Pastor Ethan Boese
“Christ” in Christmas
Secretly, I love Christmas. The fresh snow gently falling and turning dying grass into a soft blanket of white, the lights shimmering and shining throughout Riverside Park, endlessly scrolling through the Amazon App to find the perfect gift for my wife and children, and the Peppermint Mocha Coffee at Starbucks isn’t half bad either. I love Christmas.
However, Christmas brings a seasonal stress unlike any other. Snow turns into sheer cold sheets of ice, the lights, tinsel, and glitter of the season become overwhelming, advertisement after advertisement assaults my web browser with no relief in sight, and man cannot live on Peppermint Mocha Coffee alone. There is hardly any room left for “Christ” in Christmas.
Jesus wasn’t born on December 25, sorry to burst your bubble. We celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas traditionally because December 25 falls around the Winter Solstice – the darkest day of the year. How fitting it is to celebrate the coming of the “true light that gives everyone light” during the darkest time of the year. Does that mean we can’t enjoy all the other seasonal traditions of Christmas. Of course we can!
In fact, Christ’s coming enhances them. For Jesus came so that our sins would be washed, and we would be white as snow. Jesus came to show the light of God’s love. Jesus is God’s greatest gift to you given free of charge. There is nothing sweeter than knowing we have peace with God, not even Peppermint Mocha Coffee.
On Christmas we celebrate the coming of “Christ.” And all the joys and peace Jesus brings with him. Paul Gerhardt states this fact in a much more memorable way: “O Jesus Christ, your manger is my paradise at which I am reclining. For there, O Lord, we find the Word made flesh for us – your grace is brightly shining.”
Merry “Christ”mas, Pastor Boese
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE
On each non-communion Sunday, Pastor Boese will invite children of all ages forward for the Children’s Message before the Hymn of the Day. Parents with young children may join them as they desire.
