There is no Christian Christmas without unadorned belief in the birth of Jesus as God come to Earth to intervene in the affairs of humanity. No one who professes to be a Christian can ignore or manipulate or diminish the heart of the message: “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.” To minimize that uniquely Christian truth is to undermine the foundation of Christian beliefs.
We live in an era when it’s fashionable to describe oneself as a “cultural Christian.” That squishy classification allows the faux Christian to justify non-belief. It goes something like this: “Oh, I think Jesus was a great philosopher, and I just love the Sermon on the Mount. But I’m not sure about this divinity thing.”
“This divinity thing” is essential. For Christians, there can be no compromise about that. There can be no tip of the holiday hat to modernism. For Christians, the astonishing truth of the birth in Bethlehem, and the subsequent messages embodied in the short earthly life of Christ, are the bedrocks of the faith. Without them, Christianity would be no different from the Santa Claus myth.
It doesn’t matter if, as some researchers say, that the Nativity did not happen in December, or that the star followed by the Magi likely was an explainable astronomical phenomenon, or that Mary and Joseph might not have crossed the desert to get to Bethlehem for a census. Such speculation, especially when it’s used to undermine faith, is a sideshow.
Christians must believe. It’s that simple and it’s that complicated. It’s that easy and it’s that difficult. Attaining mature Christian faith is a work in progress.
The cliché is “Keep Christ in Christmas.” But it’s far more than cliché. It is the vital factor in the Christian Christmas. Celebrate a “cultural Christmas” if it’s all you can muster. Sing the songs, give gifts, attend a church service, feel the genuine goodwill of the season. But know that to be a Christian means profound belief in the divinity of a baby born in a manger some 2,000 years ago.
From The Forum family: Merry Christmas.
Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper’s Editorial Board.
