Sunday Morning Reflection—6 December, 2014 Each year Christmas season poses challenges for me. One is working through the pomp of the season to embrace the meaning of the season. Another is dealing with the pain of the season to embrace the joy it brings. A third now is working to better understand Christmas as a universal day of celebration throughout worldwide Christianity. But this stage, I do not know whether Christmas is celebrated by worldwide Christianity. A number of nations with Christian churches come to mind. Take Sierra Leone, for instance, where the IGCS is getting daily updates on the Ebola crisis from Rev. Sahr Paul James in Freetown. Do Christians in Sierra Leone celebrate a Christmas holiday? If so, how? Or take Myanmar (Burma). The IGCS posts regular reports from The Free Burma Rangers, but I would like to know whether the Christians there celebrate Christmas, and if so, how? What about the persecuted Church in the Middle East and north Africa? I wonder if what is left of the Christian populations in Iraq and Syria are celebrating Christmas this year in their dire conditions. More than ever I long for a member of the IGCS from one of these churches that could report to us, or for anyone that knew of any such celebrations to tell us about them. No doubt in Christmas card fashion the USA media will send a reporter to Bethlehem at some point during this season. But I would like to see a reporter sent to the Christians of Palestine to report from there…assuming they celebrate the day. I do not know. I assume that Europe celebrates the season much like we do in the USA, but here too what I do not know vastly exceeds the configurations of my imagination. We have at least two new members from Germany, and several from other nations. One member from Ukraine, that recently got cut off in the middle of a “chat”, might read this and tell us what is happening there this season. So I am hoping, praying and asking the members of the IGCS from around the world—each one of you—to post something about Christmas where you live. You may not celebrate it at all. Perhaps you regard it as a pagan or papist practice. Even so, can we hear from you?
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 12:44:12 +0000
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