PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

December 22, 2021

MAKING KNOWN THE CHRISTMAS STORY

The first Christmas the shepherds learned of the significance of the birth of Jesus from angels.  After visiting the child and his parents they shared their good news with all who they met.  The Wise Men were directed to the new born Jesus by a star and information gathered from King Herod’s court.

Their news provoked the King into slaughtering the innocent in Bethlehem.  Simeon and Anna were made aware of the birth of the long awaited Messiah when Jesus’ parents presented him at the Temple.

There were three primary means of sharing news when Jesus was born: word of mouth, decrees, and messages.  Consequently, it very often took some time for news to spread even about an important event.  Fortunately, Roman roads and a common language helped for news to spread throughout the Empire.

I was thinking how might the Christmas story have been made known when I was growing up?  Word of mouth was still an important form of communication.  Its effectiveness was greatly enhanced with the invention of the telephone. Snail mail was in its prime.  If you wanted to have your letter sent quickly, you could always send by Air Mail. Newspapers, magazines, and the radio were in wide use.  Television was still in its infancy.  Telegrams were used for quick communication.  When I was growing up there were many more options to get word out about an important event.

What about today?  If Jesus was actually born this Christmas how would one go about making known the Good News of His birth?  The problem today is that there are too many options.  When I was growing up most people talked on the phone, sent letters, listened to the radio, and read magazines and newspapers.  Today, people tend to be more selective in how they communicate and receive information.  And to make matters worse a person may be into one form of communication today and a month from now completely changed the primary way he or she communicates.

The problem with communicating today can be illustrated by sending a reminder to the members of a committee about an upcoming meeting.  First, one needs to know the primary way that one wants to receive messages at the moment.  One person is more than happy to receive an e-mail notification.  Another will never read it.  Second, one needs to set up the procedures for sending the notification.  This has greatly expanded the demands on a Church secretary.  Third, it is important that one constantly checks to make sure that the current way of sending a message to a certain person is still their preferred way to receive information.  Sounds like a lot of work!

Several years ago I finally got a Facebook page.  One of my reasons was to keep up with some of my granddaughters.  When I got to the point that I was comfortable with Facebook, my granddaughters quit using it and were on to something else.  Today, my primary way of keeping up with my granddaughters is through Diane.  She seems to have several methods of communication that are open to her that our granddaughters actually use.

While the ways one can make known the Christmas story have greatly expanded over what was possible in Bethlehem a long time ago, the content of the story remains the same.  What is important is not how the Good News is told, but that it is told.  Today, we have many creative ways to make known the Christmas story.  All of them need to be explored so that the story of the birth of Jesus can be told to all people to the ends of the earth.