A Christmas Message from Fr. Walter Hillebrand
By: w. hillebrand
12/03/16 15:48
Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!’
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!'
Luke 2:14
Dearly beloved Grace Family,
When Jesus Christ was sent to us to become incarnate, our heavenly Father had a plan. He wanted to save all of us and so He offered His only Son to be born as one of us and to suffer and die for us on the cross. Nowadays, people do not want to talk anymore about the death of Jesus Christ. Our society tends to turn their heads to the other side when it comes to God, the sacrifice of His Son for our salvation, and in general when the topic turns towards Church, faith, and belief.
As always, but especially during the season of Advent and Christmas, I invite all of you to live a life as promised in your baptismal vows. Be a Christian, live a Holy life and take your tradition seriously. We all are human beings. We all are busy with our lives trying to make a living and provide for ourselves and our families. Thus, most of us are too distracted to live that perfect Christian life that we all seek to live.
I want to point out that the most dangerous thing is when we completely comply with our society's trends and marketing strategies around Christmas. Materialism is not what the feast day is all about!
In addition, some trends are telling us that we need to respect each other's feast days. I agree that we need to respect each other, just as vowed in our baptismal covenant: “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” (BCP p.305). However, I find it disrespectful to ourselves if we are not genuinely living our Christian ethics and traditions.
It is not religious freedom or even funny, as some people think it is, if we have to say happy Holidays instead to wish each other a Merry Christmas. I encourage you to keep Christ in Christmas! For us Christians, Christmas is the feast of Christ's birth. Please remember that this year when singing the verse, “Christ the Savior is born” in Silent Night, Holy Night.
I wish all of you much rest, family time and a holy and merry Christmas season.
The Rev. Dr. Walter V. Hillebrand
Friend, Family, Priest
