The emotional explosion into song experienced by Mary, Zachariah, the Angels, and Simeon is a difficult thing for our modern minds to comprehend. We don’t do it personally because we watch it too much in the movies and on Television. We have so many stories in our culture. We have a multitude of images dancing in our heads (not just sugar plums) that our histories and lives are confused at times. We can’t focus! We have learned how not to be too personally invested in the explosions of emotions we see in the media. We can enjoy, vicariously, the experiences on the big screens, but we don’t personally comprehend the emotions being expressed. We like to watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers burst out in song and dance. We like to see John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John do it. We like to see the Fiddler on the Roof do it. (Teyve passed away recently). We like Gene Kelly swinging from the light post! But it’s taboo for us to do that in normal life.

If you were a Jew in the days of Jesus’ birth, on the other hand, you would not be so handicapped. The whole litany of stories would all have their source in the Bible. The Old Testament was Television, movies, music, and the works for every person in that culture.  But more importantly, they would see themselves as significant players in the ongoing story of life. The record of man’s fall in the garden would be the continued lot of each person. The stories of Father Abraham, the man of faith, and his culture and lineage would be the very source of their identity. They would all know the details of the man called Moses and the deliverance from Egypt. They would have understood their current predicament as a result of the sinfulness of their first ancestor as well as the failure of all those who had come before them. The pains and harshness of life in a world in which they were dominated and controlled by foreign powers would rule and pervade every personal life. You see, the people of God were not viewers of a drama. They saw themselves as part of it. They were not spectators. They were participants. Thus, the joys and sorrows of real life were their lot. They did not live vicariously through the adventures of others; they lived in the here and now in the flow of life and were intricately connected to it all. It’s only when we understand this truth that we, too, are not just observers but participants that we’ll ever know what it’s like to burst out in song like these four did.

You and I are the ancestors of Adam and Eve. The fall of man is our fall! We have been sent out from the intimate place of fellowship with God (The Garden of Eden), and we are vagabonds and wayfarers in a world that’s run and directed and ruled by a foreign force. We are in the lineage of the failure of man! The entire history of God’s dealing with man is the history of God’s dealing with us. But through it all, there has remained one great promise: The “seed of the woman” would crush the head of the enemy and deliver us all from the predicament of alienation from God and this life lived out in the valley of the shadow of death. The arrival of the Saviour of the world is what Christmas is all about! He has come to redeem us from the situation that is ours, not some character in a book or figure on a screen. It’s for you! It’s for me! Be a player, not a spectator! As I look forward to 2024, I want to be a player!

Don McLean wrote a song back in 1972 (I think) entitled “American Pie.” There are numerous theories about McLean’s intended meaning, but most seem to agree it’s his lament over the lack of “danceable” music in the 1970’s. The death of Richie Valens, the Big Bopper, and, more importantly, Buddy Holly was the single most significant tragedy in the direction, or lack of, in modern music. McLean seems to be arguing that when Holly died, the future of music died with him. It was a death that brought devastating, culture-changing consequences. But what really happened, in my opinion, was that in the decade of the 60’s, a cultural revolution brought about by rebellion, drugs, and sexual promiscuity destroyed the harmony of the American Family. A more significant kind of death took place with much greater consequences in our culture, and it’s been occurring all around us for over 50 years. The sad part is that it doesn’t even arrest our attention anymore.

According to Barbara Dafoe Whitehead (The Divorce Culture [New York: Vintage, 1998]), “For most of the nation’s history, divorce was a rare occurrence and an insignificant feature of family and social relationships.” Divorce did not become commonplace until after 1960, according to Whitehead.  She says that divorce “doubled in roughly a decade and continued its upward climb until the early 1980s, when it stabilized at the highest level among advanced Western societies. As a consequence of this sharp and sustained rise,” says Whitehead, “divorce moved from the margins to the mainstream of American life in the space of three decades.” The consequent divorce culture means death for the American family.  Our last fifty years define “The Day the Music Died.”

Sociologist and historian Carle Zimmerman, in his 1947 book Family and Civilization, recorded his keen observations as he compared the disintegration of various cultures with the parallel decline of family life in those cultures. Eight specific patterns of domestic behavior typified the downward spiral of each culture Zimmerman studied: “Marriage loses its sacredness; … is frequently broken by divorce; the traditional meaning of the marriage ceremony is lost; feminist movements abound; there is increased public disrespect for parents and authority in general; an acceleration of juvenile delinquency, promiscuity and rebellion occur; there is refusal of people with traditional marriages to accept family responsibilities; a growing desire for, and acceptance of, adultery is evident; there is increasing interest in, and spread of, sexual perversions and sex-related crimes.” God is really good at breathing new life into dead entities. Let’s pray that he will do that with the American Family – one family at a time. Maybe as the body of Christ in the world today, we, the church, can speak to the Family with the authority of Christ and shout, “Lazarus, come forth!”

