I saw a production of Julius Caesar today.
In one scene, the wife of Brutus (main plotter) spots that he has a secret. She tries to get it from him and claims a wife's privileges as one before the gods. He refuses. She pleads, asking if she inhabits but the distant suburbs of his heart.
A thought: is God in my distant suburbs or city-central?
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Christmas or Christmiss?
A mother wrote to a publication and asked what Christmas is all about and how to explain it to her six year old daughter in a way that would help her on the road to Jesus. I was asked to contribute a reply ..
What great questions you ask! How wonderful that you want to explain this to your daughter and help her on the road to Jesus. That’s great parenting!
I’ll start with a confession. I dislike Christmas!
The reasons are partly personal. One of my parents died soon before 25 December and the other one soon after. As well, Christmas is usually a period of heavy work for me – I spoke at 31 Christmas events one year! On top of that, Christmas was a time of separation from my family during the last 12 years. Put all that together and you can see why it’s not my favourite time of year.
However, my real dislike of Christmas goes deeper. The emptiness of the public festival that we call Christmas gives me dismay. I lived in a major south east Asian city where Christianity was a distinctly minority faith. Yet every shopping centre and public facilities such as airports and major roads were themed for some kind of Christmas. I say ‘some kind of Christmas’ for there was more of a general seasonal goodwill rather than any emphasis on Christ. Can you see that same trend happening in Australia? Public events are ‘Christmas-light’ and Jesus hardly gets a mention. Christmas is meant to be ‘Christ-mas’, or a celebration of Jesus. But what we often see is ‘Christmiss’ – anything but Jesus.
Did you know that it’s artificial to celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25th? We don’t know when he was born, except that it was probably not December of January. Almost certainly Jewish shepherds would not have slept in their fields in a freeing December. Our 25 December celebration draws on some pre-Christian festivals associated with the northern solstice and New Year. Put simply, the celebration of Jesus’ birth on December 25th was an attempt to Christianise these pagan festivals. Given the modern ‘Christmiss’, I think that the pagans have struck back well.
Should we celebrate Christmas? That’s a serious question. I sometimes wonder if we should skip 25 December and hold our celebration at another time. Not all Christian celebrate Christmas on 25 December anyway. Some through history have not celebrated it at all.
However, I’m guessing that most of us will celebrate Christmas on December 25. If so, how can we use the day to tell our children and others about Jesus?
So what do you say to your daughter? I’d start with Christmas presents. Tell your daughter that we give them to remind us of the best present of all. That best present is God’s love to send his son Jesus into the world to be a real person like us.
That’s breathtaking. It blew the minds of the first people who heard it. Imagine the richest person in the world leaving their mansion and living in an ordinary suburb or town. We would wonder why? Now imagine way beyond that. God who made everything became one of us and one with us. As the Bible puts it: ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us’ (Jn 1:14). Jesus, who is God’s son, is that Word. When he came, it was ‘Immanuel’ which means ‘God with us’ (Matt 1:23).
Why did Jesus do this? He did it to show us what God is like in a way we can best understand (Jn 1:14,18). He did it to share our life and show us what it is to be truly human and without sin (Heb 4:15). And he did it to be the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord (Lke 2:11). As one Bible verse puts it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Tim 1:15). Indeed, the very name ‘Jesus’ means that God is salvation. Or as that most famous verse says: ‘God loved the world so much that he sent his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him should not die but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).
This is a key thing to remember and teach your daughter. Put simply, Jesus became one of us so that he could go the Cross in our place and take our punishment for sin. The Christmas cradle always has the shadow of the Easter Cross.
So here are some suggestions for you and your daughter:
• Read the Bible stories of Jesus’ birth to her in the weeks before Christmas. (You will find these in Matthew Chs 1-2 and Luke Chs 1-2.) Take time to talk about these and to explain some of the significant sayings.
• Together make up some Christmas gift tags or tree decorations with some of the above Bible verses on them. Use these within your family and to others.
• Visit a Christian bookshop and buy some storybooks that are true to the Bible story and great value as kid’s books. Give these as presents.
• Make it a family priority to meet with other Christians to celebrate Jesus’ birth and maybe don’t distribute Christmas presents until later.
• Keep Christmas presents and meal modest to help keep the focus on Jesus.
• Set a good model to your daughter by yourself putting a big focus on Jesus at that time.
