Christmas Past

For Christmas 2014 as we gathered in our home to exchange gifts we first read a passage from the Nativity story in the gospels, as is our custom. This year I read from Matthew 1 in the King James Version: the phrases used there like 'now the birth of Jesus was on this wise', 'his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph', and  'not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily' all take me back to prior times, to Christmas past. The KJV brought many expressions into our common usage from 'the skin of your teeth' to 'a drop in a bucket' and many others (here is link to a fun website that lists many http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/bible-phrases-sayings.html) in part because of the almost poetic ring of the language. For me the language of the KJV also reminds me of a time when the language of the bible was more a part of our common culture, not just in America but in the western world.


The news this week picked up on some of that as there were many articles about the Christmas truce during the first Christmas of World War 1 in 1914. That truce was remarkable as the fighting stopped in the midst of war. Some have said it was spontaneous while there are some reports that 2 local officers, one British and one German, arranged it in a small spot and then it spread for some 500 miles. In any case, I do not think that could have happened without a common culture that understood the meaning of Christmas as a day to celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace.

Our Sunday morning bible study has been looking at the idea of 'just war' lately as a result of being in Romans 13 in our study, and WW1 did not start on just grounds. Yet in the midst of a war that in my opinion was not just, this little bit of peace broke out because of the broader culture that had at least some basis in the bible. I do not think such a thing could happen in a war such as is now going on with ISIS.


So, the King James Version of the Christmas story reminds me of a time like that, when the language of the bible and the idea of God coming to earth was much more obvious in the common culture. Those days had evil of their own, as the war of 1914 also reminds us, but there is something good about that kind of time when the language of the bible was common to many more of us than it is now. I hope that we can reclaim some of that in our culture in the years ahead.