Keep Christ the center of “Christ-mas” by The Way’s Pastor Joel Tiemeyer
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The temperature is changing. The leaves are almost gone. The season is changing; in fact, it seems like everything around us is changing. Even the holidays, how they have been known, are changing. Over the last few decades, culture has embraced the term “Happy Holidays” to be more inclusive rather than sticking with the traditional “Merry Christmas.” For many, this creates an awkward and unfamiliar place. The challenge is to figure out how to grow with societal changes yet not change genuine beliefs. There is a desire to continue the traditional way of celebrating the holiday, so many call Christmas. The question now becomes, “How do we celebrate Christmas?” Counties across the country have been sued for manger scenes placed on government properties such as courthouses and public parks. Christmas plays at schools where we commonly saw Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus now limited to a jolly man with a long, fluffy white beard. He is known as Santa Claus since Saint Nick has too much religious connotation. Santa’s famous slogan has even changed in many places–no longer is “Ho Ho Ho” followed by “Merry Christmas!” Despite this effort to be politically correct, many people still take offense.When everything is changing, how do we truly celebrate Christmas as part of our religious heritage? How do we make Christmas more than just another “Happy Holiday” lumped together with Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and all the other days celebrated throughout this time of the year? This is the challenge of our time. As the Lead Pastor of a church in Northeast Texas, being asked these questions has become the norm every holiday season. As Thanksgiving comes and goes, the attention turns to the biggest holiday of the year, Christmas. Nevertheless, the joy of giving and the hustle and bustle of shopping also come with incredible frustration. So Christmas stays in proper focus? The joy of giving, strained by the ability to finance that joy, is only compounded by the question, “How does Christ stay as the priority and not a proverbial stocking stuffer?” After all, it is “Christ-mas” Day.
To find this answer, stop the Christmas frustration, and keep Christ the center of “Christ-mas,” a specific question needs to be asked. After all, Jesus often did the same thing when people came to him. He answered a question with a question. The question remains, “Is Christmas just a holiday, simply a season, or is it a lifestyle?” The questions plaguing this cherished Christmas holiday get answered by unwrapping the gift of what Christmas is truly all about. In this article, “Christ-mas” has been used instead of the typical spelling of Christmas. The usage is no accident and is far more profound than mere emphasis. The actual word Christmas is a compound word consisting of “Christ” and “Mas.” In American culture and many cultures worldwide, the phrase “Merry Christmas” is used to acknowledge Christmas day. To get past the Christmas frustration, to answer the question, “Is Christmas just a holiday, simply a season, or is it a lifestyle?”
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The obvious answer to why “Merry Christmas” is said and celebration of Christmas day is the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth. Jesus is truly the reason we celebrate Christmas. However, if this is the only reason we celebrate because He was born, we celebrate a holiday. Buying gifts at Thanksgiving, continuing to give those gifts through New Year’s, which many of us do, we can even go so far as to say we celebrate the “Season of Christmas.” However, with all this taking place, there still seems to be a shallowness to the overall meaning of Christmas. Could it be that Christmas is not just a “Holiday” or a “Season,” but it really is a lifestyle? After all the money is spent, meals are cooked, good deeds are done, church services are attended; finally, the frantic pace of the Christmas season comes to a close that there is still something more we should be celebrating?
Jesus is truly the reason we celebrate Christmas. If He is just a “reason,” He becomes part of the shuffle and not the overall essence of the whole definition of CHrist-mas. Nevertheless, the term essence carries great weight. Essence, defined by Wikipedia, “Essence is the attribute or set of attributes that make an object or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it loses its identity.”Applying the definition of essence to our topic of Christmas adds an entirely new dimension to the question. “Is Christmas just a holiday, simply a season, or is it a lifestyle?” If we take away the essence of Christmas, then Christmas ceases to be what it fundamentally was meant to be. Therefore, Christmas begins to lose its identity because the essence is gone, resulting in just another holiday.
