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Friends United Meeting |
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December 2003
Reader's Response:
"How Do You Keep Christ in Christmas?"
"How Do You Keep Christ in Christmas?"
This was the question posed in the September issue of Quaker Life for our first "Reader's Response" column. The following offerings respond to the question. I hope you readers will read the "Reader's Response" questions in each issue and send your ideas and thoughts to Quaker Life. It is one more way to make this your magazine and equip us all to grow stronger in the Spirit. May Christ be at the center of your Christmas celebrations this year!
Trish Edwards-Konic, Editor
A High Priest Who Meets Our Needs
Such a high priest meets our needs — one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Hebrews 7:26
One of the delights of December has been to reflect again on the tremendous work that God has done for us through Christ. This is the month we celebrate Christ's coming. The celebration intensifies when we hone in on why Jesus came. Hebrews was written to Christians who were under great pressure to dumb down their faith. SomeÊhad faced severe persecution (see 10:32Ð34), including public insult and confiscation of property.
Historic evidence shows that Hebrews addresses a time when Christianity was becoming distinct from its Judaic roots and as a consequence was losing the blessing of the empire. In the face of opposition the author reminded the readers on several occasions to not throw away their confidence in Jesus Christ (see 3:6,14 and 10:35).
The reason for hanging on was simple. They had in Jesus a high priest that met their needs. When we hear about Jesus meeting needs our minds often drift to the temporal and material — time and stuff. But thinking on this levelÊmisses the authors' point.ÊÊIt is to shoot at the outer ring of the target. The author goes for the bull's eye. Jesus came to walk in our world, to face down our temptations and to become the sacrifice that cleanses people from sin. It was the sacrifice that opened the way to fulfill the great prophetic vision from Jeremiah, This is the covenant I will make... I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. (8:10)
What is left to be said? Merry Christmas.
Alan Weinacht
Muncie, Indiana
The Gift of Christmas
...by talking about the right way to open presents. You see, there's a right way, and a wrong way to approach our gifts. The wrong way is to tear through them, to open them all as quickly as possible, to rip open one toy and demand to be given the next. And then, when you're all finished, you get cranky, and you sit and veg out in front of the TV for the rest of the day.
That's one wrong way to open your presents. Another wrong way is to concentrate on all of the unimportant things, like disposing of the wrapping paper instead of enjoying the moment or getting everybody lined up for the pictures or making sure that all of the names get taken down neatly for the thank-you notes. If you do that, you miss a lot of the fun.
The right way, as I'm sure everybody knows, but as we so often forget, is to take our time. The right way to open presents is to open them slowly.
In our family, we only open one gift at a time. Each person gets to take a turn opening a gift. After it's opened, they get a minute to enjoy it, and try it, and handle it. Then, each gift gets passed around so that everyone has a chance to look at it for themselves.
The youngest ones take turns passing out the gifts, so that they get to share in the pleasure of giving them. Every gift is handed out by a little child. And as we open the gifts, we talk about other Christmases, so that there's a link made between the joys we've had in the past, and the joy we're having now, and the joys we'll have one day in the future. Nobody watches the clock. There's no hurry about it. There's only joy.
And when the gifts are all opened, there's all the time in the world to play with them, and take pleasure in them, and share them again. And it's like that, all day long.
That's the right way to open your presents. And maybe that does have something to do with what I want to say about Christmas. I wish that we could slow down our pace just a little, and take time to enjoy it all more. Because I think it's supposed to be that way, all year.
Joshua Brown
Richmond, Indiana
(Reprinted by permission from What Does An Angel Look Like? By Joshua Brown, Good Read Press, 2001, from Chapter IV.)
Copyright (c) 2003 Friends United Meeting
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