Sacred Realities

What do Christmas and Marriage have to do with each other? OK -- for many people these words together have lots of meaning. But I've been thinking...

Many people are very upset, myself included, because a group of people want to change the meaning of the word Marriage. They want to redefine it. They want it to mean something that it has never meant before. We are talking about a word that goes back thousands and thousands of years, a word that has meant the same thing from one century to the next, one culture to the next, one continent to the next, one generation to the next. We are talking about a word that is absolutely central to all of Western Civilization, at the very least. It's a word that defines the basis of the very core, the very foundation of our society. This group believes that they have the right to redefine the word Marriage, and therefore, the very institution which this word describes, to suit themselves.

We are not talking about slang here. We're not talking about changing "fat" to "phat" and having it mean something else. We're not talking about "cool" or "hot" or "awesome" or "bad." We are not talking semantics or nuances. We're talking about Marriage, a sacred committment between a man and a woman. We know what it means. We know what it is.

And that brings me to Christmas. Like Marriage, Christmas is sacred. It is clearly defined. It has meant the same thing for some two thousand years, for as long as the word has been a word. Just like Marriage, it may stir up different memories or different feelings for different people. For some, talk of Christmas, and maybe Marriage, brings pain, loneliness, fear, sadness or a multitude of other thoughts and feelings. However, just as you can't have Marriage without a man and a woman making a sacred committment to each other, you can't have Christmas without the birth of Jesus. You just can't. That is what Christmas is.

So why is it that some of us get upset when a department store refuses to use the word Christmas in their December advertising? Or why are some bothered that clerks don't greet us with "Merry Christmas" when we enter the store or check out at the cash register? Why do some people want to allow others to redefine Christmas?

Christmas is not shopping, gift giving, turkey roasting, over-spending, over-eating, partying, traveling .... Christmas is the sacred celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Savior. Why would some want others to connect the word Christmas to all of those things, any more than they would want others to connect the word Marriage to their proposed new definition? Why would we want others to use this precious word, Christmas, to refer to something it is not?

Is it because the word, Christmas has lost its meaning for us? Is it because we have forgotten why the word became a word in the first place?

Marriage is Marriage and Christmas is Christmas. If we, who know and understand in the depths of our being that these are sacred words which define sacred realities, do not treat them as sacred, why should we expect others to do so?

The Sanctuary

On Sunday our house church met on the patio of Starbuck's near Costco. It was fun, different and challenging. Personally, I enjoyed it. It is certainly a different sanctuary. It made me appreciate all the more the the joy of meeting with the house church in our cozy living room, the peacefulness of Sunday mornings at other churches I've been to, the sweet intimacy of time with Jesus in my own easy chair early in the morning.

Interestingly, it made me realize that that atmosphere is where many Americans live their entire lives. Work, home, school, recreation -- it's all busy, noisy, confusing, congested. There is no place in the lives of many people where there is quiet, healthy solitude, peace, rest, the Presence of God. How blessed we are to know and experience such things! That reminds me why we went there in the first place! It's not about US! It's about JESUS! He, too, got out among the noisy, pushy crowds. We tried to ignore them this past Sunday. He engaged with them. I pray that our future visits to Starbucks will be different.

Muzzily I Twaddle Along

Yesterday I celebrated the biggest birthday I've ever had. Not big in terms of significance, as most would consider significance. But big numerically. Sometimes you just have to state the obvious.

Why is this important? Because the older I get, the muzzier I feel at times, and the more I tend to twaddle. It used to scare me. Now I'm getting used to it. Sometimes I even find a gem hiding there in the muzziness that I want to take note of for myself, and maybe even share with someone else.

Having made that statement, that admission, I find myself at risk of being misunderstood, taken for a fool, considered inept, obsolete, to be ignored. But, while there are things I forget or don’t get at all, there are other things, more important things, that I know and understand more clearly now than ever. These are the essentials in my life. These are the basics, the fundamentals, the truths on which I base all that I am and all that I do. These are eternal truths that many today would consider untrue, or at best, optional. These are the things that many rage against today. These are the things for which I and others are labeled intolerant.

So I will twaddle muzzily along looking for hidden gems. I will enjoy them and sometimes share them, and never stop talking about the basic fundamental truths that have always been true and will never stop being true. Because it is Truth that sets us free.