The "Why" of Christmas
The first significant day is Christmas, the day when Jesus was born. That birth represents a significant change in the nature of God that produced a large and lasting impact on the human race: God became a human being, injecting a new and significant element into the mix of Homo/Deus relationships. The descent of God into humanhood is the real reason why we celebrate Christmas. The way God and Humanity relate now, today, this very instant during which you are reading this article, is radically and substantially different than it was before because Deus is now also Homo. It enables things to be done now, today, that were not possible before that day. Giving the specific citations and reasoning to support this is the proper subject of a different essay, since a exposition worthy of the subject would have to address the entire Book of Hebrews for starters. The doctrine of the Trinity is essential to support the belief that Jesus was God, so consequenly, the implication is that Deus became/entered Homo. Judaism and Islam specifically repudate the idea that Deus would do this, while Secular Materialism, by denying any members to Deus, deny it as well.
Is Christmas "The Day"?
Should our understanding of Christmas, then, be expanded so that it can go up against Darwin Day?
God Forbid!
There are two good reasons that Christmas shouldn't be our answer to Darwin Day. For starters, materialism and commercialism (let alone that of the secular sort) is doing a terrific job of hijacking Christmas from the Church and Christianity. Insert here the usual rants about commercialism and materialism dominating the holiday. We have enough trouble reclaiming the Holy Day from being a Holiday, so positioning it to go up against Darwin Day is adding to the burden of those who have set themselves to do the former. We should wish those crusaders well, join them when called upon, and refrain from piling more trouble on their aleady overflowing plate.
The second problem has to do with what happened on that day. To be sure, there was a significant change to the status of Homo with regard to Deus, but all the biological change happened to Jesus, not to us. It's that change in biology that will allow us to argue that the day is a legitmate answer to Darwin Day. Here's Philippians 2:5-8:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
The incarnation was not a picnic or a day trip to Disney World. It was definitely good news to Homo, but it represented a devolution of a member of Deus. The point of the passage above is to emphasize how big Jesus Christ was before the Incarnation, and how far he, as Deus, sank down in status and nature to rescue Homo. The God who set up kings and puts down kings is dependent on a teenager for His care. The God whose voice establishes laws of nature, worlds, suns, and galaxies is reduced to bawling incoherently for milk, and being mis-understood by His teenage mother to boot. Fer cryin' out loud, the God who orders all things and upholds all things by the Word of His Power CAN'T CONTROL HIS OWN BOWEL MOVEMENTS. The Diety is in danger of diaper rash. Here's 2 Corinthians 8:9:
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
Don't get me wrong: Christmas is a fantastic holiday because it celebrates a God who sacrificed a lot to rescue mankind. No other religion in the world has a God that demonstrates that much care and concern for us, and who gets this far down and this dirty to rescue us because He couldn't trust the job of rescuing us to anyone else. A "celebration of humanity"? Does anyone have any idea how many rungs down the evolutionary ladder Deus had to drop to rescue the idiot species that motivated Him to do so in the first place? I sure don't!
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