How do you celebrate Christmas?

Christian ethics and theology with an Anabaptist perspective
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Valerie
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Re: How do you celebrate Christmas?

Post by Valerie »

OH HOW I LOVE THE ADVENT SEASON!!

We have celebrated Christmas in a variety of ways because we live out of state from ALL our family-

We start the Advent season by reading the Gospel of Luke each day plus some other devotional focused on Christ's birth-

To me, I am constantly aware of the wonderful opportunity to share the prophecies fulfilled by the birth of our Savior!

It truly is an amazing time to relive the entire Bible pointing to the Messiah, to reread the prophesies of His birth, to share those, to think about what the Jews were anticipating, to think about how the Gentiles would now be brought into the 'elect' by this Savior born of a Virgin- the wonder of the Maggi who followed the Star over the Christ Child, and how even though they were Gentiles, they knew the importance of this Birth and brought gifts, and fell down to Worship Him- to relive these truths in our minds and hearts brings an excitement in heart & soul that is so unique to anything else-

We love the 'symbols' that the Christmas Season brings- while realizing satans attempt to distract & destroy- none the less, he has always done this so we still appreciate the angels, who appeared to the Shepherds, they were SO EXCITED they could not but bear the Good News!! And these lowly Shepherds abiding in their fields, whose lives would never be the same from that point on! The lights, the symbolism of Christ being the Light of the World, the tree which is symbolic that our Savior would die on a tree- and we hang meanngful symbolic ornaments and think about them, and think about Christmas' gone by-
We have an Advent Wreath, which tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent where we light the first of 4 candles- and you read each time part of the story of the Nativity of Christ-

We start out by going to Amish Country the day after Thanksgiving as they have a Nativity Parade in Berlin OH- no 'santa', it's all about Christ- it ends by the crowd gathering together and singing Christmas carols- and lighting each other's candles- the Gospel is read- it ends with the Amish & Mennonites who know German, singing "Silent Night" in German-

We often attend "Journey to Bethlehem" also in our Amish area- which puts you in a 'path' like Mary & Joseph would have traveled- it's a free event, and you go from place to place in the 'journey to Bethlehem'

Joy on the forum introduced us to sending Christmas cards to prisoners- this is a special time for us to do this together-
I know of Amish that do this as well- as you address each card & write, you pray for that prisoner-

Christmas Eve is always at Church, Christmas Day too if on a Sunday like last year-
Simple gifts and simple celebration of Christ,, quiet- and a special dinner-

For Christians, it is an opportunity to share & be a witness of what the true meaning is, and how Christ fulfilled prophesies and why He came- most of our families are Believer's so they do focus on Christ, and get along- no drunkeness, etc- we have spent Christmas' with those who are into the santa & gift giving as primary focus and I feel sorry that all that excitement ends and life continues void of Christ afterwards-

A good time to really pray for people who don't know Him! An for open doors of opportunity to witness-
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Josh
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Re: How do you celebrate Christmas?

Post by Josh »

A typical Church of God in Christ, Mennonite congregation will hold a Thanksgiving service.
Most do it the morning of; my home congregation sometimes does it Wednesday night. The format of the service is focused around thankfulness (technically it is the same format as a Sunday night volunteer service) and we also encourage inviting visitors to attend.

It would seem sensible to have special church services around any civic holiday, simply because of the extra free time and opportunity to invite people to visit, or at least as sensible as holding Christmas services.
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Adam
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Re: How do you celebrate Christmas?

Post by Adam »

I read a post recently entitled The Top 10 Reasons Why I Don't Celebrate Christmas. It is written by a pastor in the United Church of God. Setting aside the denominational background of the pastor, which of his points do you agree with or disagree with and why? Or if you agree with most of his points but disagree with his conclusion, why do you disagree with his conclusion?

https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/the-t ... -christmas

For summary and reference purposes, I am listing the ten reasons below, but please don't reply based on this summary. Please reply only if you have read the full article in which each point is clarified.

