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Channels for peace

by Therese Douglas

Christmastide has to arrive each year for writers to pen thoughts on the birth of Jesus and for many others to reflect on its relevance and consequences.

So the fact remains that Christ was born to save man from sin and error. Christianity and its widespread believers however, know and feel that the Son of God as Child Jesus was born to humble parents although He was and still remains the King of Kings. God as a human had undertaken the task of rescuing mankind from the depths of sin. He then aspired to bring peace on earth which was God's aim mingled with love.

To bring about Peace, which the world yearns for, is major a responsibility of Christian. This peace should come about with humility and love for God. Gradually peace can stop terror and violence. But man in his ignorance and greed for power, seeks and yields to an attachment to material things. He thereby shuns what is spiritual.

Today, the mainstream in society, especially in the nation, who have experienced years of hardships through violence - crime and terrorism, seek this peace to be a lasting truce. For when the angels sang on that first Christmas night, long ago, their message was, "Peace on earth to men of goodwill.

Goodwill is brought about with humility, just as Christ Jesus made Himself humble, for - "Jesus meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like Yours", is a frequent prayer of the Christian. And this said with meaning and real feeling, would hurl false pride in man and bring about the peace he seeks.

Looking through the life of Christ one understands that suffering and conflict did not await the last days of the Saviour's mortal life. But it was a continuous process of suffering that He endured silently, humbly and profoundly, from the moment of His life of earth.

The duty of the Christian therefore is to receive the Lord who humbled Himself to come in to the world. The King of Kings arrived in the nature of man to nourish and strengthen man through the sacrifice of His flesh and blood. This is His symbol of Love. Love that saved man.

Therefore welcome Him into the soul with reverence, much awe and humility. This then shows that there is faith and cleanliness of heart, and Peace will always remain therein.

Man by nature races onward by the consuming desire for life and its material needs. But to be a Christian there is no life except that in union with God: The Christian must definitely bring Him into his soul. Peace is possible only when one possesses God.

Hence when faith, hope and charity extend during one's life, if not at once, but gradually, one unites himself to God. Christ as Infant Jesus came into the world in obedience to His father.

Our Lord's life is an example to everyone. He has shown man how he may attain greatness and perfection in the accomplishment of the humblest of life's duties and thus he spreads peace. It is love that brings one in contact with God, because God himself is Love.

Make the love of God, the sole object of life and the other virtues would follow, with Peace flowing in. Charity towards each other rectifies the will with respect always and one begets the peace one seeks.

Let one's prayer then be "Lord make me a Channel of Your Peace".

Taking the X out of X'mas

The Moving Finger by Lionel Wijesiri

Did just the thought of Christmas send you running for cover, looking for a safe hiding place for your purse and credit cards?

If so, you're not alone.

Many Sri Lankans, like many others throughout the world, find themselves caught up in a Christmas spending spree of monumental proportions. Most people would rather not participate in the excessive acquisition of more stuff, but they honestly do not know how to find a better way to observe the hallowed traditional holidays. What were originally celebrations of life, spiritual beliefs and simple pleasures, have now become celebrations and worship of the modern god of Consumerism and Frantic Living.

There has to be a better way!

Enjoyment

We have turned Christmas all sentimental, made it into a feel-good season when everyone does his level best to be nice, but nothing much changes, because if things really did change, lots of people wouldn't feel so good anymore. Our cosy version of Christmas turns lively Mary into a mild Madonna.

Would we like to think of Christmas only as a season of enjoyment with good food, nice clothes, toys for children and visiting friends and relatives? We corrupt Christmas if we make it merely a feel-good respite from business as usual.

Christmas is about the dawning of a new era in which earth truly moves towards heaven. At Christmas time we remember the birth of that child, who began to show his followers the way for this world to be transformed into the peaceful kingdom. The ancient world did not know any other way to achieve justice than by becoming mightier than your oppressor, so that either you would kill him or scare him enough to stop his bullying.

But Jesus neither crushed nor intimidated his enemies. He simply declared that God takes a special interest in the poor, and in fact favours them in their struggle against rich and powerful people who manipulate and abuse them, and that God will surely set things right for them. Jesus didn't just talk, though. He lived as if this astonishing good news for poor and oppressed people were already coming true, as if the meek really were coming to inherit the earth.

