Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. Today, some random reflections on Christmas. It is one of those times of year, along with Easter, when people are open, as at no other time, to an explanation as to who and what Jesus was and what he did. Is this true with you?

Do you find yourself more open to hearing about Jesus and his life? There's something about his life, Christ's life, his life and death, really, that attracts people like no other. The Apostle Paul puts it this way, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons, unquote. At Christmas, God sent forth his Son, Jesus. This vulnerable, needy babe was born of a simple Jewish maiden, Mary, born of woman.

This Son of Grace was also born under the law. That is, he was born under the old covenant of works that we could never perfectly perform in order that he might redeem those who were under the law. That is, bring back to God, we, who found ourselves contained and condemned under the law. Christ, in his life and death on this earth, perfectly obeyed the law in every circumstance in which he found himself. That's one of the beauties of the gospel, dear listener, to see Jesus Christ move through his circumstances in first century Palestine and perfectly obey the law.

And he thereby obeyed for us because he was our federal head, that is, the one who acted in our place. This is what Paul meant when he said to redeem those who were under the law. This is one of those deep theological issues with which we deal when we think about Christmas, in addition to the simpler things like shepherds and wise men and angels. There are many simple as well as complex components of Christmas, many of which we may lack information concerning. For example, where do we derive the title Christmas?

The word Christmas is actually a contraction of two words, Christ's Mass. Christ's Mass. The church has long celebrated the lives of the saints in 365 feasts, one for every day of the year. For example, St. Francis of Assisi is assigned October 4, upon which a meal, prayer, and Mass are said for this particular saint. Likewise, the feast day for Mary, Mother of God, is celebrated on January 1 of every year, in which a Mass is said in the Roman Catholic Church in her name.

Well, one might ask, what is a Mass, when is a Mass said for the Savior, Jesus Christ? Well, the answer is quite simple. Upon Christmas Day, December 25, this is his feast day, when a Mass is said for him, that is Christ's Mass, contracted to Christmas, of course. Do you see how nothing comes to us in a vacuum, dear listener? Christ's Mass, December 25, is a feast day upon which presents are exchanged, feasts are eaten, and religious services are observed.

So elevated has this feast day become that it is observed not only by the Roman Catholic Church, but by all Christians everywhere. Why do you think that December 25 was chosen for Christ's Mass? Well, there are two competing theories, only one of which holds up to historical scrutiny, I would suggest to you. The first explanation is that December 25 was chosen in order to correspond to the pagan celebration of Saturnalia, that is, the pagan feast for the god Saturn. In the Roman panoply of gods, the majestic regal personage of Saturn occupied this place in the calendar of gods to be recognized and celebrated.

It was one of winter's great breaks when firewood could be burned, animals slaughtered, and consumed for protein, and daily labor ceased for at least 12 hours or so in a holiday. In fact, we have a letter from Pope Gregory the Great to a missionary to Britain that pagan temples and festivals be converted into Christian churches and festivals in order to facilitate the transition of pagans to Christians. And then, consequently, December 25, the day of Christ's Mass was one of those days, celebrated then, taken over, if you will, from the Saturnalia, that is the feast day for Saturn in the pagan panoply.

Well, the second explanation that we have for why Christmas is on December 25. December 25 was chosen because it was figured to be precisely nine months after the church calculated Jesus' birth from his conception. Church fathers like Tertullian reasoned that the Bible indicates that Jesus was conceived on the same day on which he was later to die, that is, the day he was crucified, which would be March 25 or 14 of Nisan in the Jewish calendar. Well, if you calculate from March 25, his birth is December 25.

The great theologian St. Augustine also notes, for he, that is, Jesus, is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day also he suffered. So the womb of the virgin, in which he was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which he was buried, wherein was never man laid, neither before him nor since. But he was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th. This, dear listeners, the better option. Here's another random fact.

I'm collecting random facts about Christmas, over which I'm interested, at least, and I hope you are, too. Another random fact of which you might not be aware concerning Christmas. Did you know that rank pagan unbelievers were far more conscious, conscious, excuse me, of Jesus' birth than his own people, the Jews? Yes. Rank pagan unbelievers were far more conscious of Jesus' birth than were his own people.

This is the thrust of the account of the visit of the Magi, the wise men from the east. In 586 B.C., the Chaldeans, the pagan magicians of Babylon, in service to King Nebuchadnezzar, overran and conquered Judah, just as her prophets had predicted. In 2 Kings, for example, the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. And the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him, unquote, from 2 Kings chapter 23.

