Holy Friday: The Donkey by G.K.

When fishes flew and forests walked

   And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
   Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry
   And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
   On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
   Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
   I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
   One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
   And palms before my feet.

              by G.K. Chesterton

Season of The Ascension 2024 AD

Here is a post link below of which I endeavor to send out each year for Ascension Day.  I send it out now for a Lordsday meditation celebrating The Ascension, which was May 9th, and His Rule over Creation.

The Ascension: The Son of Man's Coronation

Good Friday: Alone...Alone...Alone

Easter Night 

All night had shout of men, and cry
Of woeful women filled His way;
Until that noon of sombre sky
On Friday, clamour and display
Smote Him; no solitude had He,
No silence, since Gethsemane.
Public was Death; but Power, but Might,
But Life again, but Victory,
Were hushed within the dead of night,
The shutter’d dark, the secrecy.
And all alone, alone, alone,
   He rose again behind the stone.

           by Alice Meynell, 1849-1922

The King's Humble Ride

Ride on, Ride on in Majesty

Ride on, ride on in majesty!

Hear all the tribes hosanna cry;
O Savior meek, pursue Your road
with palms and scattered garments strowed.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die.
O Christ, Your triumphs now begin
o’er captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
The host of angels in the sky
look down with sad and wondering eyes
to see thy approaching Sacrifice.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
Your last and fiercest strife is nigh.
The Father on His sapphire throne
awaits His own anointed Son.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die,
bow Your meek head to mortal pain,
then take, O Christ, Your power and reign.

     -- Henry Hart Milman, 1791- 1868

Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337)

A Lordsday Meditation for the Celebration of Yeshua's Ascension

Sermon by Martin Luther for -- 

THE DAY OF CHRIST’S ASCENSION INTO HEAVEN.

This sermon, which is not found in edition c, dates from the year 1523 and appeared in three pamphlet editions in the same year under the title: “A sermon by Dr. Martin Luther on the last chapter of St. Mark. While the eleven were sitting at meat Christ manifested himself and reproved them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, 1523.”

German text: Erlangen Edition, 12:169; Walch Edition, 11:1256; St. Louis Walch, 11:931.

Text: Mark 16:14-20 (KJV)

II. CHRIST’S ASCENSION INTO HEAVEN.

23. Now we must consider the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the first place, it is easily said and understood that the Lord ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. But they are dead words to the understanding if they are not grasped with the heart.

24. We must, therefore, conceive of his ascension and Lordship as something active, energetic and continuous, and must not imagine that he sits above while we hold the reins of government down here. Nay, he ascended up thither for the reason that there he can best do his work and exercise dominion. Had he remained upon earth in visible form, before the people, he could not have wrought so effectually, for all the people could not have been with him and heard him. Therefore, he inaugurated an expedient which made it possible for him to be in touch with all and reign in all, to preach to all and be heard by all, and to be with all. Therefore, beware lest you imagine within yourself that he has gone, and now is, far away from us. The very opposite is true: While he was on earth, he was far away from us; now he is very near.

25. Reason cannot comprehend how this can be. Therefore it is an article of faith. Here one must close his eyes and not follow his reason, but lay hold of all by faith. For how can reason grasp the thought that there should be a being like ourselves, who is all-seeing and knows all hearts and gives all men faith and the Spirit; or that he sits above in heaven, and yet is present with us and in us and rules over us? Therefore, strive not to comprehend, but say: This is Scripture and this is God’s Word, which is immeasurably higher than all understanding and reason. Cease your reasoning and lay hold of the Scriptures, which testify of this being — how he ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God and exercises dominion. Let us examine some Scripture bearing upon this matter.

26. In the first place, Psalm 8:4-6 says of Christ: “What is man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and honor. Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.” Here the prophet speaks to God concerning a man and marvels that God humbled, for a time, that man, when he suffered him to die, humbled him to the extent that it seemed as if God were not with him. But after a little while God exalted him, so that all things must obey him, both in heaven and on earth. To these words we must hold, to these words we must cling, in these words we must believe; for reason will not submit nor adapt itself to them, but says they are lies. Now, if all things are to be subject to this being and to fall at his feet, he must sit where he can look into the whole world, into heaven and hell and every heart; where he can see all sin and all righteousness, and can not only see all things, But can rule accordingly.

