Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture
So while we enjoy the gifts that we give and receive this Christmas, let us be continually mindful of the greater gift that lends his name to this holiday. Without him, all our celebration this season would be nothing more than whistling in the dark.
Jesus loved well and turned the world upside down.
May we, the church universal, do the same. May this Christmas be a time of rediscovery of how much we are loved and a discovery of how we can better love others.
Perhaps it is so in every time, but it is certainly true in this time that we are in desperate need of a reason for joy.
How should the church respond to Chreasters, those who attend on Christmas and Easter? Is there anything we can do to keep them coming? I think there is and it isn’t very complicated.
I fail to see the importance of some of the “Put Christ back in Christmas” rhetoric. How about we live changed lives instead?
While reading George MacDonald’s Adela Cathcart, I ran across this quote and thought I’d share it:
“It is not the high summer alone that is God’s. The winter also is His. And into His winter He came to visit us. And all man’s winters are His – the winter of our poverty, the winter of our sorrow, the winter of our unhappiness – even ‘the winter of our discontent.”
That last phrase caught my ear. It sounded familiar so off to Google I ran to identify the source. I quickly learned two things from Wikipedia:
This paragraph was the beginning of a Christmas Day sermon by Mr. Armstrong, the curate. The rest of the sermon is worth reading but I won’t quote it here. As we approach the Christmas season, it is good to keep in mind that God is master of all of our circumstances. We can rejoice in Immanuel, God with us in the form of a baby that turned the world upside down.
I know that George MacDonald was an influence upon C. S. Lewis which is the primary reason I picked up the book. I’m excited to continue on, but thought I’d share this quote along the way.
