So start off concerning a post about the flop of a movie Saving Christmas: A friend on Facebook got it right about the sad state of Christian entrainment. I been bother by the state of Christian entertainment. I listened to a lot great sacred classical music. A will be going to Bach Christmas oratorio at ST. James Lutheran. The great thing about this is not just a performance but part of a vesper service. I always wonder where are today’s evangelical Messiah, Requiem mass and Great mass in C ( my favorite Mozart piece)? Where are our Handel, Mozart, Bach, Mendelssohn and even Benjamin Britten? The problem is today is the Evangelical church exchange artistic excellence and art criticism for pragmatism and a poorly written chick track. As a result we have lame praise songs and Saving Christmas.
Let me digress. Sorry Cameron, Christmas does not need saving; we can’t save ourselves so Christ did for us on the cross.
see John 16 for context to John 16: 29-33
“29 His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! 30 Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” 31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Christ has overcome the world by his death and resurrection for or sins. in spite of the secularization of Christmas or more serious tribulation or persecution (like brothers and sisters in Christ in Syria and Iraq, and Africa). We need not to worry about the Christmas season or a store clerk telling me Happy Holidays, or ban the Nativity scenes for public spaces; they bong on or church property not in the public square less the Nativity scene are like casting pearls among the swine. Let put aside such worldly foolishness.
But wait there more:
Remember being told by an atheist of fundamentalist who doesn’t celebrate Christmas because some Romans or Emperor Constantine ripped and try to Christianize a pagan holyday. Well as posted in an article at cripplgate: it a myth. As I thought earlier the dates do no match up in history.
“A contemporary of Clement named Hippolytus of Rome, writing in the early 200s, suggested that Jesus was born on December 25. Hippolytus was convinced that the first day of creation was March 25 (corresponding to the first day of Spring in the Julian calendar). From there, he speculated that March 25 was also the day on which Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. (Incidentally, some church fathers also suggested that March 25 was the day Jesus died, which only added to the significance of that day.) If you add 9 months to March 25, you end up at December 25.