27. Hence, these are majestic and powerful words. They afford the heart great comfort, so that they who believe this are filled with joy and courage and defiantly say: My Lord Jesus Christ is Lord over death, Satan, sin, righteousness, body, life, foes and friends. What shall I fear? For while my enemies stand before my very door and plan to slay me, my faith reasons thus: Christ is ascended into heaven and become Lord over all creatures, hence my enemies, too, must be subject to him and thus it is not in their power to do me harm. I challenge them to raise a finger against me or to injure a hair of my head against the will of my Lord Jesus Christ. When faith grasps and stands upon this article, it stands firm and waxes bold and defiant, so as even to say: If my Lord so wills that they, mine enemies, slay me, blessed am I; I gladly depart. Thus you will see that he is ascended into heaven, not to remain in indifference, but to exercise dominion; and all for our good, to afford us comfort and joy. This is one passage.

 

28. Furthermore, in the second Psalm, verses 7 and 8, we read that God says to Christ: “Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possessions.” Here you see again that Christ is appointed of God a Lord over all the earth. Now, if he is my friend and I am persuaded that he died for me and gave me all things and for my sake sits in heaven and watches over me, who then can do ought to me? Or if any man should do ought, what harm can come of it?

29. Furthermore, David says again in the 110th Psalm, Psalm 110:1: “Jehovah saith unto my lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” And further on, in Psalm 110:5,6,7: “The Lord at thy right hand will strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He will judge among the nations, he will fill the places with dead bodies; he will strike through the head in many countries. He will drink of the brook in the way; therefore will he lift up the head.”

30. Again in still another Psalm, David says ( Psalm 68:18): “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led away captives; thou hast received gifts among men, yea among the rebellious also, that Jehovah God might dwell with them.” And all the prophets took great pains to describe Christ’s ascension and his kingdom. For, as his sufferings and death are deeply founded in the Scriptures, so are also his kingdom, his resurrection and ascension. In this manner we must view the ascension of Christ. Otherwise it will afford us neither pleasure nor profit. For what good will it do you if you merely preach that he ascended up to heaven and sits there with folded hands? This is what the prophet would say in the Psalm Christ is ascended on high and has led captivity captive. That is to say, not only does he sit up there but he is also down here. And for this purpose did he ascend up thither, that he might be down here, that he might fill all things and be everywhere present; which thing he could not do had he remained on earth, for here in the body he could not have been present with all. He ascended to heaven, where all hearts can see him, where he can deal with all men, that he might fill all creation. He is present everywhere and all things are filled with his fullness. Nothing is so great, be it in heaven or on earth, but he has power over it, and it must be in perfect obedience to him. He not only governs and fills all creation (that would not help my faith any nor take away my sins), but also has led captivity captive.

31. This captivity some have interpreted to mean that he delivered the sainted patriarchs out of the stronghold of hell; but that interpretation does not benefit our faith any either, for it is not particularly edifying to faith.

Therefore, we must simply understand the matter thus: that he means that captivity which captures us and holds us captive. I am Adam’s child, full of sin and foully besmirched; therefore, the law has taken me captive, so that I am lettered in conscience and sentenced to death.

32. From this captivity no one can free himself, save only that one man Christ. What did he do? He made sin, death, and Satan his debtors. Sin fell upon him as though it would vanquish him, but it lost the day; he devoured sin. And Satan, death, and hell fared the same way. But we are unable to do this unless he be present to aid us. Alone, we must needs perish, But he, since he had done no sin and was full of righteousness, trod under foot Satan, death and hell, and devoured them, and took everything captive that fain would capture us, so that sin and death no longer can do harm.

33. This, then, is the power he causes to be preached, that all who believe in him are released from captivity. I believe in him by whom sin, death, and all things that afflict us, were led captive. It is a pleasing discourse, and full of comfort, when we are told that death is taken away and slain, so that it is no longer felt. However, it affords pleasure and comfort only to those who believe it. You will not find release from captivity in your works, fastings, prayers, castigations, tonsures, and gowns, and whatever more things you may do; but only in the place where Christ sits, whither he ascended and whither he led captivity with him. Hence, he who would be freed from sin and delivered from Satan and death, must come thither where Christ is. Now, where is he? He is here with us, and for this purpose did he sit down in heaven, that he might be near unto us. Thus, we are with him up there and he is with us down here. Through the word he comes down and through faith we ascend up.

