Secondly, I challenge everyone to give the gift of love this Christmas season. After all, God so loved the world that He gave his only Son to die for our sins. It is only fitting that throughout this Christmas season and throughout the rest of the year that we strive to extend the gifts of love and sharing to our Christian brothers and sisters. Invite your lonely neighbor over for dinner, volunteer at a public service agency, give a homeless man $10 when he asks for $5, or just simply say hello to a stranger. All of these actions, although they may be interpreted as insignificant, help in spreading the Christian message throughout society. Thirdly, I charge everyone to remember that we are all Christians. Your Baptist uncle, your Presbyterian aunt, and your Catholic next-door neighbor all worship the same Savior as you. The Christian community may be splintered into different sects but, in the end, we all endeavor to spread the same Christian message of love and peace throughout the world. For society to truly change, Christians must accept this fact and work together to bring the Christian way of life into a prominent cultural role. Lastly, keep your faith. This isn't as easy as it sounds. As I was surfing the Internet a couple of days ago, I came across a suicide/depression related scientific study. This study proclaimed that more suicides take place and more depression is treated during the Christmas season than during any other time of the year. While I don't know exactly why suicide and depression are so prominent during the Christmas holidays, I can only guess that the extreme pressure associated with the season has something to do with it. People expect perfection- the perfect gifts, the perfect parties, the perfect families. When perfection isn't realized, despair, hopelessness, and guilt can set in and take over our lives. Only when the true meaning of the Christmas holiday is recognized, the love and change associated with the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, can our culture be delivered from the holiday blues. However, after the wrappings and the tree are taken away, after the last of the leftover turkey and ham are eaten, after the last college football bowl game is watched, where does this newfound Christmas spirit go? Often, it seems to be stored away until next year. We should all remember that the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of the love and sharing given to us by Jesus Christ, should continue to live on throughout the rest of the year. The Christmas spirit should live in our hearts and Jesus should be born anew inside us everyday. All that we celebrate, all that we remember, and all the love that is freely given at Christmas, should be practiced all year round. The true meaning of Christmas, not contemporary society's notion of it, should never be forgotten. So, Christmas morning after the kids have unwrapped their presents, while the pies are still in the oven, and before the in laws arrive for dinner, take a few moments to remember the reason for this holiday season: the birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who was with us yesterday, is with us today, and will be with us tomorrow and forever. Let Us Pray:
Beloved in Christ, this Christmas season it is our duty and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels, and to go in heart and mind to Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, and the Babe lying in a manger. Therefore let us hear again from Holy Scripture the tale of the loving purposes of God from the first days of our sin until the glorious redemption brought to us by this holy child; and let us make this house of prayer glad with our carols of praise. But first, because this of all things would rejoice Jesus' heart, let us pray to him for the needs of the whole world, and all his people; for peace upon the earth he came to save; for love and unity within the one Church he did build; for goodwill among all peoples. And particularly at this time let us remember the poor, the cold, the hungry, the oppressed, the sick and those that mourn, the lonely and the unloved, the aged and the little children, and all who know not the Lord Jesus, or who love him not, or who by sin have grieved his heart of love. Lastly, let us remember all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which no one can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom, in this Lord Jesus, we for evermore are one. These prayers and praises let us humbly offer up to the throne of heaven. Amen. |
