HOW TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

This is the time of year that most people’s thoughts turn toward celebration. Well, how exactly do you celebrate? Some people define celebration by decorating, some by visiting relatives or friends, and some by watching endless hours of football. Some begin celebrating by getting drunk at the office party on the last working day before Christmas and don't sober up until sometime after New Year's Day. But that’s what they think of when they think of celebrating, anesthetizing reality. Fewer and fewer in our culture think about celebrating the birth of the one about whom this holiday is named by going to Church. Maybe that's because for many the church is not the place they think of when they think of celebrating. 

In this sermon we will ask the novel question that frequently doesn't ever get asked: How did those who witnessed the first Christmas celebrate?



Here are some alternative Christmas celebration ideas for those of us that have been looking for love in all the wrong places:

Alternative Celebration Idea #1: The Shepherds Celebrated By Gossiping Good News Everywhere.

Alternative Celebration Idea #2: The first people at the first Christmas celebrated by being amazed.

Alternative Celebration Idea #3: Mary celebrated by holding these precious thoughts deep within her heart.

Celebration is a capacity of the heart, not a condition of your external circumstances. If your heart's not changed, if it has not been rewired to really accommodate celebration, you'll forever be trying to anesthetize reality with mind altering substances or trying to cover it up with material trappings.

So this season, hear the good news of God identifying with us, allow yourself to be amazed, and store it up and ponder it seriously.