QUARANTINE BLOG # 269

December 24, 2020

Until Isaac Watts came along, most of the singing in British churches was from the Psalms of David.  As a young man in Southampton, Isaac had become dissatisfied with the quality of singing, and he keenly felt the limitations of being able to only sing these psalms.  So he “invented” the English hymn.

He did not, however, neglect the Psalms.  In 1719, he published a unique hymnal – one in which he had translated, interpreted, and paraphrased the Old Testament Psalms through the eyes of New Testament faith.  He called it simply The Psalm of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament.  Taking various psalms, he studied them from the perspective of Jesus and the New Testament, and then formed them into verses for singing.

“I have rather expressed myself as I may suppose David would have done if he lived in the days of Christianity,” Watts explained.

“Joy to the World!” is Isaac Watts’s interpretation of Psalm 98, which says, “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.”  As he read Psalm 98, Isaac pondered the real reason for shouting joyfully to the Lord – the Messiah has come to redeem us.  The result was a timeless carol that has brightened our Christmases for nearly three hundred years.

👉  I listened to videos for over two hours: solos, choirs, instrumental, acapella, grade schoolers, the Muppets, and more before choosing Celtic Woman to offer “Joy to the World!”

👉  Here's Garfield for the season:

👉  For the Fourth Thursday in Advent.

Where Did We Lose Christ?

Let’s begin with a definite maybe.  It is unlikely that Jesus was born on December 25.  The Bible says that the night he was born, shepherds were in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks.  Shepherds traditionally took their flocks to the fields in early spring and returned around mid-November.

Let’s add another fact, only rarely disputed.  The Christian Church co-opted pagan celebrations which occurred during the late winter seasons.  Wanting a vehicle through which to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they attached the birth celebrations of the Savior to observances that were already in effect.

Now, let me make one more statement, very rarely disputed.  Whenever Jesus was born, and whatever the reasons for celebrating on December 25, that celebration was to honor the birth of God’s only Son.  We used to call it “Christmas,” and celebrated the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth.  Now it’s just “the holidays.”

A decade ago – this piece was originally published December 15, 2004 – the New Jersey Supreme Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals declared that holiday exhibits are allowed, in that state, if a “reasonable observer” would not mistake them for a “religious endorsement.”

A religious endorsement?  Debate the appropriateness of December 25 as the anniversary of Jesus’ birth if you will.  Debate whether or not modern celebrations still resemble, in any fashion whatsoever, a celebration of that birth.  But somewhere under all of the shopping, decorations, caroling and the general ill-will towards men engendered when that knot-head in line in front of you beats you to the last “gotta-have” toy, ask yourself: Wasn’t Christmas originally a religious celebration, religiously endorsed?

New Jersey has more problems.  In Hillsborough, you can no longer celebrate St. Valentine’s Day.  It is now “Special Person Day.”

It is another holy day, but in East Lansing, Michigan, the Easter Bunny has, for several years, been called “The Special Bunny.”  What a rabbit delivering colored chicken eggs has to do with the Resurrection of the Savior escapes logic.

Yuletide, holiday season, the holidays, and “this special season” all are bandied about by advertisers as the reason to shop, spend, and run up enormous credit card debt, mortgaging the future for the greed of today.  Quickly now, what was the last commercial you heard which actually used the word “Christ” in it? “Christ” as in “Christmas.”  I haven’t heard one in years.  Those produced by churches do not count – you expect the home team to have its own cheerleaders.

Jim Brown, writing for AgapePress says that Spring Grove Elementary School, in Chicago, “recently staged a holiday program that celebrated Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, but excluded references to Christ and the Christmas Story.  School officials claim the multicultural concert, which also included references to Santa, was designed to be more inclusive of all holiday traditions and cultures.”

And so to be more inclusive, the founder of Christianity, the Reason for the Season, had his birthday excluded.  I’ve said it often – the inmates are in charge of the asylum!

Jeff Parker, cartoonist for Florida Today, suggests a new appellation: “Merry mall-driven, competitive-present swapping, overindulgent-consumerism, winter holiday.”

The office of the governor of Georgia got caught in the politically correctness which has crossed Christ out of Christmas.  At 12:10 p.m. on December 2, 2004, the governor’s office of communications released a note saying, “Governor and First Lady to Light Holiday Tree at the Mansion.”  Fourteen minutes later, after someone convinced someone else, that it still is all about Jesus, the press office released another missive: “Governor and First Lady to Light Mansion Christmas Tree.”

Understand that as a believer in Jesus, I accept him as divine, as the only begotten Son of Almighty God.  Therefore, it is hardly the same thing – the birthday of God’s Son as compared with the birthday of a human being – but I wonder if it would be permissible to call the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday “Civil Rights Day?”

Before you look for the tar and feathers, I mean no disrespect to the memory of Dr. King.  I just wonder why it is now correct and acceptable and seemingly mandatory to disrespect and to forget and to otherwise eliminate Jesus Christ the Lord.

Christmas without Christ.  It may sell the 👉Xbox Series X, DVDs, sweaters, perfume, and diamonds, but when the wrappings are all shredded, the presents are scattered or returned and the bills are due, if you do not have Jesus, all you have is one more empty day.  And 364 of those are quite enough for one year.

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