What Is Our Response?

As Christmas approaches we will attend parties, listen to special music and hear stirring messages about the birth of Christ.  We will become nostalgic as we remember favorite Christmas memories.  We will see old friends and family members for perhaps the first time in years and we will celebrate.  We will celebrate the coming of the Savior!  I would like to pose the question, "To what end is our celebration?"  Any celebration, especially this one, should elicit a response.  What is our response?  Are we merely entertained by a sweet story from our youth?  Are we inspired to give to those less fortunate?  Do we focus on gifts to loved ones to express our love?  Do we watch the sales figures to determine if the economy is in recovery?  None of these responses are in and of themselves wrong, but if that is the depth of our response we have failed to grasp the magnitude of the celebration or the import of question.

Rather than cite the familiar Christmas Story from Luke, I will remind us of a passage from the Old Testament. Micah 5:2 states,

"Bethlehem Ephrathah,
you are small among the clans of Judah;
One will come from you to be ruler over Israel for Me.
His origin is from antiquity, from eternity"

The coming of the Messiah was foretold throughout the Old Testament with the fulfillment coming in the Christmas Story we will listen to over and over again this year.  We ask the question, "How could the Jews have missed the Messiah they sought?"  The short answer is that not all of them did.  But the more pertinent question is, "Have we missed the Savior we celebrate?"  What is our response?

I read a story about Abraham Lincoln recently.  Reportedly he would attend a local Washington church quite often and would sit in a room adjacent to the main sanctuary where he could listen to the sermon without distracting the congregation.  After one such visit he was asked by an advisor if the message was effective.  Lincoln responded, "The message was Biblically sound and well delivered, but was a total failure because it failed to challenge the congregation."  Is that our response to the celebration of Christmas?  Are we sound, safe, sweet, entertained,  but left unchallenged and unchanged?  What is our response?

This Christmas I choose to challenge myself and professing followers of Christ.  The first challenge is to understand what we believe expertly.  The second challenge is to activate those beliefs into convictions.  The third challenge is to turn convictions into actions.  And the fourth challenge is to remove any obstacle that prevent us from accomplishing the first three.  I pray that Christians will join me in transforming the members of the Body of Christ, so that we may be adequate ambassadors of the Savior we celebrate this time of year.


I will elaborate on these challenges in the next posting.


Tolstoy said, "Everyone wants to change the world, but no one wants to change themselves."  Let's change the world!