Challenge

The truth is that here in our own country, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Whose side are the Christians as followers of the Christ?

The answer to that question shall determine whether Christians exhibit a genuine Christmas spirit, or a trivial, sentimental counterfeit.

What would really come of this Christmas challenge? According to Government reports, one in two of Sri Lankan families live in poverty, and that trend is growing worse. Experts say that violence and terrorism is best incubated in a place where poverty and high unemployment coexist alongside ostentatious wealth.

In such a place, many young people have little hope and are full of anger and resentment, whether there are sincere efforts towards peace and justice or not.

It's too easy to blame the politics, corruption and ethnic conflict, or whatever, for the miserable state we are in. But, if you are not working at home for peace and justice, then you're taking a cheap shot.

Peace and justice begin right here, right in your own hometown. The religious leaders and sociologists have in the past many decades set forth very painstakingly, in great detail, the conditions necessary for a just society. In the end, all that detail boiled down to what the Hebrew prophets said: that a society's justice is measured most especially by how it cares for its poor. That is the acid test. All else is incidental to it.

Joy

While Christmas is viewed as too commercial by most, those who keep their religious traditions alive can renew the joy that is associated with the birth of Christ.

The Christians are definitely in danger of losing touch with their religious heritage. When children are more interested in the Internet than in history; when the reading of books is quaintly eccentric; and when we cannot decide whether we want war or peace, it is hardly surprising that no-one pays very much attention to their religious traditions any more.

To this end, it is time somebody inaugurate a Campaign For Real Christmas. The objectives of this campaign are modest: We should encourage people to celebrate Christmas in the traditional, time-honoured spiritual fashion, and to avoid, in so far as it may be practicable or reasonable, the modern and foreign contamination which have watered down and vulgarised this happy season.

Jesus was indeed "the man born to die". But that was not the end of the story. It is still going on, and any Christian can be part of the story, if he wishes to do so.

Christmas - A gift of god to man

by Pastor Rasika Jayasuriya

Christmas ("Christ's Mass", or "Festival"). The annual festival held by the Christian church in memory of the birth of Jesus Christ. It begins with the evening of December 24 (called Christmas Eve) and continues until Epiphany (January 6), the whole period being called Christmastide. It is more particularly observed on December 25, called Christmas Day, or simply Christmas.

As to whether our Lord's birth really occurred on December 25, ancient authorities are not agreed. Clement of Alexandria says that some placed it on April 20, others on May 20, whereas Epiphanlus states that in Egypt Jesus was believed to have been born on January 6. For a long time the Greeks had no special feast corresponding to Christmas Day. Chrysostom, in a Christmas sermon, A.D. 386, said: "it is not ten years since this day was clearly known to us."

After it was known (the date) the season was celebrated by a minority of Christians due to three reasons. (1) a rejection of ecclesiastical authority in its attempt to establish official feast days, of which Christmas is one; (2) an objection to the drinking, partying, and immorality associated in every age with Christmas festivities; (3) the long-standing and continuing association of Christmas with pagan religious ideas and practices.

The reason for the season

The fact remains that Jesus did come to earth. Why did he? The reason will have to take us back into history. The Bible tells us in Genesis that God created man and woman, trees, creeping plants, beast of the field, birds of the air, fish of the sea and everything that is on the earth. He saw it and he was pleased with what he created because they were wonderful, perfect. Later on in Genesis (Bible) Satan came along and deceived Eve and Adam and they disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree God told them not to eat from.

Their act brought sin and death into the world and they were separated from God. But God made a covenant with them. He said, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Gen 3:15, NIV

After that God killed an animal and clothed them with the skin of that animal. That shows that God loves man more than any other creation. This then became the practice in the olden days. Whenever man sin against God he has to kill an animal as a sin offering in order for God to forgive and accept him as his own again. In the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus, the Bible talks about the Day of Atonement. During this time the people will bring two live goats before the priest and a lot will be cast.

One will fall on the sacrifice and the other will fall on scapegoat. The goat for sacrifice will be killed and offered as a sin offering for the children of Israel. After performing all the requirements in the temple the priest will come out and lay both of his hands on the head of the life goat (scapegoat) and confess all the sins of the children of Israel onto the goat. In other words he is transferring the sins of the people onto the goat.

