This blog follows traditional one-year lectionaries.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

The Feast of the Nativity

Finally, it's Christmas Eve, and for both secularists and traditional Christians, Christmas is at hand. Soon there will feasting and opening of packages across the land, and those who have not been saying it all month will say "Merry/Happy Christmas" (or for some the generic "Happy Holidays"). Yet that is about as far as the common elements go. Popular culture tells us that Christmas is about over. It's easy to understand why people may feel that way. Indeed, even those of us who truly appreciate Christmas can be glad that the commercial and media season is ending. A month of holiday sales, shiny packages, secular winter songs, reindeer cartoons, and so forth is too much.

However, for traditional Christians, this is not the end of Christmas. In fact, it is the beginning. The first celebrations of Christ's Birth will occur as evening comes, and the twelve days of Christmas begin. And the twelve days are not about partridges in pear trees and other strange gifts. The twelve days celebrate our Lord's Nativity, the surrounding events, and the meaning of the Nativity for our faith. We need to focus on this great and unique event. Jesus the Christ, God the Son incarnate, the eternal Word, was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. This historical event is more than a birthday celebration. It has the greatest theological and spiritual significance. Christ has come "to save us all from Satan's power." And He can still "cast out our sin and enter in" to be born anew in our hearts, minds, and souls.

So as Christmas truly begins this evening, let us look beyond all the pleasant mundane distractions of the holidays. Let us find some times of reflection to center upon the Incarnation of the One who has come, still comes in Word and Sacrament, and will come again to save us. Gloria in excelsis Deo!

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