This year we will celebrate Christmas Parades, and all of the trappings, and while they all have their place, I wanted to take a moment to pause and reflect, and just ask: "Are we really ready for Christmas?" I wanted to look at one group who struggled out of the darkness of history to find this "Promise".
It always takes the mix of the strange and the broken, the sane and the touched in the head, the poor, the common, and the elite, and finally a message to everyone else: The time is finally here.
It started back long ago. Promises were made. These promises grew and grew. No matter who was listening. Sometimes only a small few were, and sometimes whole nations listened. The cycles of promise by God and indifference by men went on until it looked like this had all been for nothing. A whole people group had been scattered, their wealth plundered, and in one heart breaking scene: "..the Glory left". Darkness settled over history, and for years people sought and looked.
A small band of Zoroastrian Magi in Persia were diligently poring over manuscripts day and night, in search of "knowledge", in search of something they knew was going to happen. They were followers of the Stars, and from the word "magus" we get the earliest word "magic". Upon beholding the Christ Child, they realized that he was the answer to all of their Questions. No more "words" were needed to be memorized and learned. He stilled their secret syllables ( as Michael Card sings), and hushed their wisest words.. In the silence of the stable there was Wisdom finally heard.
Maybe they had read in Numbers, Balaam's prophecy:
Numbers 24:17: "A Star will come out of Jacob; a Scepter will rise out of Israel"
כוכב דרך יעקב שבט קום ישראל
This is a reference to an Astrological Sign in the Heavens. This Astrological event did indeed occur. The sceptic will scoff at this. However these early Zoroastrians knew there would be a significant Zodiac event. They were led to the Christ Child by a Star.
The Jewish scholars knew the location from their own sacred manuscripts. In Micah 5:2 they read "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans* of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins* are from of old, from days of Eternity"
When the Magi came to Jerusalem inquiring where the King of the Jews was born, the Jewish scholars answered them from Micah 5:2 but none of them were interested enough to accompany the Magi to there.
This is some of the real story of Christmas. This is what leads up to the Birth of a babe in a Cave, or a Barn, cattle trough (however pleasant the Traditions have wanted to make it appear over the ages.) As you sing Silent Night, think that the "Son of Man" came into this world to walk in your shoes, and He too cried the tears of a baby that first night. It was not silent. It was filled with tears. Tears for you and I, and for HIS "Ekklesia".
My greatest Bible teachers in my life have been in this Order: My father, and then distantly Michael Card. There have been others, but those two consistent Associate Reformed Presbyterian, and Reformed Presbyterian trains of thought have guided me and kept me between the lines, even as I have erred all these years. I have one "Archegos" above, and I have had two below walking beside me. One near, and one from a distance.
One thing I have learned from both: Christmas is not about Santa Claus. Every year our family sheds one thing commercially, and re-examines another aspect of the Christmas story. Every year during summer or April, we play Christmas Carols. (one of those "earthly trail blazers" said: 'Christmas means everything in July, or it means nothing in December")
My father wrote a Blog regarding a trend happening across America. Todd Friel of Wretched Radio also spoke of this. My miserable two cents on the issue is this: If you can rationalize away the 4th Commandment, then how long before you can rationalize away the rest as well? My fathers blog spot and comments are found here:
http://www.mtnpride.blogspot.com/
Below is a Video, (I do not know who did it), but the song is by Michael Card off of his album "The Promise: A celebration of Christ's Birth"
"WE WILL FIND HIM" --MICHAEL CARD
Very few Preachers can "sum up" the Bible in 4 minutes. the apostle John (I tell my AWANA clubbers: He is known as "Jesus' best friend on earth") muttered an understatement about His best friend: "Of the making of many books, there will be no end.." Listen below as this Singer, Songwriter, Preacher, Reformed Presbyterian (who likes to describe himself as a Theological idiot-- and he does that because he is so well learned) sum up in 4 minutes the "deepest desire of God", and the meaning of the Christmas, and the First coming of Christ.
Now let us listen to Steven Curtis Chapman sing to us ... it is one of my favorite songs.. a song to be sung in April, in July, in September, any day. It is the "Raison d'être " for all of the Ekklesia.
