2025-Dismantle

From where I'm at on this ball we call Earth, 2025 is about 6 hours old. Why am I up, no clue. I went to bed just after midnight, which is not my normal New Year's Eve tradition. I could care less that a new year has begun because it's just another day for me. As I grow older and understand more, holidays fade into the background as something everyone else does. They make little sense in the grand scheme of things and are an excuse for a constant barrage of advertisements trying to grab your money. 

It's a true shame that Christ's birth, although probably on the wrong day, is celebrated with all the materialism. I mean, He was born in an animal hold. Compared to today, it would be like being born in a barn next to the livestock. Not sanitary, nor kingly. He came humbly, lived humbly and went humbly. Nothing about His life and ministry was flamboyant. Him and His disciples walked from town to town, living on people's goodness and contributions, not knowing where they would sleep or eat. 

Here we are, decorations, lights, parties, food, gifts and hideous attitudes. Did not Jesus get upset by what He saw at the temple, the dishonesty and crookedness of those who bought and sold. I keep wondering what He thinks about how we celebrate Christmas. It's such a dark mark.

I know my thoughts are not popular amongst most but see it from the perspective of a humble Savior. Should we even celebrate His birth? Were we given instructions to do so? Nothing in scripture points to celebrating His birth or death for that matter. In fact Hosea 6:6 says, For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. This exact quote was referenced by Jesus in multiple places. It means, the feasts the Jews celebrated and the sacrifices they took to the temple, meant nothing to God. He sought out and desired for us to be merciful to those who may need mercy, love to those needing love, to acknowledge God in all you do and follow His ways.

Christ was born to bring upheaval to a system that relied heavily on tradition and laws rather than love and mercy. They, as Jesus put it Mt 23:23,24 23Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Instead of a show of materialistic and surface worship, we see that nothing we do is as important as justice, mercy and faithfulness. The whole point of His coming was to pull those that practiced mercy and had the right heart, to be cleansed and saved. He also tried to turn those hearts that were rigid with tradition. 

If He stood in a church at a Christmas Eve service as a homeless man needing food and shelter, would the church respond to His needs or throw Him out? If He was on the street, would they on any other day but Christmas? The heart of God must be pursued through our hearts intent and our actions not our sacrifices. They had it wrong back then and I believe we still have it wrong. 

Dismantle our churches and take to the streets. Leave our padded pews and search for the distraught, the lonely and the desperate. A house that has no heart for God is not worth having. Take away the celebrations, the sound and lights, the well groomed speeches, the productions and extravagances. We are consumed with judgement, self help, self awareness, and self pleasuring attitudes. We propel our self out into the internet and promote us at every turn. We scramble for likes and subscribers and the money it brings. We cry out look at me and see what I think or believe. 

Yet, as we have been caught up in all this madness of self, we haven't seen others, we haven't loved, or shown mercy. Dismantle all self and build up others, have faithfulness to what Jesus and God intended. 

To God be the Glory