Kings and Chronicles, the books of Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament record that they, the Chaldeans, carried away everything of value that they found in Jerusalem, which would include the sacred scriptures that they found, that is, the Bible of the Jews. The thing about these Chaldeans, these pagan scholars, is that they read the material they captured and stole. This happens with every great empire. Those bookish souls who love to pour over pages and documents and scrolls, they exist everywhere, and I'm afraid one of those people is me.

I would have loved to have poured over those scriptures from all over the world and those books from all over the world. But these scholars in Babylon assiduously studied and understood what they read. They studied the prophecies concerning a Savior, a prophecy like that found in Numbers chapter 24, where we read, I see him, that is the Savior, a king, a great king. I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near.

A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. Now, these guys understood perfectly well that a star in the Old Testament meant not stars falling from the sky or rising in the sky, but rather kings and princes. A scepter, of course, a king's scepter shall rise out of Israel. So this was a text prophesying a Messiah. So when the Magi in Babylon saw a phenomenon in the sky, that is, a star that normally did not shine in the western sky, well, they reasoned that this prophecy of the Jews was about to be fulfilled.

A star was about to come out of Jacob. A king, that is, a scepter, was about to rise out of Israel. What to do? These guys did the right thing. They packed up and beat feet to Israel.

Be the first to greet and pay homage to this king who would rule the world. This is the background, then, when you read in Matthew, and I quote from chapter 2 of Matthew, Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him. Unquote. They were more informed, these pagan Babylonians, these Chaldeans, these Magi, were more informed than the sleepy-headed scribes and Pharisees of Israel, who ostensibly studied the text and knew it inside and out.

This is one of the points that Matthew intends to make in his narrative. Even Gentiles were more receptive to the Messiah than his own people. Well, another favorite random reflection that I have on Christmas is the 12 days of Christmas. What a rich heritage we have in this blessed tradition, the 12 days of Christmas. Your kids can learn a lot.

You can learn a lot from celebrating the 12 days of Christmas. You, however, when you hear the 12 days of Christmas. Probably that song that begins on the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, and on and on and yada yada. This is all we in the West usually get concerning the 12 days of Christmas. We experience Advent, perhaps, where we anticipate Christ's birth 28 days prior to Christ's Mass, but then it abruptly ends.

We celebrate a secular New Year's Day a week later, and then it's back to the daily grind. Well, not so in the Eastern Orthodox Churches consider this tradition. Unlike we in the West, the East makes a sacred celebration of Christ from his birth on December 25 to the Epiphany 12 days later on January 6, ostensibly the day when the Magi appeared to worship this newborn king. That's when Christmas ends in the East, at least. In between, there are 12 feast days when a whole spectrum of spiritual moments are celebrated.

How much is revealed about Christ in these 12 feast days? For example, December 26 is the feast day of St. Stephen, which was a traditional day for giving from the abundance of Christmas to the poor. If you know the hymn, Good King Wenceslas, you know the entire point of the hymn is that the king, on the feast day of St. Stephen, spies a poor man come in sight, gathering winter fuel as the hymn goes, and he orders his page, Bring me flesh and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither. Thou and I will see him dine when we bear him hither. It was a feast day for St. Stephen, December 26.

The first deacon of the church in Acts was St. Stephen. Deacons traditionally make provision for the poor out of the treasury of the church. And so, this day is set aside to lavish a king's abundance on those less fortunate. So, you do this as well, dear Christian. Go to the soup kitchen and bring steaks.

Go to the city of refuge and replenish their store of turkeys and beef. See that those less fortunate than you enjoy a king's banquet, even as good King Wenceslas provided for that poor man and his family. Well, another feast day, December 27 in the 12 days of Christmas is a feast day for St. John, who was the only one of the 12 disciples of the apostles who did not die a martyr's death, but a natural death. A mass is said for him, St. John, the disciple who wrote of the incarnation of Jesus, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Well, December 28 is the feast day in the 12 days of Christmas, the feast day of the holy innocence, when a mass is said for the children murdered by Herod, the monster who tried to sweep up the newborn baby Jesus in his dragnet of holocaust. Well, these babes slaughtered on this feast day were not martyrs like Stephen who died heroically in a vision of the glorified Christ. No, they were not heroes like the apostles who died consciously witnessing to the risen Christ. No, rather the church asserts that the innocents died for Christ nevertheless, because they died unjustly before they had a chance to know or to will for themselves.

