A Christmas Acronym

In light of what we know of Jesus’ first advent – specifically WHY Jesus came to us in the first place – I want to use the word CHRISTMAS as an acronym – each letter of the word serving as a springboard to the meaning we can derive from that first advent in a Bethlehem manger.

We start with the letter ‘C’ that stands for the phrase: Come to Jesus. 

Jesus came to rescue sinners – you and me –  to redeem us from the grip of the devil. But just because Jesus CAME to do that job, His work is useless unless sinners – you and I – seal the deal. Listen to what the Lord said in Matthew’s gospel: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. TAKE MY YOKE upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11).

How do we seal that deal?  How does a person come to Jesus? Let me tell you how I did it: I came to Jesus 47 years ago on Christmas Day by telling God I repented of my many sins, I asked His forgiveness of those sins, and then followed His commandment to be baptized. And so, my initial and ongoing confession of sins and subsequent obedience to Him is what sealed the deal for me. 

Which brings me to the ‘H’ in Christmas. For me, that letter reminds me of the hope of eternal life.

Hope, as I have shared many times in the past, hope in the NT is not like hope in the way we use the word today. I hope it won’t rain on New Year’s Eve next week– but we know it might rain. The word hope, as translated from the Greek, is best translated as a ‘confident expectation.’  In other words, what we hope for WILL happen. 

I am amazed by how many Christians – children of God through their baptismal faith and ongoing obedience to Him have a ‘maybe-it-will-happen’ hope about their eternal salvation.  If you ask them the question, “If you died today, will you spend eternity with God?”  They will answer, “I hope so.”

But why is that when Scripture gives them the right to say, “Yes. I know so”? As St. Paul wrote to Titus: “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved [past tense] us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured [past tense] out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified [past tense] by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope (e.g. the confident expectation) of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7) 

Or this word by the apostle John: (1 John 5:11-13) “And the testimony is this, that God has given us [past tense] eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” 

Christmas means God gives eternal life to everyone who wants it badly enough to follow Jesus. It’s really not that hard to understand.

Which brings us to the R in Christmas. The letter reminds me of the resurrection of Jesus. Joined to the gift of Jesus in Bethlehem is the gift of the crucifixion at Calvary where Jesus paid the penalty your sins and mine deserve.  That’s why God told us 700 years earlier through the prophet Isaiah: “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” (Isaiah 53:5-6) 

Christ’s death purchased our redemption, but it is His resurrection from the dead that “caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3) 

Therefore it is little wonder the devil and his willing servants have tried to denigrate and deny the supernatural resurrection of our Lord. 

Which brings us to the letter ‘I’ in Christmas.  In light of God’s gift to me, the ‘I’ reminds me to ask myself, “How then ought I to live”? Many of you will recognize this hymn. The lyrics are part of my answer:

I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,

And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith
And be closer drawn to Thee.

Draw me nearer, nearer blessèd Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessèd Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.

The next letter in Christmas is ‘S’   I think of the word Solace. For many people, Christmas is a joyous time of family and friends. But for many others, Christmas is a time of sadness. Loneliness. 

Christmas is a time to remember God remembers your loss. And your sorrow. It is a time to remember with assurance that God remembers YOU. I hope this hymn will be of comfort:

Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain . . ..

Be still, my soul, though dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in the vale of tears;
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrows and thy fears.
Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repay
From His own fulness all He takes away. 

Next we come to the letter T, which reminds me of Thankfulness. Do you remember this once-popular song of encouragement? “When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.” 

“Count your blessings, name them one by one; Count your blessings, see what God hath done; Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.” 

It is unlikely we will be able to recall all that God has done for us unless we get alone and quiet with Him. Please take the time this Christmas season to do so. Bring a pen and a pad of paper, and let the Holy Spirit take you on a remembrance tour. You may be surprised to remember the so many things for which you can be thankful to the Lord – and not just for the mountaintop experiences, but also for the valleys. It is often in those valleys that we learn the most about our Father’s relationship with us.

‘M’ is the next letter in Christmas. With that letter we should never think of Christmas without thinking of the mother of Jesus – Mary. Why did God choose Mary to mother His Son? We really don’t know the full answer to that question. But here are a few reasons to consider: 

Mary demonstrated great humility before God. It was in humility Mary said to Gabriel: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” The Greek word used here for ‘handmaid’ carries the idea of being a slave to God.

At the same time, Mary demonstrated obedience to God despite what that obedience could cost her. In Israel’s first century culture, unwed pregnancy was a capital offense punishable by stoning. Mary, knowing her pregnancy would cost her betrothal to Joseph, her reputation, and perhaps even her life, nevertheless laid herself at God’s feet and told the angel, “Let it be done to me according to your word.”

Finally (if there is a final thing we can say about Jesus’ mother), Mary loved the Scriptures. In an era when Israelite culture didn’t consider it a priority to teach girls the Scripture, it is clear Mary read and memorized God’s word. Her adoration of God (Luke 1:46-55) is an example. In those short ten verses of her Magnificat, Mary quoted or alluded to at least six Old Testament texts. (1 Samuel 2:1-10, Psalm 34:2, Psalm 35:9, Psalm 98:1, Psalm 103:17, Psalm 107:9).

Now the letter ‘A’ – For His gift to us 2000 years ago, I try to live according to the theme of this song: 

All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

What does ‘all’ mean?  All my hopes, my desires, my expectations, my joys, my sorrows, my losses, my failures, my successes . . .  All to Jesus, I surrender to His will, to His perfect plan for my life. 

And finally, we come to the last letter, ‘S’ in Christmas. In this letter I see the concept of Service. 

Christmas is not so much a time as GETTING as it is in GIVING. “God so loved the world that He GAVE us His Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life.” 

Anyone who’s lived as long as we have knows the joy of giving gifts to another – to see their eyes sparkle because you remembered them. And I am not talking only of family and friends now. What about those less fortunate than many of us? There are so many needs out there – how can we hope to meet them all?  

We cannot meet them. But there are organizations that combine five dollars here and ten dollars there that help hundreds, even thousands of needy people. Nancy and I support a variety of Christian organizations that minister to the physical and spiritual needs of children and adults who live in such poverty as we could only imagine. 

Christmas is a time we can do at least nine things: 1. Come to Jesus in humility and in thankfulness; 2. Live a life of Hope – a life of confident expectation before Him and others; 3. Remember the resurrection of Jesus because His resurrection assures us that we also will rise from the dead; 4. Remember also that it is In Christ alone that we are complete; 5. Remember that Jesus alone is our eternal Solace; 6. Remember to Thank God for His goodness toward us; 7. Learn to better imitate Mary the mother of Jesus; 8. Strive to surrender All to Jesus; and 9, to recommit ourselves to Service in Christ’s name to others. 

Merry Christmas to you and yours, and a blessed 2020.