Christmas Shopping and Sermons

I have to give a Christmas sermon. I don't like Christmas services, they are all the same. They don't even have a message or moral. Jesus was born, there were certain things that the Old Testament said that were fulfilled as proof that it was him. We do not know what month or day he was born because it is not stated in the bible. We know what day he died; but, not which day he was born.

Christmas trees, candy canes, giving presents, none of it has anything to do with Jesus. Don't get me wrong, I view Christmas as a nice holiday where you visit family and show your appreciation for them. It is a fun holiday for kids and a lovely tradition. I just don't see how it has anything to do with Christianity.

Every year my mother and I used to watch A Christmas Carol, my kids grew up on "A Christmas Story". Everybody grew up on "A Charlie Brown Christmas"; but, my favorite Christmas show was "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol". It was originally intended as a Broadway play. I am going to include two links to songs from it.

"All Alone in the World" from Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol

Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol - Bob Cratchit Dinner and Song

The last real Christmas celebration was 3 years ago for me. There was a young boy living in my house and we did it for him. It was also the last time I saw one of my aunts, she passed away not long after. Last year I celebrated by visiting a graveside and leaving some flowers and candy canes. I will probably do that again this year.

Today one of my daughters and I went Christmas shopping. Okay, she was getting presents and I just paid for them. It sort of put me in the Christmas spirit, memories of Christmas past.

Judy Garland - Have yourself a Merry little Christmas


One of my biggest problems with Christmas is that it is one of two days a year when a bunch of hypocrites go to church. There are people who go to church for Christmas and Easter and not any other time during the year. They listen to some singing, hear about how Jesus was born and even get dressed up for the occasion. It is the excuse they use for calling themselves Christians when they don't live it during the year. They might even chip in to buy someone a dinner on skid row. Doesn't change a life like participating year round does.

You don't have to go to church to be a Christian. Being a Christian is about how you live your life. Going to church is done in order to learn about Christianity and to share fellowship with other believers. What is the point in going if you already know the story of Jesus' birth and have no intention of having fellowship with other believers. At that point it is just a holiday tradition. As a consequence, my Christmas sermon is not going to be about his birth. It won't have anything to do with the holiday we celebrate as Christmas. Maybe I will give another sermon on sex and read through the Song of Solomon.

Christmas is a find holiday, I just we could take Christ out of it and keep it what it is and was. A time of celebrating that a new year is coming. 2013 is coming dear readers and it is going to be a very interesting year. There is not much we can do about that; but, we can celebrate with our loved ones and enjoy each others company over a nice meal and create memories.

UPDATE

So I gave the Christmas sermon. Basically, I said many of the things I said above.

We Are Still Here and it is the 22nd

There is a town in Europe that they said was going to be the only safe place when the world ended, pushed it all over the news. Only one person showed up and over 200 reporters. Nobody really believed the world was going to end, that was all made up by the media. The question is why?

Now what did happen? Well, the stock market took a hit and the bond markets took a hit. Nothing catastrophic; but, substantial. There is no asteroid headed for earth that we are aware of, solar storms are still a possibility throughout 2013 according to Nasa, there is always the possibility of a major earthquake or volcano; but, what is very real is that our economy is really in danger, that one hasn't gone away.

There are very real dangers our there; but, the media chooses to spend more time ridiculing silly beliefs that nobody really believes rather than addressing the real underlying dangers that face our world. Starving children around the world were not worried about the world ending on December 21, 2012, they were worried about dying from starvation and yesterday tens of thousands did, others died from presentable diseases. For those people, it was the end of the world.

So today we will hear endlessly about how people who thought the world was going to end were just more nuts; but, nobody really thought it was going to end. What you are being taught is to only believe the "real" media.