CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
December 21, 2008
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373
www.geocities.com/adon77373/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
www.cypresswoodchurchofchrist.com
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
KEEP IN YOUR PRAYERS THE FOLLOWING:
Our congregation and God’s will for us Various relatives, friends and co-workers
Our nation, leaders and military Peace!
THIS AND THAT HOLIDAY EDITION - 2008
“The Lord has done it this very day, let us rejoice today and be glad” (Psalm 118:24).
This text is used during the celebration of the Passover.
This is the annual holiday edition of the bulletin in which I present various items that I picked up between Halloween and New Years concerning the holidays. Some are news reports and others person reflections. Enjoy.
Last year three songs stood out for me during the holidays. They came from older albums but were impressive. One was One King sung by Point of Grace on their album A Christmas Story. It is a thought provoking song I found attracting along with their version of O Holy Night. The other song was by Michael W. Smith called Gloria, on the album Christmas, a very moving praise song in the line of some of the classical songs we sing. I do not know if it could be sung congregationally but it is sure enjoyable to listen to this song.
This year I found two songbooks that had for congregational singing Mary, Did You Know? All of us who like the song, which is a series of questions asked of Mary, wondered if it could be sung congregationally. Glad that it can.
Mannheim Steamroller came out with a new album, A Christmas Song, however it was not as good as some in the past. The songs were the most popular suggested by fans. All but one were secular in nature, enjoyable but just not as good as they have done in the past. This year they came out with on taken from a Disney request related to the Grinch. called Christmasville. Mostly they play background music to the singing, but if you liked the Grinch, then this would be a nice album. Chip Davis also put together ten of his Christmas favorites, A Candle Light Christmas, and is a very good addition though it has nothing new.
Halloween often brings up discussions in Christian circles. Shawn McEvoy entitled an article, Rethinking Halloween through 7 Scary Stories of the Bible, which he got from his friend, Fred Alberti (1). When we think of Halloween, we think of ghosts and scary creatures. The Bible has some interesting stories in this line. King Saul when to a witch to have Samuel raised, which shocked her. Twice the disciples thought they saw a ghost when it was Jesus; walking on the water in the middle of the night and in the upper room after His resurrection (Luke 24). Daniel 5 has a king shaking at the hand writing on the wall. Job 41 describes a scary animal. After the resurrection of Jesus, according to Matthew, holy people who had died were raised and walking around Jerusalem. We also see a dead man thrown on the bones of Elisha raised as well. There are people in jail in chains. This could be another way of dealing with this day.
Thanksgiving is a national holiday that expresses our thanks to God for our country and the blessings we have received. It use to be that Thanksgiving was a day of family fellowship. Today football, parades, and eating seems to have taken more of the day, and it does not help that retail businesses are opened. Memories are wonderful things. Recently, Yevette and I attended a class reunion with classmates from the Sunset School of Preaching, class of January 1975. We enjoyed seeing and talking about children, grandchildren and experiences that we have had in preaching. We reminded each other of some things that happened in classes we shared. We laughed and prayed and enjoyed our reunion in Branson, Missouri. This was the second reunion this year that Yevette and I attended. In July we attended a homecoming/reunion at the Philo Rd. church in Urbana, Illinois and reminisced. We indeed have much to be thankful for this year.
By the way, Branson became well known due to some novels of a Christian Church preacher in the early 1900s. His best sellers, attempting to teach people how to better live, moved people to visit and build in the Branson area. Today it is a family friendly environment and entertainment area.
A new ad campaign has cause a stir in the nation’s capitol. It is by a the American Humanist Association and takes a phrase from Santa Claus is Coming to Town. “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness sake.” It has upset a number of Christian groups who might overreact to this. On the other hand, it opens up questions and discussions. Some have offered this. How does one know what goodness is? What is good based on? How can a person discover good without outside help? Is it cultural? How about, “it might be good for me but not for you?” It gives us an opportunity and a challenge to better present the good news (what is good about it) to people.
Another thought on this ad campaign. Interestingly it is a secular song that is used. I have stated often before that the 20th Century did not offer many good and lasting sacred songs about Christmas. Most were centered around nostalgia from World War II and Santa Claus. Only I Wonder As I Wander and Mary Did You Know seem to have any lasting presence from the former century. Makes one wonder why some would get upset about the commercial aspects of the holiday, especially since we have been complaining about that for years.
