Putting the X Back into Christmas

It's such a great time of year...when all around us breaks out in celebration. Bright lights, decorations, Christmas trees, Christmas sweaters, scarves, gloves, shopping, parties with friends, family & work associates. Holly...garlands...bows...ribbons...snow (or fake snow)...reindeer...Frosty...Santas...elves...gingerbread cookies...egg nog...all familiar stuff, you know the drill. But in the midst of the parades, parties & festive gatherings strange little myths arise. Myths that often confuse or at least separate, even the best of friends. Now I'm not talking of the obvious here...the myths surrounding Santa Claus...or the Christmas tree...or the Mistletoe. I am talking about the myths the "church" has created. Yep, Jesus followers...the pursuers of truth...sometimes miss the mark and in the process create their own "church myths" about Christmas. One of my favorites, or least favorites, is the Xmas myth! Oh nothing gets a unsuspecting believers dander up like calling Christmas, Xmas. How dare you remove "Christ" from Christmas they will say! This is a perfect example of the secularization of the sacred day we call Christmas... how dare they remove Jesus from Christmas, they often say! As well meaning as their bumper stickers that declare "Put Christ back into CHRISTmas!" are, they are misguided. Actually ill-informed, is a better take. First of all, you have to understand that it is not the letter X that is put into Christmas…to somehow take CHRIST out of Christmas. You see the English letter X there, but actually what it involves is the first letter of the Greek name for Christ. Christos is the New Testament Greek word for Christ. The first letter of the Greek word Christos is transliterated into our alphabet as an X. That X has come through church history to be a shorthand symbol for the name of Christ...the "Anointed One". In fact "the Messiah", in Greek is written as: Ο Χριστός (ho christos). This Greek word is where the English term "Christ" comes from in the first place! So all this ruckus about the evil secularists taking "Christ" out of Christmas are misguided by a self created religious myth...a very uninformed myth. As believers shouldn't we pursue "truth". If so the "truth" of this Xmas scandal is found in this simple truth...X has been an ancient symbol for the name of Jesus the Christ since the first century! Whether people know it or not...that is the fact of the matter. And if this is true, then in that truth we should rejoice this Xmas!!!

be God's
Brian O
ECHO
Lead Pastor dude
Friends Community Church
Tyler, Texas