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Yesterday, being the Sunday before Christmas (if Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter, is the Sunday before Christmas “Noble Fir Sunday?”), we discussed The Christmas Gospel in our Sunday School class. We were actually discussing the True Gospel, studying John chapter 3, and, being it’s Christmas, my lovely and talented wife thought of playing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (the Springsteen version), then comparing the 2.

If you’ve forgotten the song, here are some of the lyrics:

He’s making a list and checking it twice
Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice,
Santa Claus is coming to town.

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake.
He knows if you’ve been bad or good,
So be good for goodness’ sake.

Most of the class (7th through 12th grade) could spot the obvious similarities as well as knew that John 3:16 leaves out any mention of lists or being good. However, there was a hesitancy - as there is in most of us - to completely accept the concept that our being “naughty or nice” has no bearing on the gift of eternal life. We are all so conditioned by the world (and by bad church teachings) to believe that what we receive is somehow tied to our performance - whether we “measure up” to God’s standards - that the Gospel seems too good to be true.

I told the class that the fact that none of us are good enough is the Good News; I already know that I’d be a regular on the naughty list, and only by the grace of God would I ever make the nice list. We know, however, that God doesn’t keep such lists. That’s good news, too. The only list I know of is the one in the Book of Life - which is based on grace, not by works (lest any of us should boast).

What was sad was that toward the end of the class my 10 year old daughter came into class, and after class broke into tears. You see, in her class, the teacher apparently didn’t know the gospel herself, and was teaching that they had to ask forgiveness for each and every sin they had committed in order to be forgiven. One child, from a non-Christian home, had prayed something like, “forgive me for all of my sins” and the teacher had told him, “that’s not good enough.” Can you believe this?

Thankfully my daughter heard the end of our lesson on God’s grace, and that Jesus is not like Santa Claus. However, she was truly traumatized by this heretical Sunday School lesson, and it took some more processing later on to really clear up the issues.

But what about the other children? What about the children from non-Christian families? What kind of a gospel do they now believe? This is one of the reasons that I have been very wary of letting my kids go to Sunday School - I can “fix” the problems I know about, but I can’t rehash every week’s lesson. But, that’s another issue for another time.

The Good News this Christmas is that for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him (so simple, isn’t it?) will not perish, but will have eternal life. No lists, no lumps of coal, no condemnation.

Merry Christmas!

I could write about politics again, but today I’ll write about Christmas. First, let me say that I generally don’t like to mix my faith with my holidays. True, that’s somewhat oxymoronic, seeing that “holiday” is morphed from “holy day,” and Christmas is, of course, “Christ’s mass.” I, of course, don’t mind that the story of Jesus’ birth is central to the holiday.

In spite of the various non-Christian traditions that have become part of the holiday and the materialistic obsessions that make it so attractive to the secular world, Christmas is unarguably, unavoidably, and essentially a Christian celebration. I tend to agree with John Gibson that there seems to be a “war on Christmas,” at least as to its Christian roots. It’s not the holiday, per se, it’s just that “men loved the darkness rather than the light.”

So, on one hand, I tend to be almost militant concerning the Christian essence of the Christmas holiday, in spite of my prior assertion that I don’t like to mix my faith with my holidays. I do not deny that I am at times a conflicted individual, as much as I try to be consistent about what I believe; however, I don’t think this is a conflict as much as it is a matter of scope.

On the broad scope, Christmas, along with Santa & the whole deal, is fundamentally about Jesus’ birth. “Happy Holidays,” to me, means Christmas & New Year’s Day. They’re the only 2 holidays I celebrate at this time of year.

However, on a more personal level, I see nothing spiritually significant about the day. I realize that he probably wasn’t born in December, and there’s no mention of snow anywhere in the Gospels that I can see. I do not feel any need to read the Christmas story (Linus does such a good job, I see no reason to attempt to top it) on Christmas day, or force my kids to do anything spiritual before opening gifts.

You see, Jesus is already an integral part of our lives. We can’t be any more “spiritual” on Christmas day than on Halloween (yeah, we trick or treat, too…). I appreciate the fact that Christianity is the reason Christmas is such a big deal, but it seems to me that to try to be more spiritual on Christmas would just be hypocritical. So, we don’t try to be.

Paul says in Romans 14:5, “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” So, I don’t fault those who find some special significance in Christmas, but I feel free to just enjoy all of the trappings of Christmas, as self-indulgent as they are.

This year, as most of us have realized by now, Christmas day is on Sunday, and a few churches such as Willowcreek have cancelled services so people can spend time with their families. This move has caused some debate, as you would expect (I’m not going to weigh in on this one - surprised?). Our church is having an abbreviated service, and I haven’t decided if I will go or not.

So, the true meaning of Christmas? Certainly, you can’t ignore its Christian foundation, but other than that, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”

The great liberal cry is now, “Define victory, define victory!” Last night on Hannity & Colmes, this was the only intelligible thing Alan Colmes could say to Newt Gingrich. He said it as though this was the key to Bush’s destruction.

Give me a break. Why, now, are liberals all of a sudden concerned about definitions? Clinton couldn’t even define “is,” and no one even bothered to ask him about it.

It would, perhaps, help if the loudmouths on the left would take a few minutes and actually listen. Or perhaps read. Thinking would also be a worthwhile pastime.

Today, estimates are that over 70% of Iraq’s registered voters - about 11 million people - turned out to vote in the parliamentary election, with minimal violence. The Sunnis, who boycotted the first election, turned out in such large numbers that they ran out of ballots in some places, and voting hours were extended due to the long lines of people still waiting to vote. By the way, I don’t think the U.S. has ever had such a turnout for a national election. (It’s amazing to me that the Iraqis, most of whom don’t really understand democracy yet, seem to care more about it than many Americans. About half of Americans don’t bother to vote, even without the threat of violence.)

Amazing, by any stretch of the imagination. I would call this a success. I would even go so far as to call this a “victory.”

Now, compare this to the start of America’s government. Anyone know how long it was before we had a constitution? We have this crazy notion that our founding fathers all loved each other, and agreed on everything, and that our constitution was welcomed with open arms. It’s not true, you know. My son, who just finished reading a biography of Alexander Hamilton, remarked that the founding fathers “were all jerks.” America, indeed, has had its share of rough spots in becoming a democracy.

The election today is a victory, and even the liberal press has to admit it (though they will refuse to use the word). I’m sure there will be more rough spots ahead for Iraq, but that doesn’t diminish what has been accomplished today.