Monday, December 19, 2011
267 - The Holiday Above Every Holiday, Part 4
Spirituality Column #267
December 20, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)
The Holiday Above Every Holiday, Part 4
By Bob Walters
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name … Jesus … Jesus Christ is Lord …” – Philippians 2:9-11
Let’s take a final look at the convolutions and ironies attendant to the general topic of “names” as they relate specifically to Jesus, Christmas, the Christ, the holidays and secular convention.
After that, those of us who so choose can go ahead and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, Happy Holidays and if we want, a partridge in a pear tree.
Our fearful, hyper-protective, offense-averse modern society annually ties itself in knots trying to celebrate Christmas without actually calling it Christmas. As believers in Christ we can relax. Christ is in our hearts and also at the right hand of the Father, always. Jesus is not confined to a date on the calendar. His name alone supersedes any holiday, and anyway the “why” of Jesus is more important than the “when.”
As for the “Christmas” name debate, I prefer not to be tied in knots, fighting battles that cannot be won and for which, really, there is no prize for winning. It seems a better strategy to dwell in the faithful assuredness of forgiveness that has already been won in Christ Jesus. I cannot argue my faith into someone else’s soul; and it follows that the same goes for trying to argue “Christ” into commerce or convention.
What I can do is to pray – frequently, fervently, and faithfully in the name of Jesus – that somehow my witness, my life, my example, my love, my works, my Merry Christmas, my whatever might somehow add up to a valid case for the peace of Christ being accepted in someone else’s soul; that in their hearts the Holy Spirit will work the miracles of grace, hope and the blessed peace of Christmas.
Satan, representing everything that is not Christ, wants to destroy that peace. The world’s – Satan’s – attack on Christ is nothing new, and the only way we can “fix” that is not to allow the world’s attack on us to rob the joy of our peace in the Lord.
Christmas is about gifts because Jesus Christ is about gifts – of His faithfulness, life, grace, eternity, freedom, inheritance, kingdom … and oh yeah, forgiveness. These are gifts open and available to absolutely everybody.
When we say Merry Christmas we’re offering all those gifts on behalf of Jesus.
That’s the power of His name.
And I’ll keep calling it Christmas because that’s what it is named in my heart.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com, author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary, Lulu.com) believes peace exists exactly where each of us in our own heart allows Christ to exist. Merry Christmas!
December 20, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)
The Holiday Above Every Holiday, Part 4
By Bob Walters
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name … Jesus … Jesus Christ is Lord …” – Philippians 2:9-11
Let’s take a final look at the convolutions and ironies attendant to the general topic of “names” as they relate specifically to Jesus, Christmas, the Christ, the holidays and secular convention.
After that, those of us who so choose can go ahead and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, Happy Holidays and if we want, a partridge in a pear tree.
Our fearful, hyper-protective, offense-averse modern society annually ties itself in knots trying to celebrate Christmas without actually calling it Christmas. As believers in Christ we can relax. Christ is in our hearts and also at the right hand of the Father, always. Jesus is not confined to a date on the calendar. His name alone supersedes any holiday, and anyway the “why” of Jesus is more important than the “when.”
As for the “Christmas” name debate, I prefer not to be tied in knots, fighting battles that cannot be won and for which, really, there is no prize for winning. It seems a better strategy to dwell in the faithful assuredness of forgiveness that has already been won in Christ Jesus. I cannot argue my faith into someone else’s soul; and it follows that the same goes for trying to argue “Christ” into commerce or convention.
What I can do is to pray – frequently, fervently, and faithfully in the name of Jesus – that somehow my witness, my life, my example, my love, my works, my Merry Christmas, my whatever might somehow add up to a valid case for the peace of Christ being accepted in someone else’s soul; that in their hearts the Holy Spirit will work the miracles of grace, hope and the blessed peace of Christmas.
Satan, representing everything that is not Christ, wants to destroy that peace. The world’s – Satan’s – attack on Christ is nothing new, and the only way we can “fix” that is not to allow the world’s attack on us to rob the joy of our peace in the Lord.
Christmas is about gifts because Jesus Christ is about gifts – of His faithfulness, life, grace, eternity, freedom, inheritance, kingdom … and oh yeah, forgiveness. These are gifts open and available to absolutely everybody.
When we say Merry Christmas we’re offering all those gifts on behalf of Jesus.
That’s the power of His name.
And I’ll keep calling it Christmas because that’s what it is named in my heart.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com, author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary, Lulu.com) believes peace exists exactly where each of us in our own heart allows Christ to exist. Merry Christmas!
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