My last post, for those of you who read it, was a testimonial, a personal history and reflection. As I return to writing, I just say again that the topics sort of appear and I really have no clear idea where things will head when I begin. In trust, the words seem to come flowing to mind and the fingers quickly follow on the keyboard.

Christmas is increasingly a secular holiday. Tied to non-religious traditions of winter festivals and solstice observations, it’s not difficult to see why. Especially as most of the activity leading up to and including Christmas Eve and Christmas morning is about parties and the giving and receiving of gifts. It’s about lights and trees and ornaments and the exchanging of cards and pictures and year-end reviews. In the best cases, it’s about love and fellowship while in the worst cases it’s about remembering or knowing that love and fellowship is lost or absent. So, we know that it can be a time for celebrating because we have things to celebrate while it can also be a time to grieve, even despair, because life for some is dark and exposed in such a season. In other words, for good or bad, Christmas is about us.

Or is it?

Growing up in a secular house it never crossed my mind that people would go to church on Christmas or the night before. Of course, as I said, it hardly crossed my mind that there would have been a reason to go in the first place. But, honestly, to me the point is not about going to church but about the reason in the first place.

For anyone who thinks about such things, wondering about who Jesus is and what his life and death could mean, can be a conundrum. I mean, look at it. He’s the most analyzed, discussed and written about person in human history. An itinerant preacher and rabbi from one of the true backwaters in the world at the time, his name (if nothing else) is almost universally recognized. Whether people consider him God incarnate or the common source for a swear word (or both or everything in between), his name and what stands behind it evoke nearly endless consideration.

There are two signature days his followers have put aside to consider these things: Christmas and Easter. Yes, both have pagan (meaning not associated with any of the world’s major religions) roots if we look at the times of the year for each. But the two days are the bookends for Jesus’ life. One his birth. And the second (not his death but) his resurrection. Both have tremendous significance to understanding who he is and why people have chosen to think about him down through the millennia.

I’m not even going to begin to dive deeply into all of this. Maybe just put a toe in.

C.S. Lewis said it best. Jesus doesn’t give us too many options when it comes to making a decision about who he is and why he came. It’s really rather simple. But first we have to get something out of the way.

I could write exhaustively on this but I won’t. It’s the question of whether Jesus actually existed or if he is a made-up or mythological figure. I know some will suggest it. Put simply, I believe there is as much or more historical evidence that he existed as there is for a Julius Caesar or an Aristotle or a Nero or anyone else in that general timeframe. In other words, a ton. I don’t believe there is any reasonable way to discount the fact that he lived. I haven’t read any real refutation, even by the most committed of atheists or skeptics. But, if that’s a sticking point, it’s not that hard to find resources to help anyone hone in on the truth.

No, the question is not whether a man lived a life as a rabbi or teacher and gained a following of sorts in the early part of the first century by our modern calendar. The question is was he anything more than that … anything more than so many other Jews of that general time period who gained followings, a few of whom were even believed to be the long-anticipated Messiah?

At the risk of being just a little technical: The term “Messiah” can be generally defined as referring to the deliverer of the Jewish people who had been prophesied (predicted via some kind of divine channel) for countless generations.

Just as the Jews (Hebrew people) had been “delivered” from Egyptian captivity following four centuries of slavey (courtesy of Moses), they awaited the ultimate deliverance by God and in the time of Jesus that meant deliverance from Roman rule among other things. I’m being incredibly simplistic, forgive me.

Perhaps the greatest prophet in the long history of these people was a pretty intense fellow named Isaiah, who lived approximately 700 B.C., a full seven centuries before Jesus. That’s a long time. Remarkably, he predicted the arrival of a Messiah that would be distinguished by many things. Anyone seriously wondering about who Jesus really is should spend a small amount of time reading the Book of Isaiah, especially chapters 52&53. But here’s a small primer that can cut through to the main ideas, linking them to what was later chronicled. (There are a number of other recorded prophets who predicted the events surrounding Jesus’ life. A simple google search will reveal them.)

http://www.agapebiblestudy.com/charts/Isaiah’s%20Messianic%20Prophecies.htm

So, what was predicted actually happened. Isaiah foresaw that this divine King and deliver would be rejected and scourged, while simultaneously freeing the people in a way they could not have imagined.

