Joy to the world.
Youngsters are unwrapping their packages under the tree, with fathers and mothers in bathrobes enjoying every delightful smile and taking snapshots of memories to last a lifetime.
In the little town of Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago, a child lay in a manger, Mary and Joseph keeping vigil because there was no room in the inn.
“It was the bleakest of times when God gave us the first Christmas,” says the Rev. John Hedgepeth, senior minister at Northwood Temple Church in north Fayetteville. “For 400 years, the Israeli nation had stripped itself of anything that looked like God and had spiraled down to a time of despair. Temple activities and the sacred scrolls had lost their meaning, the economy was shattered and all hope was seemingly lost for a better tomorrow.
“But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his son, …” Hedgepeth quotes from Galatians 4:4) of the Holy Bible.
God chose this night, Hedgepeth says, to give the first Christmas gift — Jesus Christ, the son of God, born to the Virgin Mary.
“The real meaning of Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ, the one who makes adoption into the family of God possible,” says the Rev. Fredrick Culbreth, senior past at First Baptist Church on Moore Street in downtown Fayetteville. “We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ not only because he is the son of God but also because of what his birth means to humanity.”
God, he says, had a plan.
God, he says, had a purpose.
“At just the right time, he was born of a virgin and wrapped in swaddling clothes,” Culbreth says. “He did it all to bring us back to where we belong. To bring us back to the family of God as heirs and co-heirs with him as the children of God. What we celebrate at Christmas is the birth of the one who put the wheels in motion to bring wayward children back to a loving father. Christ’s birth initiates the beginnings of the removal of the distance placed between the creator, God, and the created, humankind.”
Your support helps ensure a more informed community. Donate today.
‘True meaning of Christmas is love’
The Rev. Chip Stapleton, senior pastor at Highland Presbyterian Church in Haymount, says the birth of Christ on Christmas was a tipping point in history and the precise moment everything changed forever.
“Because in the incarnation of Jesus coming to Earth, God lived up to the name he was given, Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us,’” Stapleton says. “The message version of John 1 describes it like this: ‘Jesus became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.’”
Before the first Christmas, Stapleton says, there was a separation between man and God and what seemed to be an impossible breach to overcome.
“After Christmas, God was and is with us,” Stapleton says. “The most important part of all of this is why. Why would God do this? The short answer, and the true meaning of Christmas, is love. God loves us as his own and wasn’t willing to wait for us. Instead, he sought us out and claimed us as his own. And so, because of his great love for us, Christmas means that we are never alone, never hopeless, never truly lost. Because the God who created the universe came to Earth so that we might know his love, his hope, his presence and his peace.”
‘It was the gift of God’
The Rev. Selvyn A. Lindo, senior minister at Evans Metropolitan AME Zion Church downtown, echoes Stapleton’s words.
“We know the true meaning is God’s gift to mankind,” Lindo says. “Mankind was sinful in all its way. God, being merciful, sent his son. He came on the scene through the Virgin Mary. The angel spoke to Joseph, and he would see her through her pregnancy. They wound up in the little town of Bethlehem. And she gave birth to the savior we know — Jesus Christ. It was around the 25th of December. It’s been celebrated 2,000 years-plus.”
Christmas, the pastor says, is not so much about a holiday season that has become commercialized with materialistic shopping for gifts under a tree.
“But it is the celebration by the love and joy of our savior, Jesus Christ,” Lindo says. “It was the gift of God. The wisemen followed the star that guided them to the manger, where he was born because there was no room at the inn.”
The birth of Christ, he says, could have been in a palace.
But it was in a manger outside the inn.
“It was the humility of Christ,” Lindo says.
‘What Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown’
The Rev. Blake Benge is the new senior pastor at Snyder Memorial Baptist Church, known for its towering steeple along Westmont Drive. He holds every holiday season close to his heart.
“Christmas is the best,” he says. “The lights, the goodies, the parties, the music, the movies, the festive sweaters, the gift giving and receiving. It is so much fun, especially when close friends and family come home.”
And all the better, he says, if it snows.
“This is ‘modern Christmas,’ and I like it very much,” Benge says. “However, when we think this is all there is, we miss what really is. We miss what all the lights and traditions should reveal. What the old Christmas carols illuminate if we will listen long enough to contemplate. This is ‘ancient Christmas.’ The center of Christmas, the place where joy and peace have emanated for 2,000 years.”
The good preacher can’t help but recall “A Charlie Brown Christmas” from the 1965 animated television special based on Peanuts, the comic strip by Charles M. Schultz.
“Frustrated at his inability to pull off ‘modern Christmas,’ Charlie Brown looks at Linus and says, ‘I guess I really do not know what Christmas is all about.’ Then he cries out, ‘Is there anyone who can tell me what Christmas is all about?’”
Linus knows the true meaning of Christmas — the good shepherds in wait, the angel of the Lord and the coming of the new-born king.
“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown,” Linus tells his friend.
Linus tells Charlie Brown right, Benge says.
“Christmas, real Christmas, ‘ancient Christmas’ is all about the birth of a savior named Jesus coming to Earth to connect you to God,” Benge says. “May you connect with him deeply this Christmas and the whole year through. Never forget, God so loved you that he gave his son for you.”
Epilogue
The Rev. John Hedgepeth leaves us with a reminder of the time when Mary gave birth to the son of God, and according to Bible scripture, would in the journey of his gospel teachings assure, “I am the resurrection, and the life. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”
Times were austere and forbidding and suspect when Jesus was born, he reminds. People were uncertain of what and who to believe, and their faith was compromised and seemingly beyond their grasp for better days.
“Now, 2,000 years later, we find ourselves also in a similar world,” Hedgepeth says. “For many, the economic and political landscape is bleak. The church today is struggling for relevancy, and many people don’t know what or whom to believe in.”
But …
“Just like Israel, God has a plan for us,” Hedgepeth says. “This can be a perfect time to receive the real gift of Christmas — Jesus Christ.”
This is Christmas, Dec. 25, 2022.
“O holy night, the stars are brightly shining,” may Christian believers sing. “It
is the night of the dear savior’s birth. … O night divine. O night when Christ was born. O night, O holy night, O night divine.”
Joy to the world, if you will, “the Lord is come.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