• Together say a big prayer of thanks for all the Christmas presents and especially for the best one of all – Jesus the Saviour.
• Echo God’s love-gift to us by taking your daughter to serve needy people with gifts of time, food or other gifts.
Hmm … maybe Christmas can become likeable after all!
What great questions you ask! How wonderful that you want to explain this to your daughter and help her on the road to Jesus. That’s great parenting!
I’ll start with a confession. I dislike Christmas!
The reasons are partly personal. One of my parents died soon before 25 December and the other one soon after. As well, Christmas is usually a period of heavy work for me – I spoke at 31 Christmas events one year! On top of that, Christmas was a time of separation from my family during the last 12 years. Put all that together and you can see why it’s not my favourite time of year.
However, my real dislike of Christmas goes deeper. The emptiness of the public festival that we call Christmas gives me dismay. I lived in a major south east Asian city where Christianity was a distinctly minority faith. Yet every shopping centre and public facilities such as airports and major roads were themed for some kind of Christmas. I say ‘some kind of Christmas’ for there was more of a general seasonal goodwill rather than any emphasis on Christ. Can you see that same trend happening in Australia? Public events are ‘Christmas-light’ and Jesus hardly gets a mention. Christmas is meant to be ‘Christ-mas’, or a celebration of Jesus. But what we often see is ‘Christmiss’ – anything but Jesus.
Did you know that it’s artificial to celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25th? We don’t know when he was born, except that it was probably not December of January. Almost certainly Jewish shepherds would not have slept in their fields in a freeing December. Our 25 December celebration draws on some pre-Christian festivals associated with the northern solstice and New Year. Put simply, the celebration of Jesus’ birth on December 25th was an attempt to Christianise these pagan festivals. Given the modern ‘Christmiss’, I think that the pagans have struck back well.
Should we celebrate Christmas? That’s a serious question. I sometimes wonder if we should skip 25 December and hold our celebration at another time. Not all Christian celebrate Christmas on 25 December anyway. Some through history have not celebrated it at all.
However, I’m guessing that most of us will celebrate Christmas on December 25. If so, how can we use the day to tell our children and others about Jesus?
So what do you say to your daughter? I’d start with Christmas presents. Tell your daughter that we give them to remind us of the best present of all. That best present is God’s love to send his son Jesus into the world to be a real person like us.
That’s breathtaking. It blew the minds of the first people who heard it. Imagine the richest person in the world leaving their mansion and living in an ordinary suburb or town. We would wonder why? Now imagine way beyond that. God who made everything became one of us and one with us. As the Bible puts it: ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us’ (Jn 1:14). Jesus, who is God’s son, is that Word. When he came, it was ‘Immanuel’ which means ‘God with us’ (Matt 1:23).
Why did Jesus do this? He did it to show us what God is like in a way we can best understand (Jn 1:14,18). He did it to share our life and show us what it is to be truly human and without sin (Heb 4:15). And he did it to be the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord (Lke 2:11). As one Bible verse puts it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Tim 1:15). Indeed, the very name ‘Jesus’ means that God is salvation. Or as that most famous verse says: ‘God loved the world so much that he sent his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him should not die but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).
This is a key thing to remember and teach your daughter. Put simply, Jesus became one of us so that he could go the Cross in our place and take our punishment for sin. The Christmas cradle always has the shadow of the Easter Cross.
So here are some suggestions for you and your daughter:
• Read the Bible stories of Jesus’ birth to her in the weeks before Christmas. (You will find these in Matthew Chs 1-2 and Luke Chs 1-2.) Take time to talk about these and to explain some of the significant sayings.
• Together make up some Christmas gift tags or tree decorations with some of the above Bible verses on them. Use these within your family and to others.
• Visit a Christian bookshop and buy some storybooks that are true to the Bible story and great value as kid’s books. Give these as presents.
• Make it a family priority to meet with other Christians to celebrate Jesus’ birth and maybe don’t distribute Christmas presents until later.
• Keep Christmas presents and meal modest to help keep the focus on Jesus.
• Set a good model to your daughter by yourself putting a big focus on Jesus at that time.
• Together say a big prayer of thanks for all the Christmas presents and especially for the best one of all – Jesus the Saviour.
• Echo God’s love-gift to us by taking your daughter to serve needy people with gifts of time, food or other gifts.
Hmm … maybe Christmas can become likeable after all!
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