I have a confession to make. I love traditional Christmas. I love the rich hymns like: "O Come O Come Immanuel" and "O Holy Night." I imagine a Christmas Eve church service with a pipe organ droning and choir singing at the top of their lungs. I imagine a pastor preaching the 1st coming of Jesus Christ using the Old Testament prophecies and all of the glory found in the Son of God coming to earth as a helpless babe to live as a Man and die for the sins of the world. Then the message would continue to the King Jesus coming again to fully establish the Kingdom of God on earth with an invitation for those that do not know Jesus to ask Him into their lives.
The other side to my confession is that I hate trying to reclaim Christmas in our culture. The world was different 100 years ago. Nations across the globe celebrated the birth of Christ. Saying, "Merry Christmas," was not offensive but almost expected. Even from a secular perspective, there was an honor of Christmas in some way or another. We are living in a global culture that is generally "post-Christian." Christmas is at best some magical day that we ought to carry in our hearts. It becomes something about family or giving to the poor or something like that. Decorations are about a fat man in a red suit, and that's about all that Christmas means.
In our global culture, Christmas has become un-Christian. I can only believe that this trend will continue and I do not believe it is the job of the Church to try to win the war on Christmas. Why should we battle in the flesh what is already won in the Spirit? Could there be something higher to our calling to preach the gospel than to "put Christ in Christmas?" What I mean is that, instead of having a play of what Christmas is really all about; we simply preach Christ and Him crucified.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is power. We preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to a world so confused about what happened 2,000 years ago when God came to earth as a Man. The Gospel is power unto salvation, anything less will only keep a lost world in confusion. Let's preach Jesus during this season.
