Given By Rev. Madison Shockley December 30, 2018
The secular Christmas and the religious Christmas have very different calendars. The secular Christmas starts right after Halloween while the religious Christmas starts on Christmas day. The Advent season prepares us spiritually for the arrival of Jesus but is not the actual Christmas season. As soon as the secular Christmas day is over, everything is put away for next year. Religious Christmas season goes from Christmas day until Epiphany, 12 days later. Rev. Shockley reminds us, in our haste to pack up the secular part of Christmas, to not throw the Baby Jesus out with the wrapping paper. The secular culture is infatuated with the baby Jesus but have no use for the adult Jesus. This Jesus can’t walk or talk or challenge them in any way. For people of faith, baby Jesus is just the beginning. Jesus grows just as our faith needs to grow and expand. We need to go beyond Sunday School lessons. We need a faith that challenges our assumptions, turns conventional thought on its ear, and test our courage. It must inspire us and make us think. We don’t need a baby faith but a big strong adult faith.
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