After doing that someone will take the goat into the desert and let it die there because it is now curse. The goat will take the place of the people and die for God to accept his people. That again shows that God loves people more than any other creation.

Then around seven hundred years B.C a prophet by the name of Isaiah came along and he said "14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14-15 NIV). The word Immanuel means God with us. He (prophet) also foretold the death of Jesus. He said "Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

5. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

6. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was lead like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

8. By oppression and judgement he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants. For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

9. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

11. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light (of life) and be satisfied: by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

12. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. NIV.

The prophet was saying here that a time will come when animal will no longer be killed to take away man's sin but someone (human) will die in the place of man to make them right with God.

About seven hundred years later the words the prophet spoke came to past when a virgin conceived and gave birth to a son and they named him Jesus. Just like the prophet said, he has no beauty. He was born not in a hospital or a palace but in a manger. He lived on earth but did not live the full spends of his life because he was born for a purpose and that is to die. That was the reason he came. He was killed even though he did not do any wrong. Just like the prophet said he did not even speak back. He was buried but the grave did not keep there.

He rose up after three days and lived with his disciples for forty days and then he was taken up to heaven. Just like God said, "the seed of the women will crush your head and you will brush his heel". It happened.

He was a gift of God to man. To all who receive him he will give them the right to become the children of God. It was for this course that he came. To take the place of man and die that man will live. Christmas is not about trees, ice, and Santa Claus although this has been the focus of many but it is about God giving Jesus to all mankind. It is a free gift that each person can either except or reject. Jesus is the reason for the season.

Based on pastor Gabby Marcus's sermon at Living Way Church, Nugegoda

The storm that brought Christmas to Lanka

by R. M. Lenard

Sri Lanka like many other countries around the globe will celebrate Christmas, which commemorates in the Birth of Christ which took place over 2000 years ago. Only a few Christians will know that Sri Lankans will be celebrating Christmas on 25th December 2002, for the 496th time, as its genesis goes back to Christmas 1505 AD. Let me explain this in detail as the reader would like to know details about it.

Upto November 15 that year, Sri Lanka was free from foreign domination, till the Portuguese came somewhat suddenly. It was the custom at that time for foreign invaders to go in search of lesser known countries, with the intention of thrusting their monarchy wherever they could find one such. Accordingly King Manuel of Portugal appointed Francisco de Almeida as the first governor to rule the east on March 24 1505.

Francisco received a fleet of 22 ships and travelled to India. His arrival was soon followed by Lorenzo de Almeida, the governor's son, who arrived in South India with a fleet of nine ships. On his way a storm broke out in high seas, and eventually Lorenzo's small navy was tossed about in the angry waters, and he was forced to consult the Chaplain for instruction, and the advice Lorenzo received was to navigate the armada towards the Maldives.

Consequently they force-landed in the Galle harbour and then to the Colombo harbour on 15th November 1505. Having landed in Colombo, they made small prayer house to thank the Lord who brought them safe here, from the wild sea. This little prayer house was dedicated to St. Lawrence. Exactly 40 days later, (a figure that has much Biblical significance) it was December 25, and presto, it was Christmas day. So Lorenzo and his men, celebrated Christmas for the first time in Sri Lanka in that little prayer house dedicated to St. Lawrence. The Christmas Mass was celebrated by Rev. Fr. Vincess, who gave instructions to travel towards Maldives, after his prayer consultation with his Lord.

So this Christmas that was commemorated in that simple manner by Lorenzo de Almeida and his men was the first time, that the birth event of Jesus was celebrated here. But ancient chronicles say that there were Christians in Sri Lanka, long before that day.

The Persian cross found in Anuradhapura in the 5th century AD, testifies to that fact. The late Professor of Archaeology, Senarath Paranavithana once said that prince Migara and his princess were known to be adherents of Christianity in their age. We cannot treat this bit of history as mere speculation because it is in history that (both Church & world history) St. Thomas, better known as the 'doubting twin', - because of his doubting Jesus's Resurrection - did visit India and there are ancient Indian strands of legend that vouch to his visit there and his encounters with an Indian prince.

