CHRISTMAS

 Christmas 

Christmas is not the birthday of Santa Claus. Christmas is not about Christ. On December 25^th, Christians for centuries have celebrated the birth of Jesus, the son of a Jewish family, born in Bethlehem in Judea. The exact date or place of his birth are not known for certain. He grew up to be a preacher and teacher. His life and work are steeped in tradition and story. He was thought by early Christians to be especially anointed by God and therefore called Christ, the anointed one. Some even called him Messiah.

His basic teaching is to heal the sick and care for the hungry, widows and orphans, and to oppose the injustice of the religious and the Roman leaders of his time. He was executed by the government forces while in his early thirties.

The early followers of Jesus were Jews. Some of them began to call Jesus Messiah. Most Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah and were critical of the so-called Christians.  As the Christian Church became stronger, it initiated sharp criticism against Jews because they refused to believe Jesus was Messiah.

Many Christians began to think of Jesus as God in human flesh. This was made official in the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. It proclaimed that Jesus was truly God and truly man. Christians have wrestled with that idea for centuries.

The Christian Churches grew to great power. The Roman Church, the Orthodox Churches, the Anglicans and the Protestants all abandoned the basic teachings of Jesus. They were all more interested in power than compassion.

As a result, terrible things have happened in the name of Jesus Christ. Pogroms, racism, crusades, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslims, hatred of homosexuals, crimes against people who believe in abortion and birth control. There are even attacks on people who want to feed the hungry and heal the sick, the basic caring ideas of Jesus.

Christmas Day is a festal commemoration of Jesus’ birth. It demands that we look carefully at Jesus’ basic teaching by loving our neighbors and giving gifts of compassion for our human family.