Tis The Season
(by Jack Kelley at GraceThruFaith.com)
For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten
it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.”
(Jeremiah 10:3-4)
A friend once observed that when you see
the Christmas decorations begin to go up on Main
Street, you know that Thanksgiving must be near.
That’s because in the US, Thanksgiving weekend
officially kicks off the Christmas season.
Special school programs, parties, shopping,
all the things Christmas has become these days
begin in earnest on the day after Thanksgiving.
Of course there’s a concerted effort on several
fronts to make the holiday season as non-Christian
as possible, so that it’s no longer for Christians only.
Anti-Christians want to deprive Americans of all
our public religious observances, so taking manger
scenes off of court house lawns, and Christmas
Carols out of school concerts is right up their alley.
And neo- pagans rightly say that Christians hijacked
what used to be their holiday, the Winter Solstice,
so it shouldn’t be exclusively Christian anyway.
There’s More Here Than Meets The Eye
But I suspect there’s also another motive behind
this effort, and it’s an attempt to further increase
the traditionally high levels of Christmas spending.
Many US retailers depend on a strong Christmas
shopping season to be profitable for the year, and
holiday sales tax receipts are an important part of
every state and local government’s annual revenue.
Getting more shoppers into stores
makes good business sense all around.
Maybe this is why other religions have
been encouraged to join in the season, too.
In recent years, some denominations of Judaism
(there are 72) have made their Hanukkah
into a Christmas-like celebration.
And now we have Kwanzaa, an African holiday
that first came on the world scene in 1966.
It is based on seven principles arrayed
as a seven branched candlestick that
looks surprisingly like a Jewish menorah.
(Its official website claims 18 million celebrants.)
Like Christmas and Hanukkah, Kwanzaa involves gift
giving, special decorations, and lots of good food.
It begins on December 26 and includes
a big feast on New Years Eve.
Both these movements bring millions
of new shoppers into stores during
what’s now called the “holiday” season.
But That’s Not All
A few years ago American Moslems began
petitioning some school districts for days
off and special programs in recognition
of their December holiday, Eid-Ul-Adha.
In frustration one district has canceled
all holiday programs, including the Christmas
ones, to avoid the problems this could cause.
It’s not Politically Correct to favor
one religion over another in America,
even with traditions as old as Christmas.
Having no special programs
at all is the easiest way out.
That’s the problem when multi-culturalism
and freedom of religion meet.
If you encourage every religious group
to celebrate its own holidays, which
ones should get official sanction?
It has to be either all of them or none
of them, because anything in between
is discriminatory toward someone.
So far the multi-culturalists seem only to be
offended by the observance of Christian holidays.
Maybe that’s because for the most part
they’re the only ones officially recognized
in the US. Government offices typically
aren’t closed on Passover or Ramadan.
1700 years ago the Romans solved this
problem by re-making former pagan
Holy Days into Christian ones.
That’s how we got Christmas
and Easter in the first place.
Of course they were only trying
to replace one religion with another.
Today we’re trying to
recognize all religions.
See the problem?
What’s The Solution?
Personally, I’d like to see all religious
holidays observed by followers of the religion
to which they apply, but none of them officially
recognized by the various branches of government.
If we’re going to have separation
of church and state, let’s have it.
The US constitution does address freedom
of religious expression, even if it doesn’t
guarantee freedom from religion.
How much more productive could
our government be if it didn’t have
to be closed for all our holidays?
And as for the people who don’t follow
any religion, why should they be forced
to observe Holy Days they don’t believe in?
Even more productivity could be realized if
they just went to work like it was any other day.
To be non-discriminatory, we could create
an un-holiday for them, sort of like
the un-birthday in Alice in Wonderland.
I’d also like for Christians everywhere
to give the winter and spring solstices
back to the pagans and celebrate the
Lord’s birth and His resurrection on the
actual anniversary of their occurrence.
That would go a long way toward restoring
the original meaning to the two most
important events in human history.
We could stop spending money we don’t
have to give meaningless gifts to people
we don’t even like at Christmas time, and
we could stop teaching our kids pagan
fertility rites instead of the wonder
of the Lord’s resurrection at Easter.
I realize I sound little like Andy Rooney
here, but before you start calling me
a spoil sport, think about it.
The Lord’s birth and His resurrection
are cause for extraordinary celebration
on the part of all who understand
their significance to humankind.
And if the focus of our celebration was
on that significance instead of some
meaningless pagan ritual, wouldn’t we all
approach our Holy Days with a lot more
reverence and celebrate them with
a lot more gratitude?