34. So, we see everywhere in the Scriptures that faith is such an unspeakably great thing that we can never preach about it sufficiently nor reach it with words. It cannot be heard and seen, therefore it must be believed. Such is the nature of faith that it feels nothing at all, but merely follows the words which it hears, and clings to them. If you believe, you have; if you believe not, you have not. In this wise must we understand this article of faith, that Christ is ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God.

Ascension Day: May 18th, 2023

(I wrote this back in 2011.  Enjoy! and Celebrate The King's Coronation this week!)

Today is Ascension Day, and has traditionally been observed on the 40th day from Resurrection Day (i.e. "Easter") following the chronology in the Book of Acts 1:3 that states Jesus appeared to His disciples for 40 days after His resurrection. 

       This is the day that Jesus -- during His trial with the high-priest and elders right before His crucifixion -- was referring to when He declared that they would see Him the "Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of Heaven." (Matthew 26:64-65; Luke 22:69).  This "coming on the clouds" talk wasn't concerning some distant, apocalyptic time in the future; No, this is Jesus declaring that He is the Son of Man spoken of by Daniel in chapter 7:13-14.  Jesus was declaring to be the person who will come on the clouds to the Ancient of Days and be "given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." And in both Matthew and Luke Jesus declares to the elders and high-priest that "from now on..." they will see Him as the triumphant, ruling Son of Man, and not future "somebodies" "someday" in the by-and-by.

     So, we see Jesus was given the Earth 2000 years ago as His Kingdom, and beware, it wasn't just a "heart", "heaven", or "spiritual" kingdom either.  And why it cannot be an ethereal kingdom is due to what Daniel says this Son of Man will be given by God.  The Son of Man (Jesus) is said to be given people, nations, and languages; and that entails living bodies, corrupt governments, tornados, sloshing oceans, and oh, I don't know...   ponies and aardvarks.  You get the drift.

     This is extremely difficult for us to see but we don't need to fully understand how Jesus is remaking His world -- He, the second Adam -- but we need to trust by faith that He is.  We can only do that by seeing it in His Word, and Scripture tells us that everything HAS been placed in subjection under Him; but not only that, it tells us something more, something to reassure us, "Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, He [God the Father] left nothing outside His [Jesus] control.  At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him." (Hebrews 2:8)

       This "seeing" of Christ's Kingdom as this world takes faith, and it should be faith reminiscent of Abraham and not of Thomas.  Ol' Abe back in the day only saw a land of wicked, idolatrous people in Canaan, but by faith had "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)  He knew God was going to create a great people out of him, and bless that plot of land called Canaan as well, even though very little of that looked likely when he opened up his eyes every morning.

       This kind of faith in God's Word is what Christ's Household needs to acquire again, and in truckloads.  We must see and trust that Jesus really, truly was and is the Rock made without hands that Daniel foresees in Daniel 2:31-35, 44-45, and that -- through His New Covenant people -- destroyed Rome and from that point on in history began to fill the whole Earth.  And, again, not at some future date or time.

       Without the recovery of this teaching of Scripture, Christ's People will continue to be confused, continue to ring their hands during Fox News, and continue to predict and wait with ghoulish delight for *sigh* the RAPTURE! (the Rapture deserves all caps and an exclamation mark, don'tcha think?)

       So here's why I'm writing about Ascension Day: I believe when it is celebrated it can serve as one small way to recover and imbibe the understanding of Christ's Lordship over all the Earth as a central part of the Good News we herald.  This recovery will hopefully aid us to regain some lost ground and to plough-up some new as well.  

       This festival though can only be really celebrated by latching onto a full, robust, Biblical understanding of Jesus' coronation (Psalm 110; Daniel 7; Matthew 28) and Satan's crushed head at the Cross (1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14) and the implications that are drawn out through those Biblical doctrines. 

       My prayer is that the celebration of Ascension can be a catalyst to bring the Bride back to living in a faith that looks and acts more like Abraham's and less and less like Thomas'.

     

Ascension Day 2021: Worship Him Who is Above All

“Since the Savior’s Advent in our midst, not only does idolatry no longer increase, but it is getting less and gradually ceasing to be.  Similarly, not only does the wisdom of the Greeks no longer make any progress, but that which used to be is disappearing.  And demons, so far from continuing to impose on people by their deceits and oracle-givings and sorceries, are routed by the sign of the cross if they so much as try.  