Edna Bowman once wrote a modern parody of the famous Christmas song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” It went like this:  On the twelfth day of Christmas,  My littlest love gave to me Twelve dogs a-leaping, Eleven cats a-creeping, Ten fingers gripping, Nine toes a-tripping, Eight drinks a-spilling, Seven glasses filling, Six friends and things, Five telephone rings, Four crayoned walls, Three loud calls, Two Kisses free And one mother up a pear tree.”

According to Robert Webber, a modern worship guru, “Christmas worship is not confined to a single day but extends for twelve days. The origin of these twelve days of festivity lies in the early church. The early Christians of the East celebrated the birth of Christ on January 6 … In the West, Christians began to celebrate Christmas on December 25…Eventually, these two dates became the boundaries of the Christmas season, with the celebration of the birth of Jesus on December 25 representing the beginning of the festival and the celebration of the manifestation of Christ to the world through the visit of the magi on January 6.” Thus we have the 12 days of Christmas.

I’ve suggested, along with many others, that the song was written during a period of persecution of Christians, and it was a song with a message only to those who “got it.” Yet, some of the myth buster websites argue that it was simply a nonsense song written as a joke. And this explanation is not true. But there are others that argue it is true. I prefer to see it my way. Others agree with me. The song has meaning. The suggested meaning, traditionally, has been as follows: My True love is God the Father. I am the receiver, as a believer, of His gifts. They are: The Partridge is Christ crucified in a tree, then, 2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments. 3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity– the Theological Virtues.  Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists. 5 Golden Rings = the first Five Books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch”, which relays the history of man’s fall from grace. 6 Geese A-laying = the six days of Creation. 7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. 8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes. 9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit. 10 Lords A-leaping = the Ten Commandments. 11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles. 12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed. Whether this is a historical fact or not, it sure gives meaning to a nonsense song that we’ll hear often during the Christmas season. We may as well see some significance in it when we hear it. To me, “My True Love” is the God who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, so that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

We received a lot of them this year! We’re not good at sending them out, but are always excited about opening the ones that we get. I did some research and found out that the creator of the Christmas card was John C. Horsley, an English illustrator, who designed the first card in 1843. It showed three generations of an English family celebrating Christmas and carried the message, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” By 1870, the custom of exchanging Christmas cards had spread to the United States. It was promoted by Louis Prang, a Boston printer, who is known as the father of the American Christmas card. One of my sources wrote, “About 95% of American families exchange Christmas cards—usually 60 to 70 cards per family. A staggering four billion cards are mailed during Christmas. How did all these get started? Museum director Henry Cole, during the mid-19th century, used to write short notes to his friends at Christmas, wishing them a joyful holiday season. In 1843, he had no time to write and asked his artist friend John Horsely to design a printed greeting card. Inadvertently, he had invented the Christmas card.” This source went on to say, “And the President of the United States sends over 40,000 of these greetings yearly—probably having the longest Christmas card list in the country.”

Max Lucado suggests that Christmas week is the week when mail is fun. He writes, “This is the week of red envelopes, green stamps, and Christmas tree stickers. This is the week when your old roomie who married Hazel and moved to Phoenix writes to tell you their fourth child is on the way. This is the week of front-and-back newsletters describing the Grand Canyon, graduations, and gallbladder surgeries. This is the week of overnighted nuts and packaged fruitcakes and frenzied mailmen. Add to that a gift from Aunt Sophie and a calendar from your insurance agent, and you’ve got a daily reason to whistle your way to the mailbox.”

He goes on, “Only a Scrooge doesn’t want a Christmas card. Some are funny. Got one today with elves pulling books off the ‘elf-help’ shelf. Others are touching, like the illustration of Mother Mary and the baby resting at the base of the Egyptian sphinx. And a few are unforgettable. Every Christmas, I read this reminder that came in the mail several years ago: If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior.” In is conclusion, Max adds, “He became like us, so we could become like him. Angels still sing and the star still beckons. He loves each one of us like there was only one of us to love.”