Surely if St. Thomas did pay a visit to our neighbouring country, there must have been its impact few miles away, i.e. in Sri Lanka, and we can agree with the saintly professor Senarath. Of course we have no documents, like an edifice, a church to testify to the correctness of the argument. Coming back to the very history of Christmas, it was not celebrated in the early church till as late as 336 AD. But the feast of Jesus's resurrection was. It was His Holiness Pope Liberius who wanted Christians in Rome, to desist from their participation in the Roman Sun festival called 'Saturnalian' which was pagan to the core.

So the good Pope is said to have substituted the birth of the 'Righteous Son of Justice' (Christ) with the pagan feast that was celebrated to adore the rising sun. Two reasons can be subscribed to the non-celebration of Christmas prior to 336AD. One was that celebrations of birthdays was banned in Rome by Caesars, who had instructed Romans to celebrate Ceasar's birthday only.

To celebrate Jesus's or for that matter anybody's birthday was a sacrilege to the Emperor. The second reason was a religious fallacy that the Risen Christ was due to come in glory (2nd Coming) any time. So the imminence of His coming dissuaded Christians from celebrating His first birth. But Christmas celebrations down the centuries became so boisterous that in England and its then known commonwealth, Oliver Cromwell, had to ban its celebrations as the puritans dissociated themselves from the frolic that sometimes bordered on disrespect to the very person whose birth was celebrated.

Christmas today needs to be banned too, since it is celebrated in a way that even negates the very sacredness the birth permeates. It is up to church dignitaries here or elsewhere to cry foul, when excesses are allowed to desecrate the holy Birth of God's Son Jesus Christ whose lowly birth afterall was not in a palace, but a cattle shed. Let us rid Christmas of its consumaristic nature.

Christmas Message : The longest journey

by General John Larsson, International Head of the Salvation Army

Christmas is a time for making journeys. The travel agencies know that at Christmas there will be a rush for bookings. Air flights are full. Seats are hard to get. Ferries, trains and buses fill up with people who are travelling to see family and friends. The roads are busier than ever.

The first Christmas was also a time of travelling. Joseph and Mary made the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem to take part in the census. It was a difficult trek of many days. With Mary expecting her first-born child it must have been an anxious time for them both. For them Christmas involved a long journey.

Christmas meant a journey also for the shepherds who were living out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks. When the host of angels appeared to them, they said to one another. "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing has happened". For them it was not a long walk. But even for the shepherds this included a journey.

The wise men are famous for the long journey they made to see the child born to be king. They lived far away in the East. When they saw the star they followed it, riding on camels. Christmas for them meant a long - very long journey.

What about the angels? There was the chief angel who was entrusted with the task of making the great announcement to the shepherds about Jesus' birth. There was the "great company of the holy ghost" angels who praised God and sang "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace." Did they have to make a journey to be there?

But on the first Christmas Day the longest journey by far was the journey of the Christ child himself. He made the journey all the way from heaven to earth.

We can only stand in awe when we think of God sending his own son from heaven as a gift to the world. In heaven Jesus was a royal figure. He was the image of the invisible God. And yet on Christmas day he was prepared to leave that heavenly glory and become a human child - a child for whom there was not even room at the inn.

By taking the longest journey of all, Jesus went from eternity into time. He went from divinity to humanity. He went from the power of a King of Kings to the helplessness of a babe.

He came to show us what God is like. He came to tell us that God is a God of compassion, who knows and cares for each one of us. He came that we might have life and life in all its fullness. And we would never have known that had Jesus not taken the longest journey of all on Christmas day - the journey that brought him right down to us.

But it is not through understanding that the Christmas message becomes real to us when we do what the shepherds and the wise men did. It is when we kneel down before the Christ child and open our hearts in worship that we begin to glimpse the wonder of it all. It is when we bring the gifts of our love and adoration that the miracle begins to happen.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! exclaimed Paul as the thought of the Christ child in the crib. We too can only be astonished as we kneel and worship Him who is God's gift beyond words. Let this be our prayer this Christmas.

"Thank you, Jesus for taking the longest journey of all on Christmas Day!" General John Larsson was elected the International Head of the Salvation Army in September this year, and he took up office on 12th November. The General has served in his own homelands, Sweden and also in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand. Before his election he was the Chief of the Staff - Second-in-command of the Salvation Army. His wife, Freda Larsson, becomes the World Head of Women's Ministries of the Salvation Army. This is the new General's first Christmas Message.

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