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| Sunday, 22 December 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Shun extravagance at Christmas by pastor R.S. Fernando Christmas is coming! Can anyone doubt it? In the United Stated alone, some 2.3 billion Christmas cards are going through the mail. The average family will spend approximately $ 375 on gifts. Holiday sales will total about $ 80 billion and will include 20 million neckties. (According to USA today). One third of all houses will display outdoor decorations while two thirds of all companies will have office parties. About 85 million Christians will attend Christmas services. Where does this stupendous holiday come from? The story of Jesus' birth is found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke but the Bible nowhere enjoins its celebration. Scripture gives no date for the event. As Christianity spread throughout the roman Empire, church leaders apparently chose to counter the pegan sun God's birthday on December 25 by celebrating the birth of the Son of God on that day, beginning in AD 350. Another theory holds that fourth-century Christians believed Christ was conceived on the same date He was crucified - March 25 - and born, of course, nine months later. Religion and myth Christmas has developed through the centuries as a combination of religious and secular customs. The ancient Druids (secret benefit society) decorated their homes with holy (evergreen shrub) as a charm to repel ghosts. Christians saw in the sharp prickly leaves a symbol of Christ's crown of thorns. The Christmas stocking custom apparently comes from a story about Saint Nicholas taking pity on three poor daughters who could not marry for lack of a dowry. When he tossed three sacks of gold down their chimney, the gifts landed in their stockings, which were hung by the fireplace to dry. The Puritans who demanded further purification of the church saw only the pegan origins behind the greenery, legends, and merrymaking.and so outlawed any Christmas activity in seventeenth-century Massachusetts. Today we see the holiday as embracing much that is worthwhile. Does one become a pegan by adopting a custom that had a pegan origin in the dim and distant past? If so, we had better stop using the common names for the months and days of the week. As long as we do not attach moral or religious significance to such customs and require their observance as part of our worship, we have not become peganized. To observe the secular aspects of the holiday as simply a part of our culture, and to observe the religious aspects as an opportunity to remember Christ, should carry no stigma. Prophet Isiah condemns not Christmas trees but idol worship (40: 18-29) Although we do not know the exact day of Christ's birth, we would honour the sacred event. The greatest danger inherent in the holiday season is that we forget Christ and spend excessively and needlessly. Extravagance should be shunned at any season. Our Lord must be exalted at every season. Honor the sacred event Although we do not know the exact day of Christ's birth, Ellen G. White wrote in 1889 "we would honor the sacred event. May the Lord forbid that anyone should be so narrow-minded as to overlook the event because there is an uncertainty in regard to the exact time...Then, children and youth, as you celebrate the coming Christmas, will you not count up the many things for which you are to be grateful, and will you not present a gratitude offering to Christ, and so reveal that you do appreciate the heavenly Gift?" (Review and Herald Dec. 17 1889). Let us turn our thoughts toward Jesus and make special gifts to Him as well as to needy poor. It was the angel who introduced Christ First Coming saying: "Fear not, for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2: 10-11. We are glad that our Lord and Saviour, in whom we believe and trust, will soon return to earth for His waiting people to take His faithful once back home with Him. Then there will no longer be sin to separate from God. Then we shall meet the dear Lovedand lost ones, never againto say, 'Farewell.' We are tired of the sins, and separations and disappointments and tears of this sin-burdened earth. We want to go home to our Father's house. John 14: 1-3. Let us celebrate the First Advent that made possible the Second. |
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