1. Christmas is driven by commercialism.
2. Christmas is nowhere mentioned in the Bible.
3. Jesus wasn't born on or near December 25.
4. The Christmas holiday is largely a recycled pagan celebration.
5. God condemns using pagan customs to worship Him.
6. Christmas is worshipping God in vain.
7. You can't put Christ back into something He was never in.
8. The Bible nowhere tells us to observe a holiday celebrating Jesus Christ’s birth—but it clearly does tell us to commemorate His death.
9. Christmas obscures God’s plan for mankind.
10. I’d rather celebrate the Holy Days Jesus Christ and the apostles observed.

Mostly, I would like to hear what others have to say on this topic rather than presenting my own point of view (which is still forming). However I will say at the outset that I disagree with the last point because we are not commanded to continue the festivals of the Old Testament, which find their fulfillment in Jesus and have run their course of pointing toward Jesus.
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Soloist
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Re: How do you celebrate Christmas?

Post by Soloist »

Wade wrote:
RZehr wrote:Wade you’re invited to come here for Christmas. You too George. :D
According to Google Maps you live about 9 hours away. Looks like we will be spending the night too. :shock: :lol:
Hmm... I can lodge you too ya know :mrgreen: No Christmas presents here! but we would gladly feed you, play board games and then you can drive to the Zehr's for Christmas!
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Valerie
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Re: How do you celebrate Christmas?

Post by Valerie »

Adam wrote:I read a post recently entitled The Top 10 Reasons Why I Don't Celebrate Christmas. It is written by a pastor in the United Church of God. Setting aside the denominational background of the pastor, which of his points do you agree with or disagree with and why? Or if you agree with most of his points but disagree with his conclusion, why do you disagree with his conclusion?

https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/the-t ... -christmas

For summary and reference purposes, I am listing the ten reasons below, but please don't reply based on this summary. Please reply only if you have read the full article in which each point is clarified.

1. Christmas is driven by commercialism.
2. Christmas is nowhere mentioned in the Bible.
3. Jesus wasn't born on or near December 25.
4. The Christmas holiday is largely a recycled pagan celebration.
5. God condemns using pagan customs to worship Him.
6. Christmas is worshipping God in vain.
7. You can't put Christ back into something He was never in.
8. The Bible nowhere tells us to observe a holiday celebrating Jesus Christ’s birth—but it clearly does tell us to commemorate His death.
9. Christmas obscures God’s plan for mankind.
10. I’d rather celebrate the Holy Days Jesus Christ and the apostles observed.

Mostly, I would like to hear what others have to say on this topic rather than presenting my own point of view (which is still forming). However I will say at the outset that I disagree with the last point because we are not commanded to continue the festivals of the Old Testament, which find their fulfillment in Jesus and have run their course of pointing toward Jesus.
From what I have studied about it, this pastor is in error in many of his points- while at the same time being correct in some of what he said- I respect his right to his 'opinion' even if I disagree with much of what he had to say or his history.

You know who hates the true celebration focused on Christ? Satan-
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Bootstrap
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Re: How do you celebrate Christmas?

Post by Bootstrap »

Here are my thoughts on Adam's question: When Christians celebrate Christmas by reading the Christmas story directly out of the New Testament, or perhaps with readings from the Old Testament as well, singing Christmas carols directly retelling these accounts, I think we are on solid ground. The Christmas narrative is in the New Testament, and it's a celebration of the incarnation, God coming to us in the form of a small child. That is not a "recycled pagan celebration".

I agree that we have the wrong date, it's an arbitrary date like many holidays. I think that Easter should be the bigger celebration for Christians. I think we should avoid commercialism and not focus on giving and receiving gifts. While it's true that the New Testament does not command us to celebrate Christmas as a holiday, it does not specifically tell us to celebrate any holidays at all, only the Lord's Day.

That's why I like the Festival of Lessons and Carols. I like this particular focus:
Beloved in Christ, be it this Christmas Eve our care and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels: in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, and with the Magi adore the Child lying in his mother's arms.
And let us at this time remember in his name the poor and the helpless, the cold, the hungry and the oppressed; the sick in body and in mind and them that mourn; the lonely and the unloved; the aged and the little children; and all who know not the loving kindness of God.
It then goes on with nine readings from Scripture that put the birth of Jesus into context, starting with the fall of man, moving through Old Testament prophecies, and ending with the appearance of Jesus. The readings vary somewhat, here are the readings we used last time:

Nine texts for the Festival of Lessons and Carols

We sing a Christmas carol directly related to each text after the text is read. I used to do this in a Mennonite church, we did simple acapella singing. In the non-Mennnonite church I am now in, it's a bigger deal with a chamber orchestra and a choir. Both ways work just fine.