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Christmas is more than a day we celebrate. Christmas is more than a season of food, giving, and good deeds. In its truest form, Christmas becomes a lifestyle in which its essence permeates everything we think, do, and say. As the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, known as Christmas, is upon us, the essence of Christmas begins now. So how does the essence of Christmas begin to permeate our lives even when the day has not arrived? It starts with the simple phrase that fills the air during this time of year. People hear “Merry Christmas,” say “Merry Christmas,” and even sing “We wish you a Merry Christmas” several times a day. Yet, as many times as we hear, say, and even sing this classic phrase, its essence does not permeate because the meaning of “Merry Christmas” has not been imparted as a lifestyle in people. How does it become a lifestyle? Finding out what it means – REALLY means when we say “Merry Christmas.” It is time to make it more than a holiday catchphrase. Let us define it — to apply it, then “Merry Christmas” can become a lifestyle. The term “Merry” is very rarely used in today’s society. We do not go around saying, “Wow, I am having a “Merry” day today.” When we say, “Merry Christmas,” do we grasp the fact that by definition, “Merry” means “to be happy and joyful?” However, countless people in this season say “Merry Christmas” with the attitude and facial expressions of Mr. Scrooge. Either the definition is not understood, or the essence is lost; possibly, it is both.
Merry means to be “happy and joyful.” So, what are we to be happy and joyful about; Christmas! As mentioned earlier, Christmas is a compound word of Christ and Mas. In many cultures and languages, the sentence or word structure places the verb or action word before the noun or subject. So as we explain “Christmas,” it makes more sense in the English language if it were Mas-Christ. Mas means “to celebrate.” Whereas Christ means “anointed.” Carrying the complete meaning, “The Anointed One and His Anointing.” So, in reality, every time we say “Merry Christmas,” the essence of what we are saying is, “Be happy and full of joy because we are celebrating The Anointed One and His Anointing!” In and of itself, this changes everything. Christmas moves from being a day, or just a season, to a lifestyle. However, we still have not arrived at the fullness or true essence of Christmas. Part of the definition of essence is “the attribute or set of attributes that make an object or substance what it fundamentally is.” “Be happy and full of joy because we are celebrating The Anointed One and His Anointing” is the actual definition of Christmas. By applying essence to the definition of Christ-mas, the question now becomes, “What are the attributes that make up Christ the ‘Anointed One?'”
[adning id=”33207″]Now we are getting to the essence of Christmas. Now Christmas can become a lifestyle and so much more than just a holiday. This Bible gets very specific about what Jesus the Christ the Anointed One came to do. The writer of the Gospel of Luke will tell us “… the attribute or set of attributes that make an object or substance what it fundamentally is” so Christmas can become fulfilling again. In the Gospel of Luke chapter four, Jesus is coming into Galilee, and news of Him is spreading rapidly. Verses 18 and 19 begin to tell us the answer to the key or main question we have been asking ourselves. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19 ESV)
Since Christ, by definition, means “The Anointed One and His Anointing,” this tells us the essence of what Christmas is all about. How do we relieve the frustration that accompanies the Christmas season so often? By changing what Christmas has become into what it is meant to be, a lifestyle. This lifestyle brings “good news” to those who need it most. The term poor in our culture is many times directly related to money. The completeness of the term poor means to be lacking or deficient in ANY area. The most excellent news for someone deficient in any area of life is that the deficiency has been taken care of in their area of need. Jesus does not stop there. He talks about freedom for those imprisoned, sight for those who cannot see, no more oppression, then tells people that God is for them. Backing away from the up-close and literal view of what Jesus said and taking a look from above, now we can see the real essence of Christmas. For Christmas to be a lifestyle, it is about finding out what people need the most and meeting their needs; only then will Christmas be fulfilling.
[adning id=”33207″]Making a lifestyle out of meeting the needs of others sounds extremely simple. Why do we not see it done more if it is so simple? Could the reason possibly be that we have had Christmas wrong all along? We give gifts to the ones we love, which is good, yet the essence of Christmas is giving gifts to those in need. We cook big meals for those we love. Why can’t we do both? Cook for those we love and for those in need. We do not abandon those we love; then, they would become those in need. We recognize those in need and treat them as those we love. So this year, as temperatures, leaves, and seasons change, we can make some significant life changes. Christmas is more than a holiday and bigger than a season; Christmas is becoming our new lifestyle. So, wake up to Christmas morning today. As we open our eyes, we begin to see all people as those we love. We begin to see the deficiencies or lack that people have in the lives of those around us. We now can do more than say “Merry Christmas”; we get to be “Merry Christmas!” It is time to be happy, full of joy, and celebrate because we all have the ability within to be the “Merry Christmas” someone else has been searching for and need. My prayer is for you to have the Merriest Christmas of all for the rest of your life.
You and your family are invited to The Way Bible Church for their Christmas Eve Service, happening on Friday, December 24th at 7 PM. Doors open at 6:30 PM. The following Sunday, December 26th, will be one service starting at 10:45 a.m.
Contributed by Dr. Joel Tiemeyer
