Well, regardless, as Pr. Henrickson preaches, we should not be surprised or
overly concerned that the world has a war on Christmas. It is in keeping
with the persecution about which our dear Lord repeatedly exhorts us and for
which He prepares us--particularly in His Holy Supper.
What is more distressing and destructive is the war on Christ within what
passes for Christendom, and sadly even Lutherdom, today. Paul's "chief of
sinners" reference is the truth behind the oft cited Pogo caption, "We have
met the enemy and he is us."
It is not just that people are staying home with family and despising the
means of grace on Christmas. It is that these people are doing so because of
a despising of the mans of grace within the practice of the church itself.
Of course this is a curse and a gfight that has been going on within the
church since the beginning. It is what brought on the Reformation.
It is no wonder when the means of man repeatedly replace God's means of
grace as the center of church practice.
The one true Christian faith does not begin with Christmas. It begins with
Jesus the Christ, the only begotten Son of the living God--and that from all
eternity.
As terrible as the world's war against Christmas may be, there is something
far worse. All the fuss within "Christendom" from the high profile
tele-evangelists and book and program hawkers and our "Lutheran" leaders and
pastors who emulate them, though they bemoan and castigate those evil
Christmas haters, do more to destroy the meaning of Christmas within the
church than anything the world can throw at us.
Remember last year's debacle coming from an LCMS pastor,
"cuzchristmasisnotmy birthday?" This PR campaign, including a video
published on the worldwide web, had a pastor playing the part of a morose
and sarcastic Jesus complaining that no one came to his birthday party. Part
of the schtick was an utter blasphemy of the Words of Institution.
With this kind of stuff not only permitted, but promoted and funded by
Synod, is it a great and mighty wonder what Christmas has become among us?
Rev. Kurt Hering
Layton, UT
". . . the Lord will have no flatterer as a preacher. he does not say: Go
around the village,or to the one side of it: Go in bravely and tell them
what they do not like to hear." -- Martin Luther in an Advent I sermon
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