and justice, because these reside in the event of everyone's first birth, and the site of one's first birth is the place where one can return for knowing the perpetual gift of life itself.

Let us be thankful for the Christmas effects within our world today. Let us exemplify best the Christmas effect with the Christ-like behaviors of love, joy, generosity, peace, kindness, gentleness, faith, and justice.

With good Christmas evangelism, we can make another merrier Christmas. Amen.