Jim McGuiggan had some interesting comments under the title of “They Believed In A Baby” (2). In speaking about the Wise Men coming to see the baby Jesus, Jim said that they did not believe in Caesar or the mighty Roman legions, nor in Herod the Great, nor in Roman taxes and client kings. “They believed in a baby because they believed in a very ancient story about a Coming One and though it had been a long time in coming to fulfillment they saw heaven’s signal to say it was time.” Wise men still believe in that Baby and every year we are reminded especially through songs of the “One King.”
“A Christmas without the Bible” was a title of an article on the lack of Bibles in third world countries where people are converted to Christ and ministers minister without the scriptures. Some will walk or travel great differences to get a Bible while we Americans have on average seven Bibles each. Yet this situation reminds me of the first century where they heard and memorized the scriptures and spread the good news throughout the Roman world, and according to Philip Jenkins, to many other parts as well.
In our post-Christian age, Thanksgiving has come under attack in various ways. What use to be a time for God and family has become a time for shopping and a host of other activities. The politically correct crowd has blamed all those dead, white, European males for the destroying Indian (i.e. Native American) peace loving culture, for the slaughter of turkeys, and for racism. A school in California banned children from dressing as Pilgrims and Indians but the parents revolted and sent their kids to school dressed that way, a custom going back years (3).
According to Robert Hull, “C.S. Lewis pointed out 50 years ago that the word Christmas refers to three quite different things: a religious festival (which nobody except Christians should care about), a time of popular merry-making (what some call “the holidays”) and “the commercial racket” (which no one can escape). The unfortunate reality is that, in popular culture these three things have been crudely thrown together like the Christmas music in the mall, where “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” plays next to “O Holy Night.” All too often, they are also thrown together in our churches” (4).
the Twelve Days of Christmas is not just a popular song but refers to the period between December 25 and January 6, the completion of the Advent season. Robert Hull looks at the old movies and sees people putting up Christmas trees on Christmas Eve but doubts they were taken down on the day after Christmas. For me, this practice would mean another twelve days of Christmas music. Added to the month or so of the music of the season, well I like it, though my family would probably disinherit me.
We know of the things that happen in Washington D.C. At the far left of the country in Washington state, another holiday has been added to displays in the capitol of Seattle. It is called “Festisvus.” Sounds like a pagan Roman holiday doesn’t it? Actually it is quite modern. It comes from the television show Seinfeld, and in particular an episode that aired December 18, 1997. It was about a strike and involved such practices as airing grievances about people who have disappointed a person over the last year. I suppose I could say something but I really doubt much more needs to be said.
British scientists have determined through the computer study of the position of stars going back several thousand years that Jesus was born of June 17th, because that is when the stars aligned in such a way as to become bright. Keep in mind that in early church history, a number of dates throughout the year were chosen as the day of His birth. While scientists all try to figure this out, one cannot help but think that God created a special star to guide the Magi to Bethlehem. But then that would require faith.
Speaking of the Star of Bethlehem, I reread an article on this. While many try to find a natural explanation, we take it by faith that God created a special star. Another view however is that it was what is known as The Shekinah Glory. This denotes the visible presence of God. The star could have been God Himself leading the wise men to the Messiah. We see God’s glory during the Exodus in events such as the pillar of fire and God passing by Moses. Just something to think about.
Leave it to N.T. Wright to come up with some thought-provoking ideas about the birth of Jesus under the title “The Most Dangerous Baby” and in a book on the Lord’s Prayer. Wright argues that while Augustus brought peace to the Roman world, he did it at the hands of his armies and maintained that peace often by force. When the Jewish scribes informed the Wise Men that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, they quoted Micah 5:2. Read a little further and we find that he would also be “a man of peace.” Real shalom or peace would come through this dangerous baby born in Bethlehem.
New Year’s Day has pagan backgrounds. Surprised? Probably not. The Babylonians began celebrating it some four thousand years ago with the first New Moon after the start of Spring. They celebrated it for eleven days. With the football bowl season spread out for three weeks, we soon might match that. The Romans celebrated it under their various calendars and the early church picked it up in response to pagan festivities. A baby became a symbol of the New Year (that is new life) in both the Greek and Egyptian cultures. Many traditions have developed over the centuries including singing Auld Lang Syne and eating black eyed peas.
Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays, or whatever phrase makes you happy!
George B. Mearns
(1) www.crosswalk.com/root/11582600/page0/print/
(3) If you want to read more about this and other lies, see Michael Medved, The Ten Big Lies About America, Crown, 2008.
(4) Robert Hull, www.chirstianstandard.com , 11/30/2008.
(5) The article is found at www.christianitytoday.com and in N.T. Wright, The Lord and His Prayer, Eerdmans, 1997.