Christmas Cliffhanger

On the Junior Staff Facebook page, I asked the question, should we celebrate Christmas every year? Why or Why not?

I enjoyed hearing about how important it is to celebrate the birth of Christ, and also the contrasting point that the holiday of Christmas has become something much more inflated with other ideas, and meanings, and materialism.

This week I wanted to share an excerpt from a great book, that I think helps us to remember what needs to happen in our hearts and minds in order for us to prepare for the arrival of Christ,

Digging In:

Well, the problem I see is this: we celebrate Christmas with such enthusiasm, both in Christian ways, and secular ways. And we push so hard to create a certain magic with the season. But after a dozen or more Christmases go by, there is a temptation to ignore the spiritual implications of Christmas, because they have not changed. You and I are just as saved by the work that Christ did when he came to earth at Christmas and gave his life on the Cross, as we were last year, or as your parents were when they were children, or as anyone has been in history.

There is a danger to our faith, when we act in the confidence that the story is written. 

One danger is that we are not involved at all in the work of Christ in this world because we are so content with our own place in heaven. 

Another danger is that we are so accustomed to being saved, that we don't celebrate that precious gift that we have unwrapped each Christmas for as long as we can remember. We are more concerned with what is new, and upcoming here in this world.

I'm going to share a couple paragraphs from the book Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton.

He proposes what I think is a good solution to this problem:

  

As Christians, we must have hope for all souls. And it is quite realistic to imagine that any man may be saved. "It is sensible [to think this way], but it is not specially favorable to activity or progress. Our society ought rather to insist on the danger of everybody, on the fact that every man is hanging by a thread or clinging to a precipice."

"But to a Christian existence is a STORY, which may end up in any way. In a thrilling novel (that purely Christian product) the hero is not eaten by cannibals; but it is essential to the existence of the thrill that he MIGHT be eaten by cannibals. The hero must (so to speak) be an eatable hero. So Christian morals have always said to the man, not that he would lose his soul, but that he must take care that he didn’t. In Christian morals, in short, it is wicked to call a man “damned”: but it is strictly religious and philosophic to call him damnable."

"All Christianity concentrates on the man at the cross-roads.... The true philosophy is concerned with the instant. Will a man take this road or that?—that is the only thing to think about, if you enjoy thinking."

I think that it is an important idea to remember how dire our situation is. This picture of being threatened by cannibals, or hanging from a cliff is a very serious one. 

It is difficult to imagine watching the scene in the Return of the King where Frodo is hanging on the cliff, and Sam is reaching down, without caring about whether he accepts the help, or chooses to let go and fall.

It is hard to watch this scene without a tear:

Mufasa asks his brother for help. And Scar throws him to his death.

When we consider our fellow humans during the Advent season, and when we consider our own state, it is imperative that we keep ourselves aware of how much we needed Christ to come, and we want to hold onto a mindset that longs for Christ’s coming.

So we are hanging from a cliff, and what happens at Christmas is that God lowers his hand to pull us up.... In the last chapter of the Bible, we hear Christ say, "I am coming soon." and our response is "Come, Lord Jesus!"

Reflecting:

Think of a way that you can celebrate Christmas this year that takes you to the cliff, and lets you consider how great it is to have the hand of God reach down from there.

Share your best ideas here, so we can learn from you.