Why do I bring this up? Because on top of all of the other evidence that Jesus was and is who he said he was, this almost bizarre prediction from a distant past must, at a minimum, give one pause. I had been vaguely aware of the Jewish prophets during my adulthood but really didn’t pay them much attention. I wish I had.

At the risk of maybe repeating myself from a blog earlier in the year (I just can’t recall clearly and don’t want to go searching all the way back), I’ll return to C.S. Lewis and his simple and direct defense of Jesus, included in his most famous work, Mere Christianity.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

This from a formerly avowed atheist and a brilliant one at that. A man who was one of the giants of history and literature who could debate the top minds of his time with clarity and ease. Yet he finally surrendered his atheism when he came to realize he’d just plain been wrong. He is one of the most prolific writers in the matters of faith in modern times. And, his realization that he’d been wrong did not end there. He continued to explore, study and refine his thinking throughout his life, open to alternative explanations but never leaving the fundamental realization that Jesus existed and was who he said he was. The simple passage above says it all. And it flies in the face of so many who want to make Jesus in their own image. We can see him as a madman. Yes, that would mean his teachings are absolutely insane and have no resonance or connection with any kind of reality we perceive to be authentic. Or, he is the liar of all liars, the deceiver of all deceivers who maliciously tried to turn people away from something good to something terribly bad and he did this on purpose. There is no middle ground. We can’t pick and choose. Moral teacher? He did not leave that open to us, in the least. Door A: Lunacy? Door B: Malicious Deceiver? Door C: Moral Teacher? Door D: The one true God incarnate in human flesh speaking the greatest truths in all of creation.

Those of you who know me undoubtedly consider me to be a fairly intelligent man and, trust me, I don’t say that with arrogance. You probably also know me to be reflective and inquisitive, one who weighs evidence and considers a wide array of possibilities before arriving at conclusions. The simple logic presented by Lewis in unavoidable. While I did not arrive at Door D just by logic, I arrived nonetheless and passed through most joyously. And there has been nothing since then that remotely suggests I was wrong. In fact, the evidence just continues to pile up.

The idea of Christmas is grounded in the wonder that (A) there is a God, (B) He is all powerful, knowing and loving, (C) He knows each of us intimately and wants the best for us, regardless of the challenges we face, (D) God did the impossible and tore the veil in two, passing from eternity into time and space as a simple man, (E) That man is the one with the name of Jesus (prophesied as Emmanuel which means “God with Us”), (F) This Jesus led a life and taught a reality that turns the world upside down and points the way to redemption and eternal life, and (G) Is completely present, can have a relationship with us here and now, and is available. All we have to do is ask.

Yes. That’s worthy of wonder. Yes, that is truly wonderful. That is stop-you-in-your-tracks full of wonder. I can just testify for myself. C.S. Lewis could not have said it any better. That wonder, if acquired and lived into only leaves us/me one option: “Fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.”

During this season, we sing or listen to a lot of songs. Many are secular and we refer to most as carols. Jingle Bells. Frosty the Snowman. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, the list goes on and on. They are fun and light-hearted and nicely reflect a temperament for the time of year. Then there are the traditional carols that point to Jesus, his birth and what that means. Silent Night. Joy to the World. O Little Town of Bethlehem and many more. We may even have our favorites, both secular and Christian.

I have some ones I really like and then I have my favorite. The music and lyrics cut to my core. They never cease to wrench me from whatever place in which I had been residing the moment before and transport me to a place of the deepest joy, a joy so powerful I frequently have tears rolling down my face and don’t want them to stop.

It is “O Holy Night.”

Here are the lyrics:

Other versions add other verses but I’m ok with these. I’ve heard it sung by many artists. We sang it in church a couple of weeks ago and it was magnificent. Of all the professional artists I’ve heard sing it, I think my favorite rendition is by Celine Dion. Of course, her voice is a thing to behold. I sometimes say that music is the language of God as it pours into us in a way where mere words sometimes fail. Those gifted with expression through vocal and instrumental music can provide us with such beauty that we can’t help but be transported from the mundane to the sublime … a place of awe. Here is the link to a Celine Dion live performance of O Holy Night.

Take a moment to watch.

Noel means Christmas while the word “Holy” means of God and from God … sacred and set apart. The Holy Night ushers in the miracle that I believe only leaves me one option: To fall to my knees in reverence and joy. This is Christmas. This defines me. Thank you, Lord. Amen.