PEOPLE WORK TO KEEP CHRISTMAS STORY ALIVE

What might have been going on in the Strip in the year 1 B.C.? I don't mean the Hollywood or Las Vegas Strips. They were probably only virgin territories. I mean the strip of land from Mt. Hermon in what was then Phonecia, now on the Syria-Lebanon border, to the tip end of the Negev Desert, then known as Judea, now as Israel, a distance of about 160 miles as the crow flies.

Were people being born, dying, paying taxes as we are today? You bet. There was not a population explosion as we know it today, but, nevertheless, an explosion. God had told Noah and his sons to go forth and populate the earth and sometimes I think this is the only command they kept.

People died. There were cemeteries all over the known world, mostly caves bought and prepared or dug by families for their own use. But the ones that come to our attention in the biblical sense are sepulchers outside Jerusalem on the side of Mt. Olivet known as the "Tombs of the Prophets."

Were the people paying taxes? You bet they were. Caesar Augustus, ruler in the year 1 B.C. of the great Roman Empire, which included Galilee and Judea, had just ordered a census be taken for the purpose of taxation. What percent? 28%? 36%? Who knows?

Was there governmental corruption. Yes, yes, yes. In Rome, schemes, intrigues and murders kept certain family lines in power. In the provinces, tax collectors seemed to tax at will and keep part of what they collected. We call that embezzlement today.

Was there homosexuality, rape, sodomy, polygamy? Alas, yes. Long before the sexual events at Sodom and Gormorra came into our lexicon as a landmark example, it was rampant.

Was there thievery and vandalism, mean streets, by-ways and overland paths? Again, yes. Why did persons going from the northern reaches of Galilee to the southern tip of the Negev never go alone but in caravans? Because, behind nearly every big rock there was a thief ready to jump out with his long knife and kill anyone for anything he had if he traveled alone.

In the years before 1 A.D. every crime, every act of corruption, every most contemptible thing imaginable had been performed. I think in 1 B.C. the world was on the brink of a second destruction. The world was again "rotten to the core" as the writer of Genesis said before the destruction.

But the world was given a second and, perhaps, last chance, not by rising waters, not by invading armies, blowing of trumpets, changes in the cosmos, but by the coming of the most innocent, helpless, uncoordinated, most unthreatening bundle of humanity there could ever be. Later we called the event Christmas.

In the next 30-odd years, this second chance was explained to a portion of humanity by that baby grown to man. It was in man-to-man conferences, wayside talks, parables and miracles just in case no one understood the old prophets or did not perceive it in the overall nature of things. These men were supposed to spread the news. They did. Some believed. Some didn't.

Some have kept the story alive. Many haven't. So, again a great portion of those, whose time is now on this planet, have slipped back into the old ways of everything that was going on when the world was pronounced "rotten to the core" and destroyed.

But we were promised by none other than the Creator himself, that there would always be a remnant of people left to remember the instructions, to pass them along in the best way they can and know how. They rejoice to do so, especially at this season of the year.

This rejoicing takes many forms the giving of gifts and sending of greetings to loved ones or ones we may not know but who have given us some precious intangible gift of great value as the Wise Men gave gifts to the Baby Jesus. It is in the gathering of families, in bright lights or in one candlelight, in song, music, in sermons, verse and plays, or just to go out on a crisp cold night, look at the stars and say, "Thank you,"

Even those who don't believe in the second chance, or those who think there is another way, catch the spirit of those who call it Christmas and will probably respond to your greeting, "Merry Christmas," in like manner. Maybe, even down deep in their hearts, they would like to believe it. It's up to the remnant to persuade and make it plain, especially at this time of the year.

REJOICE!