Skip to main content

Christmastime Homily



This time of year is when most people aim for cheer. Charities bring in donations and department stores cut their prices. For many the stress of the holidays can be a strain that is difficult to bear. The pressure to buy a gift that appeases the expectations of our loved ones has turned the season into a bizarre competition to express love with gifts. 

Each year the same Xmas circus puts its tents up to convince people they can show their appreciation for others with materialism. The expectations get grander each year until the whole convention becomes a burden, rather than a means to show you care. This is the nature of the holiday beast, it seeks to feed and in time you find your bank account and energy devoured.  

As Christians we have the only means to emerge out of this mountain of materialism. To press that holiday beast back into the oblivion it came from. Our answer is Christ, He is able to cut through the holly facades that have covered this holiday. Only Jesus our Lord is able to break through this cold commercialism that has turned a holiday that was once “delightful” into one that is dreadful. 

During this season there are plenty of slogans like “Keep Christ in Christmas,” and “Jesus is the Reason For The Season.” These mantras are helpful, but they tend to be lip service as the holiday beast wraps its candy cane coils around consumers. It is time we took the reindeer by the horns and slow this sleigh of selling. We need to take a lesson from Christ Himself, who did not get entangled by the world’s pace and whims. He did the Will of His Father, and did not become enslaved to expectations of people, “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” (John 6:15). 


There is a way to enjoy the holidays and to slow this sled of stress down. If we but take the reins and hand them to our God and Friend Jesus, and go at our own pace, not being bullied by the holiday beast into guilt gift buying, then perhaps this most ‘wonderful time of year’ can be so again. It is time for each of us to withdrawal to our own mountain to pray and  take this holiday and bend it to our enjoyment. Like the sabbath which was made for us to rest (Exodus 34:21), the holiday is meant to be a time to revel in the holy (spirit) and enjoy some cheer. Amen. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Potrait of Jesus: What Christ Looked Like

What was Jesus’s appearance? Pseudo-historians at National Geographic and other publications argue that Jesus’ humanity was of Arab or African descent. This is impossible because Jesus our God was Son of David according to His flesh, “He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord (God),” (Romans 1:2-4), and King David was described as the following, “So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy [red, ruddy, from the word admowniy {ad-mo-nee'}; from 'adam ; reddish of the hair or the complexion red, ruddy], with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is he. So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came ...
4 comments
Read more

Dispensationalism

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) was a man who did two things, he took 70th week of the Book of Daniel and stretched out to the End Times, and he was the father of  Dispensationalism , a belief system that God dispenses different peoples with separate blessings and covenants. According to Darb'ys doctrine of Dispensationalism, God dispenses different covenants. There are total of seven dispensations that divide the history of man: I. Dispensation of Innocence (prior to the Fall, "Do not east of the Fruit of Good and Eve, Eden), II. Dispensation of Conscience ( You must assuage guilt and sin with blood sacrifices.) III. Dispensation of Human Government (Multiply and Subdue the world, example the Tower of Babel Gen 11:1-9, and Genesis 1:28). IV. Dispensation of the Promise (Dwell in Canaan, Jerusalem) V. Dispensation of the Law ("Obey the Law of Moses and the Prophets"). VI. Dispensation of Grace (The Church, Jesus Christ has come...
Post a Comment
Read more

Orthodox Christianity and Messianic Judaism

There is a divide between the two sides of Christianity. One is lined by a rosary, the other with tallit (prayer shawl). In the west we tend to come from a Greco-Roman understanding of The Bible and Jesus Christ. We are saturated with images of the Crucifixion and see through the red lens of Calvary. Now The Messianic or Jewish perspective is becoming more prevalent as people begin to study the roots of the Christian faith. After all, Jesus was a Jew and his Twelve Disciples were all Jews of different sects and positions in society. By studying the Jewish roots of Jesus we come to understand the ancient customs, practices, rites, and traditions that are featured in the Old and New Testaments. We learn in Jewish tradition that a Rabbi had to be ordained by two rabbis and that when Jesus was asked, "by who's authority do you say these things?, (Luke 20:2)" the Pharisees were asking who had ordained Jesus and where he got his yoke (teachings), and Jesus responds, "wh...
Post a Comment
Read more