Christians around the world celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, during this season of the year.
Traditions vary. Some Christians use the spiritual disciplines of Advent to help them prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. For a month before Christmas Day, they focus on spiritual themes, Bible readings and prayers to heighten the anticipation of the celebration of Jesus’ birth.
Some Christians cling to the old 12 days of Christmas tradition, which begins the Christmas celebration on the day of Jesus’ birth and ends on Epiphany (Jan. 6) commemorating the visit to the Christ Child by the Magi. Some Christians simply celebrate Christmas Day as Jesus’ birthday.
But despite differences in traditions, practically all Christians celebrate the common belief in the Incarnation — God becoming flesh and dwelling among us (John 1:14). This has been the teaching of the Church from its creation, and it continues to be the orthodox teaching of the Church today.
This Christmas season in pulpits across the United States, pastors will retell the story of God clothing Himself in flesh, of a baby being born to a virgin named Mary, of that child eventually dying on a cross outside the gates of Jerusalem to make salvation possible for all who will believe.
That message is the same message that will be repeated in the lands that gave birth to the Church. It is sometimes sobering to American Christians to be reminded that the birth of Jesus has been celebrated without interruption in places now called Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Turkey and other places around the Mediterranean Sea since the beginning of Christianity.
This Christmas, believers who trace their religious roots to the beginning of the Church will again recount the story of the Bible — that Jesus was God’s love gift to mankind, that Jesus was God made flesh.
It took 1,000 years for the Christian gospel to be embraced in the land now called Russia. But in each of that nation’s 11 time zones this Dec. 25, believers will gather to celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus and they will tell the story as recorded in the Bible.
From mountain kingdoms like Nepal to South Sea Islands, Christians will sing and pray and celebrate and tell the story of God acting to provide salvation through Jesus Christ. From Eskimo villages and oil well camps along the Arctic Circle to weather stations in Antarctica, believers will all celebrate the unity of the Christian faith evidenced in the birth of Jesus.
Some who will celebrate the birth of Jesus this Christmas call themselves Baptists. Some call themselves Catholics or Orthodox or Copts or Armenians or Lutherans or evangelicals or some other denominational name. A few go by no label other than Christian.
Each label has a history. Usually the label speaks of a difference with another group of Christians. Too frequently, the label carries a violent history that makes it difficult for Christians wearing different labels to acknowledge the common faith commitments. Commitments like Jesus being the Son of God born in human flesh to a virgin woman.
Yet that faith commitment is one of the defining beliefs that helped make Christianity the largest religion in the world. About one out of every three people in the world identifies in some way with the Christmas story. For many, perhaps even most, it is a cultural identity rather than a personal relationship with God through faith in the One whose birthday is celebrated, but even these pause to listen to the Christmas story.
Some who tell the Christmas story will speak with eloquence and elocution. Some will tell the story with halting speech. But all will tell the same basic story. Some will tell the story with great insight and illuminating details. Some will speak only in the simplest of terms about the ageless themes described in Holy Scripture. But the insights of the learned do not make their story any truer than the story shared more simply.
After all, Christmas is God’s story and who can improve on that? Still some will try. Some will deny that God became flesh. Some will deny that a virgin gave birth. Some will deny the salvation provided through the sacrifice of Jesus. Some will call these fanciful creations.
But these teachings have been foundational to the Christian church from the beginning. Commitments to God becoming flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the baby being born of a virgin named Mary and that child coming to “make a way of escape” for sinful humanity have all been a part of the Church’s understanding of God’s activity and the teaching of Holy Scripture.
About A.D. 180, Irenaeus, bishop of what is now called Lyon, France, wrote a famous work called “Against Heresies.”
In it, he wrote, “The Church, though dispersed through the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: She believes in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and seas and all things that are in them, and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation, and in the Holy Spirit who proclaimed through the prophets and dispensations of God and the advents and the birth from a virgin and the passion and the resurrection from the dead and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His future manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father to gather all things in one.”
For the modern reader, Irenaeus’ syntax is bad but there is no mistaking the message. “God became flesh and dwelt among us.” He was born of a virgin named Mary. The purpose of His life was to provide salvation for all who will believe. That was the message of the Church in the second century. That is still the message of the Church in the 21st century. And in that message is the unity of our faith.
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