2 BILLION CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE JESUS' BIRTH

Two billion Christians will celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25. It is not an historically accurate date. It was chosen by the church to coincide with the winter solstice. It is as good a time as any to remember the birth of Jesus. He was a Jew who died before the Christian church was founded. It was not until 325 C.E that Jesus was defined as “Truly God and Truly Man.”

The child celebrated at Christmas time became a young man who vigorously protested the civil and religious leaders of his day as hypocrites. He healed the sick and always hung out with the poor and disreputable people of his time. His attacks on the hierarchy led to his death on the cross. His followers believed he rose from the dead.

The early followers of Jesus separated themselves from mainstream Judaism and became Christians by becoming baptized. They spread the news of Jesus around the Mediterranean world.

Over the years the Christians became the church and its leaders grew in power until Roman Emperor Constantine recognized it. Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire.

Here is where the church went haywire. The concern for the sick and the poor was shuttered to one side in seeking and retaining power. The bureaucracy became more important than the caring. 

Much of the church today is boring. Music is static, liturgy turgid, and preaching is thin. Church people are willing to give soup to the hungry but do little to change the Capitalist system which keeps millions of Americans and billions around the world poor and homeless and lacking in medical care. Oh, of course, the rich get richer with the connivance of the governments.

At Christmas we billions remember the humble birth of Jesus. Perhaps we do what we must do to remember and care for the poor.