This week, Pastor Matthew launched “The History Channel,” our Christmas series.

The Christmas that we know and love today is a huge mix between the secular and the sacred, and in this series we will be digging deep into its history - untangling the messy mixed roots from one another and looking at the reasons why we do the things we do.

This week we are going back as far as we can, all the way BC.

THE SECULAR

Christmas has only been a federal holiday in the United States since 1870, and it does have ancient secular toots.

Well before Christ, many cultures across Scandinavia celebrated the Winter solstice, the end of Winter and the coming of Summer. The end of December was often the only time of year that they had a supply of fresh meat. It was a time of rest and celebration for them. There were similar celebrations in Rome at the same time of the year.

There are therefore many things that we do at Christians that come from non-Christian traditions. The Christian faith has long traditions of taking things within our culture and redeeming them in order to meet people where they are at. This is also true of many Christmas traditions.

THE SACRED

We have been grafted into the line of Jesus, which is a great family to be a part of. We have become part of God’s story and inheritance – an amazing lineage of incredible men and women of God.

The story of Jesus is woven throughout the entire narrative of Scripture, from well before He was born on earth. Everyone pre-Christ was waiting and longing for the day that we have had the privilege of seeing. We live in the day that was longed for – we have the King and the Messiah, and He came in the person of Jesus – the Lord and Savior of the world.

As we celebrate Christmas this year, we need to remember God’s story and the fact that we have been grafted into it. It’s the story of Jesus, and we live our lives surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who celebrate that same story alongside us.

Many longed to see the day that we have seen, so let us not take it for granted.

We must be careful which hills we die on as the people of God. We don’t have to get mad about people saying “happy holidays,” but we also don’t need to get caught up in consumerism and greed. We need instead to be captivated by the King, and both the joy and the heartbreak of the season. Let us be inspired to run the leg of our race well, knowing we are a part of something – an amazing legacy – that is so much bigger than we are.

Christmas has both sacred and secular roots, and that’s okay. We must choose to live our lives captivated by our Christ.