       On the other hand, while idolatry and everything else that opposes the faith of Christ is daily dwindling and weakening and falling, the Savior’s teaching is increasing everywhere!  Worship, then, the Savior “who is above all” and mighty, even God the Word, and condemn those who are being defeated and made to disappear by Him.  When the sun has come, darkness prevails no longer; any of it left anywhere is driven away.  So also, now that the Divine epiphany of the Word of God has taken place, the darkness of idols prevails no more, and all parts of the world in every direction are enlightened by His teaching.”

        -- Athanasius (297-373 AD), from “On the Incarnation”

Polycarp Serves Up a Good Word for Ascension

Ascension Day is Thursday, May 13th

"Wherefore gird up your loins and serve God in fear and truth, forsaking the vain and empty talking and the error of the many, for that ye have believed on Him that raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and gave unto him glory and a throne on His right hand; unto whom all things were made subject that are in Heaven and that are on the Earth; to whom every creature that hath breath doeth service; who cometh as judge of quick and dead; whose blood God will require of them that are disobedient unto Him.”

      -- Polycarp (80-167 AD), excerpt from Letter to the Phillipians (130 AD?)

The Ascension of Yeshua the King of Kings

Just a heads-up, Ascension Day is coming up on May 13th, so mark your calendars and get started inviting folks over to your house to celebrate the King's coronation over Creation.

      For those Protestants that are in the dark about Ascension Day, it is the day Christians celebrate Yeshua (Jesus) the Son of Man ascending to His throne and being given all power over the nations (Daniel 7; Psalm 2, 8, 110; Hebrews 2.8 etc).  This event is celebrated 40 days after Resurrection Day which corresponds to the Biblical narrative found in Acts 1.3-11.

I wrote about it more fully HERE.

Also, in connection with this, Tim Chester has co-wrote a book with Jonny Woodrow about Christ's ascension entitled The Ascension: Humanity in the Presence of God .  It is solid, succinct, and evocative, as are all Chester's books, and I'm all for anything that get Christians thinking about this topic in the Congregation.  Pick it up!  (anywhere else other than Amazon...)

Resurrection: The Event that Binds All Things Together

"We should be taking steps to celebrate Easter in creative new ways: in art, literature, children's games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts, anything that comes to mind.  This is our greatest festival.  Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else.  Take Easter away, and you don't have a New Testament; you don't have a Christianity; as Paul says, you are still in your sins.  We shouldn't allow the secular world, with its schedules and habits and parareligious events, its cute Easter bunnies, to blow us off course.  This is our greatest day.  We should put the flags out."

-- N.T. Wright,  Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, pg. 256

Let's take the "Mass" out of Christ-mass

"Do not judge by appearances, but judge with righteous judgment."

     -- Jesus, Good News of John 7.24

There’s always a lot of grumbling among Christ's followers around this time of year about the unbelieving, lost world manipulating or disregarding Advent season and the feast of Jesus' birth.  One biggy is that they -- the unbelievers -- are taking "Christ" out of the celebration both literally (Xmas) or metaphorically through crass commercialism or laws stopping religious, public displays of Christians.  All true.  But remember, they're blind, and only responding to the whip of their master, the one who's been lying since the Beginning, that is, Satan.

How 'bout this though...since it is Christ's Congregation's holy-day, why don't we back the bus up, and we all get out somewhere at the beginning of this holy-day observance and reach up and tear the "mas" (i.e. the Roman church "mass") out of the name Christ-mas?  It would seem appropriate that true, regenerate disciples of Messiah should be more peeved about that than a bunch of dead-in-sin unbelievers messing with our holy-day.  They don't know any better!  They are spiritually dead, lost, blind. In fact, we should have pity on them, and continue to be long-suffering, applying the healing balm of the Gospel where-ever possible.  We are the Light and the Salt; not the Bat and they're the Ball.

On the other hand, we've let a high holy-day be labeled and stamped with the Roman church idolatry for centuries!  Centuries!!  Christ-MASS? What the flibbity-jibbits has been going on??  Is it that we are so uncreative we can't think of some other name for this holy-day?  Or, is it fear of man that perhaps the World won't know what we're talking about and, Oh! No! we'll be embarrassed?  We shouldn’t be concerned, correct?  He's the King (now) over all other sub-kings (not later, see Revelation 1:5), and He's the one we honor and are concerned about what He thinks of us not the blind leading the blind.

