The Militant Moderate

CHRISTMAS, 2005


Christmas, 2005, has been an unusual holiday season.  It appears that this Christmas, more than any other, has been brought unwillingly into politicized, ideological conflicts to the consternation of most ordinary people.  The worst previously experienced have been complaints about commercialization.  

Christmas is very special to most of us just because it is Christmas.  We know the reason for the season, but we are yet able to enjoy much of the glitz and glamour of the cultural holiday which has grown up around the advent of Christmas and extending to the New Year.  Although we know what the first Christmas was really all about, we are able to give and receive “Holiday Greetings,” “Season’s Greetings,” and “Merry Christmas,” and we enjoy the wonderful conviviality of Christmas.  

Sometimes we wish that the hypersensitive and the hyper-righteous would just give it a rest, and let us all enjoy the special season of Christmas.  

A number of years ago, this writer penned a poem that he called, “A Christmas Poem.”  While it was written in recognition of Christmas, an attempt was made to summarize the life and mission of Christ and to convey the broader meaning of the season for believing Christians through the centuries.  This is offered now for the reader’s consideration.  


A CHRISTMAS POEM

Into a world by misery darkened,
Among a people by famine of spirit weakened,
Chafing under the Roman conqueror's boot,
Looking toward the branch from Jesse's root.

A nation by religiosity perverted,
In bondage to the speciousness of laws;
Mind and spirit from the truth diverted,
Slaves of a dogma filled with flaws.

Seared by sun and stung by sand,
Dismal, downtrodden, and in despair.
Announced by the voice in a wilderness band,
Heralded by the angelic host in air.

A song of joy and a declaration of peace,
A message of hope and promise of love;
From bonds and burdens a new release,
Valid by voice of thunder and form of dove.

The lame walk, deaf hear, and the blind see,
Inheritance is a blessing for the meek,
Humanity from Evil's chains set free,
His way to find, His will to seek.

To heinous death, a submission brave,
Savoring suffering, mankind to save.
Living, on Easter's morn to rise
And join with us in tomorrow's skies.  


………. Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard