Title: The True Spirit and Restoration of Christmas
Contents
1. Attitude toward Christmas
Christmas has come again this year. Now, each church will hold the Christmas Eve event from Children's Sunday School through institutions such as middle and high schools. Of course, most programs will prepare and give presentations on the topic of Jesus.
However, rather than welcoming Christmas with quiet silence and contemplation, it is generally held as an event for the occasion, leaving the impression of having a good time of entertainment.
'Christmas' means 'holy birth'. 'Holy Birth' differs from normal human birth in essence. The holy birth of the baby Jesus is a planned birth with a clear and distinct purpose to bring 'salvation' to the corrupt and fallen people of God.
The way of salvation is for Jesus to become the Lamb of sacrifice for us who are sinners and to save us by 'death' instead. In other words, since the holy birth of Jesus presupposes death for redemption, it seems inappropriate to lead Christmas only as a joyful event.
Of course, as the Lord of salvation, He opened the way of life to us who had no choice but to die, so we are very grateful, thankful, and glorious. We can rejoice and rejoice in the birth of Jesus as much as we want.
But if it is a birth for all kinds of shame, suffering, and death on the cross, wouldn't it be right for us to greet Christmas with indescribable joy, quiet meditation, and silence before the birth of the baby Jesus? ?
Christmas brings us 'joy' and 'silence' at the same time. Therefore, what and how to express that joy and how to keep silence will be a task to study together, keeping in mind the atmosphere and purpose of the baby Jesus' birth.
2. Christmas and the Incarnation
The spirit of the birth of the baby Jesus must be found in the meaning of the incarnation. 'Incarnate' means that God, who exists as a spirit, takes on human flesh and becomes human.
Why did God, the Creator God, have to be born into the world in the form of a creature, human?
It is because the hearts of God's people are corrupted and corrupted, and they lose the paradise, the garden of God, and live as selfish Satanic attributes, distort God's Word and will to fit the nature of human sin, and idolize God through formal and habitual faith. He came in the form of a human being inevitably to awaken his people and recreate them through repentance and regeneration.
In the beginning, God created the universe, nature, all things, and human beings with the 'Word'. The 'Word' was God's face, language, action, and God Himself.
The 'God of the Word', who existed in the intangible form, took on a human body and was born into this world as a tangible God, that is, the 'Baby Jesus'.
In that 'Word' there is 'life', which is the power, energy, and nutrients to grow the universe, nature, creation, and human beings after the creation, and the soul that will be supplied to God's people who have already decayed and fallen and died. of new life.
However, that 'life' is not the blood that supplies the donated blood, but the 'light' that people see as life. That life and light is the baby Jesus, and furthermore, the life of service and sharing, the life of love and service, and the death and resurrection of the cross, and the whole life of Jesus itself, from the life of Jesus to the ascension, is our life and light. It was.
Therefore, I think it is more meaningful to not only rejoice at the birth in front of us as we approach Christmas, but also to celebrate the Christmas with repentance and silence while replacing joy with thanksgiving.
3. Restoring the Christmas spirit
Today's modern church separates the church from the world, so that all spiritual things that are pleasing to God are done in the church, and other things that happen in daily life and relationships with other people are regarded as carnal. tend to.
Will God limit His presence only to the church and reveal Himself outside the church?
As Jesus grew up as a young man, he began to reveal the purpose of Christmas after fully preparing for his public life.
Beginning with the message, ?쏳epent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,??to the religious leaders and God?셲 people who are distorting and idolizing God, and fulfilling worldly greed, the message means enlightenment from ignorance and restoration of the poor heart. He healed fields, calmed storms, and performed miracles of walking on water, revealing that he is God.
He loved sinners like prostitutes and publicans, found and befriended the lonely and marginalized, and even washed the feet of his disciples.
And in the end, He fulfilled the purpose of Christmas by choosing to die on the cross to save sinners.
Jesus was originally God and lived a life as a 'servant' of sinners. He was merciful and merciful enough to find the incurable sick and needy neighbors. He was a man with a strong spirit of sacrifice.
The spirit of Christmas must be found from the life of the incarnation. As a man, Jesus always emptied himself with a poor heart, was extremely humble toward all people, was rich in a spirit of kindness and mercy, and was also exceptional in his spirit of sacrifice.
If this kind of incarnation life is the spirit of Christmas, isn't the modern church too far from the spirit of Christmas? And if the meaning of Christmas is in the life of the incarnation, then it shouldn't be Christmas on only one day on December 25 every year, and it would be right to have Christmas 365 days a year.
It is said that during a sharing time, a sister confessed that the practice of incarnation should also be applied to reducing the size of her apartment, giving the participants a deep challenge and impression.
Nowadays, modern people consider it the greatest happiness to own money and the machines of civilization, and they tend to ignore other people's personalities by valuing their own popularity and honor, and even those who abuse their power to break the social order. There is.
In the world we live in, most of the leaders, the general public, and even children are becoming slaves to selfishness. Unfortunately, this is an irreversible trend and trend.
Even more heartbreaking is the fact that even all religions, including Christianity, have been secularized, religious leaders have lost trust even with their own followers, and the church is trapped in the condemnation and ridicule of society.
Now, as we welcome the holy Christmas of the baby Jesus, the church must be born again. Inwardly, we must learn to value our existence more than material possessions, learn to share and empty rather than fill and build, and to be reborn as a true person of God who can humbly serve rather than dominate with authority.
And outwardly, we must be reborn as a person of love and mercy who can share pain, sorrow, and suffering with all disadvantaged neighbors and foreign workers. Instead of making the world noisy with eve events or early morning songs, it should be a Christmas and daily routine that silently visits neighbors in need and comforts them with the heart of Jesus and helps them.
Because God/Jesus Christ is where there is mercy and mercy, and the kingdom of God belongs to those who practice it.