Now, it needs to be said that the feast of Christ-mass did not always have the Roman church's idolatrous, re-sacrificing connections (transubstantiation) that it has had since around the 12th century. Before that time the word "mass" was "misse" which is the Latin word for "sending".  So, our word "mass" is the Anglicized rendering of that word.  To make a long history short, it eventually became the short way of referring to a Christian worship gathering because often the Latin phrase "Ite misse est" meaning "Go you are dismissed" was the final words spoken at the end of the gathering by an elder-shepherd. (See Jeffery Meyer’s fine article “Is Christmas Christian?” for more info on that idea. You'll see I do not agree with the heart of the author's argument but it still is an excellent article.)

The stubborn fact remains, though, that the Mass of Rome now does have that meaning of re-sacrificing and not the general ancient one of "worship time" and -- let's be bold here -- it's high time we deal with it.  Let's think this through ... we Protestants don't currently call our worship gatherings "mass" even if it started out as a generally accepted term long ago, do we?  No. Why not? Because it's referring to idolatrous worship!  The word has changed meaning and means something entirely different than a 1000 years ago.  Just like the word "gay" today.  Let me ask you, are you going to keep on using that term “gay” now just because it meant "merry and jovial" in Webster's 1828 dictionary? No way. In the same way we Protestants aren't using the word mass for our fellowship gatherings.  It is unacceptable, but unfortunately it is tacked on the end of the word Christ-mass like a leech that is unwilling to release.

So, here's what I propose: Let's actually reform our language, and seek precision and clarity not vague notions and ambiguity.  Loose, subjective language allows compromise with the world on multiple levels of life.  Just look at what the World does during and with Christmas and Easter.  In other words, brethren, it's OUR fault, the Church's that is.  Look at Easter.  No one even knows what that word means!  It literally is a foreign language, lost to our culture and irrelevant. How 'bout renaming it Resurrection Day instead, hmm?  That's pretty precise and clear.  And, as for a name change for Christ-mass, I propose my wife's suggestion which is INCARNATION.   

All reform starts small.  But, let's change the language and reform ourselves first.

"For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" 

1 Peter 4.17  

Reposted from 12/2014

This Idiocy has been Going on for a LONG Time

Now that Resurrection Day is in the rearview mirror I thought I'd pull this excerpt below out and let ya read it. Give some of you something to chew on for next year.

The "easter" egg and bunny thing is completely foreign and distracting to our celebration of Messiah's Resurrection.

This excerpt below is from over 130 years ago concerning the egg crap on Resurrection.  This should have been "reformed" two generations ago!  Sweet Joseph and Mary we Christians are a sorry lot.

At some point men we have to gird-up and stop compromising.  All this is just plain, simple, bumpkin Worldliness, and it was let in the door because "of the children".  It's high time we File 13 this worldly tradition and let it rot back to where it came from.

"If the children have no garden, they make nests in the wood-shed, barn, or house. They gather colored flowers for the rabbit to eat, that it may lay colored eggs. If there be a garden, the eggs are hidden singly in the green grass, box-wood, or elsewhere. On Easter Sunday morning they whistle for the rabbit, and the children imagine that they see him jump the fence. After church, on Easter Sunday morning, they hunt the eggs, and in the afternoon the boys go out in the meadows and crack eggs or play with them like marbles. Or sometimes children are invited to a neighbor's to hunt eggs."
       -- Phebe Earle Gibbons, "Pennsylvania Dutch," Philadelphia 1882

Exmas and Crissmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus

by C.S. Lewis

Beyond this there lies in the ocean, turned towards the west and the north, the island of Niatirb which Hecataeus indeed declares to be the same size and shape as Sicily, but it is larger, and though in calling it triangular a man would not miss the mark. It is densely inhabited by men who wear clothes not very different from other barbarians who occupy the north-western parts of Europe though they do not agree with them in language. These islanders, surpassing all the men of whom we know in patience and endurance, use the following customs.

In the middle of winter when fogs and rains most abound they have a great festival which they call Exmas, and for fifty days they prepare for it in the fashion I shall describe. First of all, every citizen is obliged to send to each of his friends and relations a square piece of hard paper stamped with a picture, which in their speech is called an Exmas-card. But the pictures represent birds sitting on branches, or trees with a dark green prickly leaf, or else men in such garments as the Niatirbians believe that their ancestors wore two hundred years ago riding in coaches such as their ancestors used, or houses with snow on their roofs. And the Niatirbians are unwilling to say what these pictures have to do with the festival, guarding (as I suppose) some sacred mystery. And because all men must send these cards the market-place is filled with the crowd of those buying them, so that there is great labour and weariness.

