Why I Celebrate Christmas

I do not make any bones about the fact that I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I don't wear a uniform or a badge that says so, and I try my level best not to beat other people over the head with my Bible.

Little offends me more than someone shoving their opinions on me, then trying to make me feel stupid for not believing what they believe - so I am not about to do it to anybody else.  However, I'm also not inviting debate, because neither of us will win.

What I am going to do, however, is explain why I celebrate Christmas.

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There's a lot of racket in the news this week about an old guy on a show called "Duck Dynasty" and how he has infuriated a lot of people by saying some stuff that sounded pretty judgmental.  My diverse array of friends are all divided and crabby and upset, staked out in their positions on this story and accusing "the other side" of being wrong and hateful.

Noting the obvious here, but that word is a condensed version of "hate-filled".

To my friends in both camps - don't be hate-filled, please.  Hate won't help;  it will only make you and other people sick, and while you might be surrounding yourself with people who hate the same things you do, hate is lonely inside.

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(It's also a little lonely out on the thin ice I'm fixing to step on, but I'm going there anyway.)

Some of my brethren espouse a cliche: "love the sinner, hate the sin".  We cling to the blank-check freedom that it gives us when we spot someone else's sin - "I love you, man, on account of me being a Christian and all, but I sure do hate your sin."  There's a subtle self-righteous thread woven in there that gives us a tiny warm meanness, a thrill of superiority.

Your sin, you see, is way worse than my sin.  I may have done "x", but you did "y", and what's worse, you don't appear to be sorry about it.  You've even made it pretty clear that you're going to do "y" again tomorrow, and maybe even "z".  So I love you, man, but I hate your sin.

Hmm?  What's that you ask?  What's this behind my back?  Oh, that... well, that's nothing, really... it's just my tiny little "x" sin.  It's certainly nothing compared to your "y", much less her "z" or his "xxx".  It's so little, it's barely noticeable.  But no, I'm not going to give it up.  It's mine.

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I've been taught - both didactically and experientially - that sin is a condition, not an act. Further, there are no "degrees" of sin - while some sins may be more socially acceptable than others, sin is sin is sin.

We refer to co-habitation outside of wedlock as "living in sin", but we are all living in sin. You, and me, and your parents and your children and all blondes, brunettes, redheads, drunks, baldies, addicts, pastors, students, teachers, doctors, homosexuals, heterosexuals, asexuals, bisexuals, business execs, nurses, volunteers, retail owners, nuns, priests, rabbis, enlightened ones, salesmen, and yes, even the Pope and Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama.  Every single one of us drawing breath lives in a hopeless condition of sin, whether evidenced in tiny white lies or genocide.

I believe that the earth, the universe and all that exists has been created, by a divine Creator - to whom I refer both as Almighty and Father.  He created man, the first man, and for a narrow sliver of time, man was sinless.  You know that saying about how nobody's perfect?  It's absolutely true, now...but once upon a time, before the man and his wife believed the biggest lie EVER, of all eternity, man was the perfect creation of the Creator.  Sinless and completely righteous.

You know the rest of that story.  Adam and Eve were the last two people to ever draw breath without sin.

God expelled Adam and Eve from the garden for spoiling perfection.  Yes, as punishment but mostly out of incompatibility.  Perfection and sin are mutually exclusive.

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Wouldn't it be depressing if that was the end of the story?

But this is why they call it "the good news"!  God loves His most precious creation (you and me) so much that He came here for us, to pick us up out of the scummy muck and mire of sin and restore us to right relationship with Him.  Not just for a relationship with Him while we're still sinners in this world, but one for eternity.

He didn't come in a thunderous chariot drawn by fire-breathing stallions, or on a bright white cloud streaming golden sunshine...he came as a squalling little Jewish baby, born in a crappy dirty barn in backwater Judea. To make things more confusing, the baby's mother was a virgin.  Say WHAT??!?

No wonder people find it a little hard to believe.

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One of God's many gifts is that of free will, and we all have the choice to believe the Nativity story or not. Secular history attests to the occurrence of Jesus' birth, so that part is fairly easy - it's the divine nature of the baby that gives people heartburn.  The perfect Son of God?  Who was, by the way, also God, but just in human form?  I get it - that's a tall order.

I don't judge people who don't believe it - I really don't.  I'm also not going to try and push or persuade or wheedle or shame or demand or cajole you into it.  Not my job.

But I DO believe it, and every year I celebrate the miracle of that baby's birth, as well as the miracle of that man's resurrection.  And I'm joining millions of others around the world, not because of my "religion", but because of my identity.

You see, I am a sinner in need of saving.  Why should I judge you for your sin? In my humble estimation, judging you would be a sin in and of itself.  I've got plenty as it is - why add more to the pile?

And because I am a sinner in need of saving, I joyously accept the gift offered to me through one unique baby's humble birth.

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So.

Tonight I will hold a candle and sing "Silent Night" and ponder all over again this notion of a divine infant, the incarnation of the Creator, and the reason He fooled with us in the first place...

He loves us.  He loves you.  He loves me.

Why wouldn't I celebrate that?!