And wouldn’t the non-believers who
know us be a lot more curious as
to why we’re so grateful?
And wouldn’t that lead to more conversations
about our eternal destiny, and theirs?
Certainly some of them would be saved
because of this, and wouldn’t the
Lord be blessed by all of that?
Tell me this doesn’t make sense.
Here’s Another Good Reason
Many Christians are increasingly offended
by the commercial excesses of Christmas, and
if all of its original purpose is just about lost
anyway, what’s the point in continuing it?
Best to abandon it altogether and have a
real Happy Birthday Jesus celebration in
the early fall when He was actually born.
And as for Easter, let’s call it by its real
name, Resurrection Morning, and celebrate
it on the Sunday morning after Passover
when He actually rose from the grave.
Researching the origin of the two most
important Holy Days in Christianity, you’ll find
that right from the beginning the motivation
had more to do with profit than piety.
There were already pagan festivals in place on
these dates that involved celebrating, exchanging
of gifts and riotous public banquets, all of which
generated lots of income for merchants.
Superimposing Christian customs upon these
pagan festivals was an accommodation to
commercial interests, pure and simple.
It allowed them to keep selling stuff
to their customers as in the past,
just under a different banner.
Isn’t it about time we abandon this offense
to our Lord, and begin paying Him the homage
due Him as our Savior and Redeemer?
The anti-Christians have just about
succeeded in stripping away every last vestige
of religious meaning from these holidays, and
the Lord permits it because they’ve been
counterfeit right from the beginning.
Let’s let them have their way, and follow
the example of our Christian ancestors
who for 400 years or so refused to
participate in what they knew were
really pagan celebrations re-
packaged as Christian Holy Days.
They were no more fooled
by this than the Lord is.
Over the years there have been several
attempts to steer us back toward the
original purpose of the holidays
without abandoning them altogether.
As a kid I remember an effort
to “put Christ back into Christmas.”
And a few years ago a clever
marketing strategy reminded us that
“Jesus is the Reason for the Season.”
Neither of these attempts
was successful.
It’s time for something more dramatic,
like starting over from scratch.
Where Do We Start?
Lately, people have been asking me what we
can do to prepare for our soon coming departure.
Since some economic forecasters are saying
that our economy will be a long time recovering,
if it ever does, I think Christians could make
a great start by changing the way we look
at our two most significant holy days.
I’m not naive enough to think this could
all happen overnight, and perhaps
we’ll never be completely successful.
But if we each commit to a small start, and begin
talking to others of a like mind, who knows how
soon we could change things for the better.
One thing we could do is start celebrating the
Lord’s birthday on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish
New Year, usually mid to late September.
That’s the most likely time of His birth,
when the God of the Universe became
a man and dwelt among us.
We could start reading the “Christmas Story”
then, and exchange gifts within our family and
circle of friends that sincerely express our joy
that our Savior came into the world on that day.
Instead of telling our little ones that their
gifts came from an imaginary person called
Santa Claus, we could tell them they came
from a real person named Jesus.
Then we could tell them who Jesus is,
and why we’re so happy to know Him.
We could explain to anyone who’ll
listen what we’re doing and why.
We can start toning down our
Christmas holiday observance right now.
Why not ask your friends and extended
families to donate a small amount in your name
to a favorite Christian charity instead of sending
you gifts, and agree to do the same for them?
You’ll be helping the less fortunate and storing
up treasure in Heaven at the same time.
Learn the origin of pagan symbols like the
Christmas tree, Santa Claus, mistletoe, etc,
and begin eliminating them from your traditions.
Within a year or two you’ll be placing more
emphasis on the Lords’ birth and less on the
material excess we’re accustomed to seeing.
As for Easter, remember the word comes from
Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of fertility.
That’s how the rabbit and
colored eggs got included.
They’re symbols of fertility.
Jesus rose from the grave on the
Sunday morning after Passover.
It’s the Jewish Feast of Firstfruits, and it’s
the day He became our Redeemer, conquering
death to prove that all our sins had been forgiven.
That’s why He’s called the Firstfruits of
those who’ve fallen asleep (died). (1 Cor. 15:20)
Let’s get the pagan stuff out of our
celebration of His great victory.
What greater cause for celebration
could you imagine than these?
What better ways of thanking the Lord than by
honoring Him on the days when the two greatest
expressions of His love actually happened?
What better way to prepare our hearts for
the face-to-face meeting that’s almost upon us?
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