But having bought as many as they suppose to be sufficient, they return to their houses and find there the like cards which others have sent to them. And when they find cards from any to whom they also have sent cards, they throw them away and give thanks to the gods that this labour at least is over for another year. But when they find cards from any to whom they have not sent, then they beat their breasts and wail and utter curses against the sender; and, having sufficiently lamented their misfortune, they put on their boots again and go out into the fog and rain and buy a card for him also. And let this account suffice about Exmas-cards.

They also send gifts to one another, suffering the same things about the gifts as about the cards, or even worse. For every citizen has to guess the value of the gift which every friend will send to him so that he may send one of equal value, whether he can afford it or not. And they buy as gifts for one another such things as no man ever bought for himself. For the sellers, understanding the custom, put forth all kinds of trumpery, and whatever, being useless and ridiculous, sell as an Exmas gift. And though the Niatirbians profess themselves to lack sufficient necessary things, such as metal, leather, wood and paper, yet an incredible quantity of these things is wasted every year, being made into the gifts.

But during these fifty days the oldest, poorest and the most miserable of citizens put on false beards and red robes and walk in the market-place; being disguised (in my opinion) as Cronos. And the sellers of gifts no less than the purchasers become pale and weary, because of the crowds and the fog, so that any man who came into a Niatirbian city at this season would think that some great calamity had fallen on Niatirb. This fifty days of preparation is called in their barbarian speech the Exmas Rush.

But when the day of the festival comes, then most of the citizens, being exhausted with the Rush , lie in bed till noon. But in the evening they eat five times as much supper as on other days and, crowning themselves with crowns of paper, they become intoxicated. And on the day after Exmas they are very grave, being internally disordered by the supper and the drinking and reckoning how much they have spent on gifts and on the wine. For wine is so dear among the Niatirbians that a man must swallow the worth of a talent before he is well intoxicated.

Such, then, are their customs about the Exmas. But the few among the Niatirbians have also a festival, separate and to themselves, called Crissmas, which is on the same day as Exmas. And those who keep Crissmas, doing the opposite to the majority of the Niatirbians, rise early on that day with shining faces and go before sunrise to certain temples where they partake of a sacred feast. And in most of the temples they set out images of a fair woman with a new-born Child on her knees and certain animals and shepherds adoring the Child. (The reason of these images is given in a certain sacred story which I know but do not repeat.)

But I myself conversed with a priest in one of these temples and asked him why they kept Crissmas on the same day as Exmas; for it appeared to me inconvenient. But the priest replied, It is not lawful, O Stranger, for us to change the date of Crissmas, but would that Zeus would put it into the minds of the Niatirbians to keep Exmas at some other time or not to keep it at all. For Exmas and the Rush distract the minds even of the few from sacred things. And we indeed are glad that men should make merry at Crissmas; but in Exmas there is no merriment left. And when I asked him why they endured the Rush, he replied, It is, O Stranger, a racket, using (as I suppose) the words of some oracle and speaking unintelligibly to me (for a racket is an instrument which the barbarians use in a game called tennis).

But what Hecataeus says, that Exmas and Crissmas are the same, is not credible. For the first, the pictures which are stamped on the Exmas-cards have nothing to do with the sacred story which the priests tell about Crissmas. And secondly, the most part of the Niatirbians, not believing the religion of the few, nevertheless send the gifts and cards and participate in the Rush and drink, wearing paper caps. But it is not likely that men, even being barbarians, should suffer so many and great things in honour of a god they do not believe in.  And now enough about Niatirb.

Let's take the "Mass" out of Christ-mas

"Do not judge by appearances, but judge with righteous judgment."
     -- Jesus, Good News of John 7.24

There's always a lot of grumbling among Christ's followers around this time of year about the unbelieving, lost world manipulating or disregarding Advent season and the feast of Jesus' birth.  One biggy is that they -- the unbelievers -- are taking "Christ" out of the celebration both literally (Xmas) or metaphorically through crass commercialism or laws stopping religious, public displays of Christians.  All true.  But remember, they're blind, and only responding to the whip of their master, the one lying since the Beginning, that is, Satan.

How 'bout this though...since it is "our" holy-day why don't we back the bus up and all get out somewhere at the beginning of this holy-day observance and reach up and tear the "mas" (i.e. the Roman church "mass") out of the name Christ-mas?  It would seem appropriate that true, regenerate disciples of Messiah should be more p.o.'d about that than a bunch of dead-in-sin unbelievers messing with our holy-day.  They don't know any better!  They are spiritually dead, lost, blind. In fact, we should have pity on them and continue to be long-suffering, applying the healing balm of the Gospel where-ever possible.  We're the Light, the Salt, not the Bat and they're the Ball.

On the other hand, we've let a high holy-day be labeled and stamped with the Roman church idolatry for centuries!  Centuries!  Christ-MASS? What the flibbity-jibbits has been going on??  Is it that we are so uncreative we can't think of some other name for this holy-day?  Or, is it fear of man that perhaps the World won't know what we're talking about and, Oh No! we'll be embarrassed?  Who cares, right?  He's the King (now) over all other sub-kings (not later, see Revelation 1:5), and He's the one we honor and are concerned about what He thinks of us not the blind leading the blind.

Now, it needs to be said that the feast of Christmas did not always have the Roman church's idolatrous, re-sacrificing connections (transubstantiation) that it has had since around the 12th century. Before that time the word "mass" was "misse" which is the Latin word for "sending".  So, our word "mass" is the Anglicized rendering of that word. To make a long history short, it eventually became the short way of referring to a Christian worship gathering because often the Latin phrase "Ite misse est" meaning "Go you are dismissed" was the final words spoken at the end of the gathering by a shepherd. (See this fine article for more info on that idea. You'll see I do not agree with the heart of the author's argument but it is an excellent article.)

The stubborn fact remains, though, that the Mass of Rome now does have that meaning of re-sacrificing and not the general ancient one of "worship time" and -- let's be bold here -- it's high-time we deal with it.  Let's think this through...we Protestants don't now call our worship gatherings "mass" even if it started out as a generally accepted term long ago, do we?  No. Why? Because it's referring to idolatrous worship!  The word has changed meaning and means something entirely different than a 1000 years ago.  Just like the word "gay" today.  Let me ask you, are you going to keep on using that term now just because it meant "merry and jovial" in Webster's 1828 dictionary? No way. In the same way we Protestants aren't using the word mass for our fellowship gatherings.  It is unacceptable, but unfortunately it is tacked on the end of the word Christ-mas like a leach unwilling to release.

So, here's what I propose: Let's actually reform our language, and seek precision and clarity not vague notions and ambiguity.  Loose, subjective language allows compromises with the world on multiple levels of life.  Just look at what the World does during and with Christmas and Easter.  In other words, it's OUR fault, the Church's that is.  Look at Easter.  No one even know what that means! It literally is a foreign language, lost to our culture and irrelevant. How 'bout renaming it Resurrection Day instead, hmm?  That's pretty precise and clear.  And, as for a name change for Christ-mas, I propose my wife's suggestion which is INCARNATION.

All reform starts small.  But, let's change the language and reform ourselves first.

"For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?"
1 Peter 4.17

What Christmas Means to Me by C.S. Lewis

I posted this on my blog in 2011 and I'm shooting it out again.  Please see the comment section below for some further thoughts.   - Corey


What Christmas Means to Me
by C.S. Lewis (first published in 1957)

       Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn't go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business too have a 'view' on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone's business. 
       I mean of course the commercial racket. The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers. Neither of these circumstances is in itself a reason for condemning it. I condemn it on the following grounds...

      1).  It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure. You have only to stay over Christmas with a family who seriously try to 'keep' it (in its third, or commercial, aspect) in order to see that the thing is a nightmare. Long before December 25th everyone is worn out -- physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making; much less (if they should want to) to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.

       2).  Most of it is involuntary. The modern rule is that anyone can force you to give him a present by sending you a quite unprovoked present of his own. It is almost a blackmail. Who has not heard the wail of despair, and indeed of resentment, when, at the last moment, just as everyone hoped that the nuisance was over for one more year, the unwanted gift from Mrs. Busy (whom we hardly remember) flops unwelcomed through the letter-box, and back to the dreadful shops one of us has to go?

3).  Things are given as presents which no mortal every bought for himself -- gaudy and useless gadgets, 'novelties' because no one was ever fool enough to make their like before. Have we really no better use for materials and for human skill and time than to spend them on all this rubbish?

