Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Sunday, December 08, 2024
Saturday, December 07, 2024
Thursday, December 05, 2024
Monday, December 25, 2017
'One Solitary Life' ... That Changed The World Forever
Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was 30. Then for three years, He was an itinerant preacher.He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself.
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth — His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
[Twenty] long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.
— This excerpt is from a sermon by Dr. James Allan Francis in "The Real Jesus and Other Sermons," a collection published in 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia.
The Christmas Story From The Gospel of Luke
"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the house and lineage of David).
To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
‘For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
‘And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them."
Monday, November 20, 2017
For Christmas’ Sake, Let’s Roll Back Christmas Creep
For Christmas’ Sake, Let’s Roll Back Christmas Creep: Retailers never seem more vapid, greedy, and ridiculous than when they are stringing up Christmas lights while the leaves are still changing.
Friday, December 09, 2016
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Guest Column: When Is Christmas, Anyway?
When Is Christmas, Anyway?By Terry Mattingly
For those who follow Christian traditions, Christmas begins when the darkness of Christmas Eve yields to bright midnight candles and the Mass of the Angels or the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Christmas season then lasts 12 days, ending with Epiphany on Jan. 6.
But things aren’t that simple in modern America, the land of the free and the home of the malls. For millions of us, today’s Christmas begins when “Feliz Navidad” beer ads start interrupting National Football League broadcasts and holiday movies surge into cable-TV schedules previously crowded with Halloween zombie marathons.
Or perhaps the season begins with those Christmas church bazaars around Thanksgiving. Then again, many begin saluting friends with “Merry Christmas!” about the time public institutions start holding holiday parties and seasonal concerts — in the early days of December.
In other words, it’s getting harder and harder for Christians who try to practice their faith to answer what was once a simple question: When is Christmas?
“Unfortunately, most Americans — especially evangelical Protestants — have so distanced themselves from any awareness of the Christian calendar that their decisions about that kind of question have been handed over to the culture,” said the Rev. Russell D. Moore, dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
Many evangelicals fear the “cold formalism” that they associate with churches that follow the liturgical calendar and the end result, he said, is “no sense of what happens when in the Christian year, at all.” Thus, instead of celebrating ancient feasts such as Epiphany, Pentecost and the Transfiguration, far too many American church calendars are limited to Christmas and Easter, along with cultural festivities such as Mother’s Day, the Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and the Super Bowl.
In Baptist life, the faithful once knew that Christmas was near when their church choirs pulled out all the stops, hired some outside musicians and performed a semi-classical “Christmas cantata” or a few selections from G.F. Handel’s “Messiah.” As recently as the 1960s, these cantatas were usually staged the Sunday before Christmas. These days, the Christmas concerts are creeping forward in December church bulletins, closer and closer to Thanksgiving. Ditto for all of those special children’s programs and official church Christmas parties.
“I’ve been watching to see when pastors schedule their Christmas sermon series and when music directors start inserting Christmas songs into their services,” said Moore. “The question these days is whether Christmas will even last until Christmas. ...
“All of this is being driven by travel, family events and what’s happening all around us. Right now, our churches are running about two weeks behind the culture.”
If that’s the case, then church leaders who truly want to get in sync need to pay closer attention to our culture’s highest Christmas authority — the National Retail Federation. Its press release projecting holiday sales numbers is “the official starter’s gun” that unleashes the madness, said Washington Post reporter Hank Stuever, author of “Tinsel: A Search for America’s Christmas Present.” This year, that statement was released on Oct. 6 and the official verdict was “average,” or about $465.6 billion in sales.
“Once those numbers come out, that’s when you know — there’s no stopping it. Here comes Christmas, whether you’re ready or not,” he said.
Stuever said that from his outsider’s perspective as a lapsed Catholic, it’s obvious that many clergy are “still paying a lot of lip service” to Jesus being the “reason for the season and all that. I understand what they’re saying, but surely they can see all of the materialism that’s on display out in their parking lots and in their pews. ... Once Christmas gets rolling, everyone just goes bonkers and it’s hard to claim otherwise.”
This year, he added, it will be especially interesting to see how many leaders in “all of those big-box churches” cancel their Sunday morning services instead of daring to clash with family Christmas tree rites in American homes.
Moore stressed that he will be in his Highview Baptist pulpit on Christmas morning and, here’s the key, his children know why.
“To even think that we have come to the point where we do not worship on the Lord’s Day because it is Christmas is, to me, absolutely absurd,” he said. “Where’s the logic in that? What are people thinking?”
Terry Mattingly is the director of the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and leads the GetReligion.org project to study religion and the news.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
A reason to make the First Amendment part of the season
A guest column by Gene Policinski of the First Amendment Center:Give the First Amendment – and the nation – a unique gift this holiday season: On Dec. 15, "tweet" your support for this 220-year old guarantor of our basic freedoms.Gene Policinski is senior vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, 1207 18th Ave. S., Nashville, Tenn., 37212. Web: www.firstamendmentcenter.org. E-mail: gpolicinski@fac.org
And don't stop there … round out the holidays by making that 140-character pledge the first step in a New Year's commitment to better understand and defend year-round those precious 45 words that define our core freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly and petition.
What's the reason to make the First Amendment part of the season?
For one thing, Dec. 15 is the 220th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, beginning with the First Amendment's protection of freedom of expression and freedom of religion. That's an event deserving in its own right of glitter and tinsel.
More urgently, it's a chance to challenge and maybe change a sad result of national surveys the First Amendment Center has conducted since 1997. In all that time, never more than six percent in any year could name all five freedoms unaided.
We live in times in which the First Amendment never has been more on display – or more contested.
There are the yearly Yule concerns over religious-themed songs and carols at public school holiday pageants, but also the miraculous example to the world of multiple faiths in one nation peaceably observing holy days and holidays alongside one another.
There are Occupy Wall Street demonstrators exercising their rights to speak freely, to assemble and to petition the government for change – in the manner of generations of Americans who have taken to the streets to make their voices heard.
The U.S. Supreme Court soon will decide a dispute over what we can see and hear on broadcast TV. Meanwhile, we’re all "a-Twitter" over how private are our personal facts and messages. And the fight goes on over how public are our public records.
The Internet, e-mail, Facebook and Twitter have brought new concerns about smut, identity theft and hate speech, all while also giving us an unparalleled opportunity to talk with our fellow citizens – provided that government does not get in the way.
Has there ever been a time when all five of our First Amendment freedoms were more in play?
The "Free to Tweet" initiative is an unprecedented, day-long online call to the American public to stand up on Dec. 15 for these fundamental freedoms. High school and college students nationwide, ages 14 to 22, get a bonus for participating: Expressing themselves freely with the hash tag #freetotweet on Twitter will mean an opportunity to win one of 22 scholarships each worth $5,000. (Find more details on the initiative and the competition at www.freetotweet.org).
For more than two centuries, the First Amendment has been protecting our right to speak out. Let's do just that on Dec. 15!
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Total Cost for 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' tops $100,000
What would it cost to acquire all the items featured in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas"? PNC Bank has figured it out.
PNC CHRISTMAS PRICE INDEX ON TRACK WITH ECONOMIC INDICATORS
PNC CHRISTMAS PRICE INDEX ON TRACK WITH ECONOMIC INDICATORS
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