Many will spend today, Christmas Day, at church celebrating the spiritual side of the holiday. Two area clergy, The Rev. Scott Jenkins, pastor of Gateway Baptist Church in Ironton, and the Rev. Charles Moran, pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, reflect on the holiness of this holiday.

 

A babe in a manger

Jenkins said Christmas is more than just the story of a baby in a manger. It is the story of God becoming man and coming to earth.

“This is the single most important event, outside the cross. We set our calendar by it. People talk about different things being ‘the spirit of Christmas’ and some of these things could be very good but the spirit of Christmas is that God became man for us.”

Moran said this time of year he is reminded of the song, “The Little Drummer Boy,” in which the child sees Baby Jesus in the manger and plays his drum to honor the birth of the child.

“The last of the song says ‘I played by best for him’ and ‘then he smiled at me.’ I think of how in our lives we yearn for acceptance but many people run away from the greatest acceptance, and that is that Christ accepted us,” Moran said.

 

Mary, did you know?

Jenkins said his sermon today will focus on how the birth of Jesus impacted the life of his mother, Mary.

“What Mary went through, knowing he was the son of God, and beyond the manger, thinking to the cross, knowing what all she went through,” Jenkins said. He pointed to the scripture Luke 2:35, where Simeon blesses the Christ child but warns the young mother about the difficulty she will face as she watches the child grow and fulfill God’s plan for the salvation of mankind: “(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Jenkins said he will preach on the ridicule Mary must have faced as a young woman, pregnant at first but without a husband, and then the ridicule she saw heaped upon her child as he became an adult, followed by his death on the cross.

“The Bible says she pondered these things that’s something so many at Christmas time don’t do,” Jenkins said. “You’ve got to stop and think about the birth and also redemption.”

 

Reflections

Moran lamented that this time of year we give our children many things but we forget to give them to God.

“We need to recognize our own emptiness,” Moran said. “We can kick out pride and wanting too much of ‘our own thing’ and find a peace that is so much more.”