In celebrating the holy innocence, we also remember the victims of other innocent slaughters like children of abortion, or children of war, or children who die of parental abuse. All these are holy innocents as well in the eyes of the church. Each feast day has its own aspect of Christmas that highlights a singular feature for Christians to remember the 12 days of Christmas. It's not just gifts given by my true love, like maids milking golden rings or partridges in a pear tree. No, the 12 days of Christmas are much, much more.

Even Epiphany celebrates not only the day on which the wise men arrived to worship the newborn king, but also the day on which the gospel has begun to be proclaimed, Christ's manifestation to the nations, symbolized in these pagan Gentile kings, the Magi, who now have their Savior revealed to them. So, the 12 days of Christmas is so much more than a Christmas carol about exotic gifts given me by my true love. It is more about the good gifts of God to his people through his Son, Jesus the Christ.

Well, another random reflection that I have on Christmas is that I find surprises many people is that the genealogy in Matthew is an integral part of the Christmas story. Now, what, you may say? Come on, pastor, no boring list of names can be part of the wondrous story of Christ's nativity, can it? Well, name me one Christmas carol about the genealogy, huh? I've seen plenty of dramatizations about the holy family who found no room at the inn, retired to the manger, or shepherds who tended their flocks by night, visited by singing angels, even Herod killing the infants of Bethlehem.

Hymns about these, but I've never seen a Cecil B. DeMille or Steven Spielberg dramatization of Jesus' genealogy. It's an oxymoron. A genealogy cannot by definition be dramatic, can it? But any self-respecting Jew of the first century would shake his head in disbelief at you. This kind of attitude, and he would ask you why you could, on the one hand, say you relied on the Bible for truth, while on the other hand, dismissing genealogies.

Genealogies were utterly necessary to the life of a young baby for several reasons, let me give you the two of them. Well, genealogy was necessary to the life of a young baby because a child's genealogy established his chosen status. Are you a Jew or a Gentile? Even today, a Jew is not a Jew unless he can establish his lineage via his parents, and genealogies help establish this. Secondly, the promised Messiah would descend from Abraham and David.

This is why genealogies are important as well in tracking the Messiah. The promised Messiah would descend from Abraham and David. The covenants which God cut with Abraham and David both promised that the Savior of mankind would descend from their line. To Abraham, he said, in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. And to David, he promised, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

That is Christ's kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish his throne of his kingdom forever. Unquote. Therefore, when the Messiah appeared, he would have to establish his lineage right out of the gate. No Jew worth his salt would expect anything less, especially those responsible for authenticating these things.

Dear listener, it is difficult for us Gentiles on this side of Christmas to comprehend the primacy of Christ's genealogy to first-century Jews, but it was there. Consequently, can you understand the importance of Jesus' birth narrative beginning with these words, the first words of the New Testament, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Unquote. Few people realize that the nativity actually begins with a genealogy. Turn to Matthew chapter 1.

You will find that the birth narrative of Jesus begins not with angels or shepherds or Joseph and Mary, but with a dry, boring, and trivial to us anyway, genealogy. But it would not have been thus for its first-century audience, Jews who expected the Messiah's credentials to be authenticated before anything else was said about him. The genealogy in Matthew does precisely this. It is entirely fitting to begin the birth narrative with the genealogy of Jesus. The third important point about the genealogy is that Christ's genealogy gathers up all of fallen humanity.

Read through the names in the genealogy and then look into their histories. There are actually some very poignant moments of drama in the genealogy, if you know your Old Testament. So many people do not know their Old Testaments, however. How many of you know, for example, that Jesus is a descendant of incest and prostitution? Yes, by way of Judah and Tamar.

Go over the story in Genesis. Jesus stands in the line of Perez, son of Tamar, who connived and cajoled her father-in-law Judah to bear her a son by posing as a prostitute. Jesus is also descended to Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho, and what is more, Solomon, the son of David's adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. So if you read the genealogy of our Savior carefully, you notice that there's a lot of saving to do. The next time you pick up Matthew and begin to read, do not skip over the genealogy with which he begins his narrative.

The genealogy is integral to his story of salvation by grace. Finally, we'd be remiss to neglect the history of Santa Claus, if we're talking about Christmas. He's really a pale image, though. Our notion of Santa Claus is really a pale image of the real Saint Claus or Saint Nicholas. What a contrast between the legend and the reality, dear listener.