Traditionally, if there are people in the church whose native language is not English, they are asked to read a text in their own language to remind us that this is a proclamation to the whole world. Our church has quite a few foreigners, so texts were read in Mandarin, Shona, Russian, Slovak, and Korean, with the English text projected on the wall. And one of the SIL/Wycliffe translators in our church read a text in Gbaya, a language from the South Sudan for which they created a translation.

The benedictions are also very clearly in light of the Gospel story:
Leader: Let us pray.
O God, who makes us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of your only son, Jesus Christ: Grant that as we joyfully receive him as our redeemer, we may with sure confidence behold him, when he shall come to be our judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

All: Amen.

Leader: May he who by his Incarnation gathered into one things earthly and heavenly, grant you the fullness of inward peace and goodwill; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always.

All: Amen.
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Wade
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Re: How do you celebrate Christmas?

Post by Wade »

Soloist wrote:
Wade wrote:
RZehr wrote:Wade you’re invited to come here for Christmas. You too George. :D
According to Google Maps you live about 9 hours away. Looks like we will be spending the night too. :shock: :lol:
Hmm... I can lodge you too ya know :mrgreen: No Christmas presents here! but we would gladly feed you, play board games and then you can drive to the Zehr's for Christmas!
Now this would be a memorable Christmas of people meeting together for the first time because of our common love in Christ. :hug:

I have much convincing to try... :-|
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MaxPC
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Re: How do you celebrate Christmas?

Post by MaxPC »

Wade wrote:
Soloist wrote:
Wade wrote:
According to Google Maps you live about 9 hours away. Looks like we will be spending the night too. :shock: :lol:
Hmm... I can lodge you too ya know :mrgreen: No Christmas presents here! but we would gladly feed you, play board games and then you can drive to the Zehr's for Christmas!
Now this would be a memorable Christmas of people meeting together for the first time because of our common love in Christ. :hug:

I have much convincing to try... :-|
A meeting of that sort would be the best "present" of all!!! I can imagine Jesus smiling about it.
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Adam
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Re: How do you celebrate Christmas?

Post by Adam »

Valerie wrote:From what I have studied about it, this pastor is in error in many of his points
Which points did you find him to be in error about?
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Valerie
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Re: How do you celebrate Christmas?

Post by Valerie »

Adam wrote:
Valerie wrote:From what I have studied about it, this pastor is in error in many of his points
Which points did you find him to be in error about?
It would take me awhile to find the sources I once read, but in a quick search online, just consider some information in these 2 links- I think that it is a personal decision how one wishes to view the celebration of the Nativity- certainly his article lists points that are valid to consider- at the same time, I think it is also valid to consider those who wish to convey the Gospel and Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah- as important as well and make the distinctions-
It probably will come down to whose opinion or research one chooses to embrace or believe- to validate our own personal opinions or feelings on the observance of Christ's birth- agree? NONE of us want to displease the Lord God-

http://spofga.org/ten_commandments/2012 ... istmas.php (there are arguments against his (& others) assumptions that he stated as one of his points about shepherds being in the field in December)

Here is another article worth reading-

http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/a ... 6-10-012-v


He makes the point that celbrating Christ's brith was not mentioned in the Bible- yet it was celebrated, just read about the angels when they proclaimed it to the shepherds! Or the Magi who came to worship Him, these Gentiles who knew this king was to be born!
So the Bible does mention the celebration of the most important Birth known to man- a birth that was prophesied, a birth that was miraculous, a birth that is certainly worth celebrating-

Christ said He would "Build His Church"- the New Testament is the 'beginning' of this building of the Church and the gates of hades would not prevail- so if the Church determined to celebrate the Nativity, I do not fault her for that because the world needs to hear about it, and be reminded of it- especially among the commercialization of it is a chance for us to proclaim the Truth-
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