4).  The nuisance. For after all, during the racket we still have all our ordinary and necessary shopping to do, and the racket trebles the labour of it.

       We are told that the whole dreary business must go on because it is good for trade. It is in fact merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition of our country, and indeed of the world, in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things. I don't know the way out. But can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers? If the worst comes to the worst I'd sooner give them money for nothing and write if off as a charity. For nothing? Why, better for nothing than for a nuisance.

Risen?! Yes, O Yes Indeed

Lift Your Glad Voices

Lift your glad voices in triumph on high,
For Jesus hath risen, and man cannot die;
Vain were the terrors that gathered around Him,
And short the dominion of death and the grave
He burst from the fetters of darkness that bound Him,
Resplendent in glory to live and to save!
Loud was the chorus of angels on high,
The Savior hath risen, and man shall not die.
Glory to God, in full anthems of joy;
The being He gave us death cannot destroy:
Sad were the life we must part with tomorrow,
If tears were our birthright, and death were our end
But Jesus hath cheered the dark valley of sorrow,
And bade us, immortal, to Heaven ascend:
Lift then your voices in triumph on high,
For Jesus hath risen, and man shall not die!

by Henry Ware (1794-1843)

Alone...Alone...Alone

Easter Night 

All night had shout of men, and cry

Of woeful women filled His way;

Until that noon of sombre sky

On Friday, clamour and display

Smote Him; no solitude had He,

No silence, since Gethsemane.

Public was Death; but Power, but Might,

But Life again, but Victory,

Were hushed within the dead of night,

The shutter’d dark, the secrecy.

And all alone, alone, alone,

He rose again behind the stone.

by Alice Meynell, 1849-1922

Nothing is More Repugnant to Capable, Reasonable People than Grace

From a God We Hardly Knew
by William Willimon

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;
and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, 
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
Isaiah 9:6

Probably most of us have had the experience of receiving, right out of the blue, a gift from someone we really don’t know all that well. And, perhaps, to our consternation, the gift turns out to be nice, something that we didn’t know we wanted and certainly didn’t ask for, but there it is, a good gift from someone who is not really a good friend.

Now, what is the first thing we do in response?

Right. We try to come up with a gift to give in return -- not out of gratitude (after all, we didn’t ask for it) or out of friendship (after all, we hardly even know this person) , but because we don’t want to feel guilty.

We don’t want to be indebted. The gift seems to lay a claim upon us....

The Advent Call from the Anti-Santa

"John the Baptist has always felt like the right person to get me ready for Christmas -- he's the anti-Santa needed for our day.  Trade the jolly laugh for an in-your-face intensity, the twinkle in the eye for a wildness about to interrupt your life, commanding our attention but always redirecting it towards Jesus.  "Prepare the way for the Lord" is the Advent call to get ready for the coming Messiah."

- Philip Reinders, from Seeking God's Face: Praying with the Bible through the Year  (an excellent resource for private prayer, find it here )

Ascension Day: Seeing it like Abraham and not like Thomas

Today is Ascension Day, and has traditionally been observed on the 40th day from Resurrection Day (i.e. "Easter") following the chronology in the Book of Acts 1:3 that states Jesus appeared to His disciples for 40 days after His resurrection. 

       This is the day that Jesus -- during His trial with the high-priest and elders right before His crucifixion -- was referring to when He declared that they would see Him the "Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of Heaven." (Matthew 26:64-65; Luke 22:69).  This "coming on the clouds" talk wasn't concerning some distant, apocalyptic time in the future; No, this is Jesus declaring that He is the Son of Man spoken of by Daniel in chapter 7:13-14.  Jesus was declaring to be the person who will come on the clouds to the Ancient of Days and be "given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." And in both Matthew and Luke Jesus declares to the elders and high-priest that "from now on..." they will see Him as the triumphant, ruling Son of Man, and not future "somebodies" "someday" in the by-and-by.

     So, we see Jesus was given the Earth 2000 years ago as His Kingdom, and beware, it wasn't just a "heart" or "spiritual" kingdom either.  And why it cannot be an ethereal kingdom is due to what Daniel says this Son of Man will be given by God.  The Son of Man (Jesus) is said to be given people, nations, and languages; and that entails living bodies, corrupt governments, tornados, sloshing oceans, and oh, I don't know...   ponies and aardvarks.  You get the drift.

     This is extremely difficult for us to see...