The story of the true Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the 3rd century in the village of Patara. At the time, the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, Saint Nicholas, who raised him to be a devout Christian. His parents died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to sell what you own and give the money to the poor, Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy and the sick and the suffering.

He dedicated his life to serving God and was made bishop of Myra in Asia Minor while he was still a young man. So then Bishop Nicholas went on. He became known throughout the land for his generosity to those in need. He became known for his love for children, and he became known for his concern for sailors and ships, too. Now, under the Roman emperor Diocletian, who ruthlessly persecuted Christians, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, too, and was exiled and imprisoned.

But after his release, Nicholas attended also the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. And he died on December 6, 343 in Myra, and he was buried in his cathedral church. Now, one story of Saint Nicholas tells of a poor man with three daughters. Now, in those days, a young woman's father had to offer prospective husband something of a value, that is a dowry. This large dowry, the larger the dowry, the better the chance that a woman had in finding a good husband.

But without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughter, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. But mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home, providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold tossed through an open window are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left behind the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas.

Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That's why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus. And so Saint Nicholas comes down to us as a gift giver. So, dear listener, banish the notion of the cartoon character, Santa Claus, that's come to take the place of the real Saint Nicholas. He would weep, Saint Nicholas would, if he saw today what has been made of him.

What a caricature. Saint Nicholas is not a clown character dressed in a red suit with a fluffy white beard and black boots. No, Bishop Nicholas indeed loved children deeply, cared for them in an age when infant mortality hovered somewhere around 20 percent, and disease and poverty characterized childhood all over Europe and Asia. Oh, Saint Nicholas did anonymously leave food and clothing and gifts for children and their families. Saint Nicholas did not slide down chimneys and leave a room full of toys for kids.

The good bishop ministered to children in a disciplined fashion all year round. He didn't work year round at the North Pole with an army of elves in order to disgorge an avalanche of toys in one night, Christmas Eve, in an orgy of consumerism. That's not Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas followed the example of Jesus, Christ, and did all in Christ's name. Saint Nicholas was not the secular, godless, cardboard cutout that our society makes him out to be.

Remember this then, dear listener. Teach this example to your children. Follow the lead of the good Bishop Nicholas, not that of the cardboard cutout, the consumeristic, secular, pagan fantasy of Santa Claus. No. Finally, my last random reflection, if you will, on Christmas.

Why is this season anticipating Christmas called Advent? Yes, the season prior to Christmas Day itself is often called Advent, which means a coming or arrival. Because, indeed, this season looks forward the 28 days before Christmas, looks forward to the first arrival of Jesus Christ into the world that he made, the first arrival. But savvy Christians also know that Christmas anticipates his second Advent, too, when he returns to redeem his own, and to renew a fallen creation, and then finally to judge the wicked. Christ will have a second Advent, as well as a first Advent.

Now, the Lutheran Church has long recognized this facet of Christmas, and they do so on the third Sunday in Advent. On the third Sunday in Advent, they have this prayer, and I love this prayer. This is from the Lutheran Book of Worship, and that prayer goes, Almighty God, you once called John the Baptist, to give witness to the coming of your Son, and to prepare his way. Grant us, your people, the wisdom to see your purpose today, and the openness to hear your will, that we may witness to Christ's coming, and so prepare his way, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

That's from the Lutheran Book of Worship, and that's meant to be prayed by the people on the third Sunday in Advent. But indeed, it witnesses, if you will, the second coming of Christ, his second Advent. That, too, is anticipated when we anticipate his first Advent, that is, his birth on Christmas. So, know this, at every Christmas, dear listener, Christ's first Advent is only half a story. Use this Christmas season to anticipate his second Advent, too.

Be prepared. Put on the whole armor of God. Put your faith in this Christ now, for all of the work of salvation that he accomplished at his first Advent, and the completion of that work of salvation, complete redemption for us, his people, at his second Advent, when he comes again. Even as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, we've been touching on this, there's only one rapture. There's one rapture when Christ returns at the end of time to wrap all things up, not a pre-trib rapture.

But indeed, 1 Corinthians chapter 4 says this about Christ's last and final rapture of his coming for the saints when we will be gathered to him in the air. He says this, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Christ's second Advent, dear listener.

His first Advent here as we celebrate the Christmas season, as we look forward to friends and family and time together with them, and we celebrate Christ's first Advent when he accomplished the claims of redemption and accomplished our soul's redemption. We'll return again at the second Advent to redeem our bodies and all of creation. May this bless you during this Christmas time, dear listener. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.