The rhythm of our lives is something that we don’t think about very often but if it gets upset it can have pretty drastic consequences. One example, most of us are familiar with, is jet lag. As the year moves into its final phase the days grow shorter and darker and although it is a part of the natural cycle of things we all feel it. We truly are creatures of the light and the advancing darkness saps our energy and we grow lethargic. While most of us feel these changes, some respond more to the growing darkness than others. At its extreme it can become a severe depression Doctors identify as Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD for short.

It is in this season of darkness when many of us feel ill at ease that we celebrate Christmas, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. The true date of Jesus birth is shrouded by the mists of time. Some people, early in our Christian history claim they figured it out by reconstructing the Jewish temple priest’s schedule and figuring out when Zachariah served his rotation and using that to calculate when Mary gave birth, but there are a lot of variables that make that pretty dicey. Others claim that when Rome became Christian that the Emperor Constantine combined the Roman pagan celebration of Natalis Solis Invicti, the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun, with the celebration of Christ’s birth. But Hippolytus, writing in 204 AD, stated the day of Christ’s birth was Wednesday, December 25, in the 42nd year of Augustus' reign. This actually predates the Roman pagan celebration. One thing is certain though ancient people have always held both the summer and winter solstice to be sacred and the sun’s seasonal passage has been marked for many thousands of years. December 25th was the Winter solstice at the time of the birth of Christ but early calendars created a backward drift of the solstice that was not corrected until the Gregorian calendar reform in the 1500s.

Whatever the exact date of Christmas might be there are a few things we know for certain. At the birth of Christ, God breaks into our darkness with the light of his presence. The physical symbolism created as the days grow longer and our hearts grow lighter is no accident. Just as the days grow longer, the light of Christ is something that can grow stronger in our hearts as we seek out the things of God and mature in our faith.

Unlike the sun’s passage though, Christian maturity requires an act of will and effort on our part. Advent, the season of preparation before Christmas, is truly the pattern for our whole life. God broke into the world on that first Christmas so the fullness of God’s love and the plan for our lives could be revealed, but it is with the second coming, the second Christmas, that God’s will shall finally be accomplished.

Our purpose in this in-between time is the same as John the Baptist’s, to be "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'" (Matthew 3:3). There is still a lot of darkness in our world. If we are truly the Disciples of Christ we need to prepare ourselves and speak boldly so that the world will be ready for the dawn that will break out when Christ comes to claim his own. Christmas is as more about the future than it is about the past. We remember God’s faithfulness in the past so our faith in God’s promises for the future will grow stronger. This faith is the central core that all of our actions should be based on. As we prepare for Christmas this year let us remember that we are not getting ready for a holiday, we are getting ready for life. A life lived as a beloved child of God preparing for the dawn of a new day, a new world where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

This is God’s Christmas promise, the center of our faith

Pastor Jim Bliss
December 2005