The Strand Magazine asked C.S. Lewis to write “A Christmas Sermon for Pagans.” Written in 1946, it still sheds prescient light on our modern times.
Lewis centers his message on post-Christian beliefs about morality. “There is no objective Right or Wrong: each race or class can invent its own code or ‘ideology’ just as it pleases. And whatever may be amiss with the world, it is certainly not we, the ordinary people.” Here’s the problem: “If there is no objective standard, then our choice between one ideology and other becomes a matter of arbitrary taste. Our battle for democratic ideals against Nazi ideals has been a waste of time, because the one is no better than the other.” And if the world is amiss, that’s not on me.
Lewis leads the reader toward the meaning of Christmas in a pointed and personal way. “If the modern post-Christian view is wrong, then there are three kinds of people in the world. (1) Those who are sick and don’t know it (post-Christians). (2) Those who are sick and know it (because they failed to obey the real Right). (3) Those who have found the cure.
The cure is found in a story that has persisted for over two millennia. It is a story revealed by ancient oracles who uttered words like, “A child will be born to us…and His name will be called…Mighty God, Eternal Father” (Isa. 9:6), and “A Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days…and to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom” (Dan. 7:13-14). As the story unfolds, Jesus identifies Himself as that Son of Man who would be scourged, killed, “and the third day He will rise again” (Luke 18:33). His second coming is guaranteed. He said, “They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30). At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of this Son of Man. He is the cure for the soul who doubts unbelief and reaches out in faith to the God who came as a babe lying in a manger.
Is the story a myth? Lewis answers, “If it is, then our last hope is gone. But is the opposite explanation (i.e., it is true) not worth trying? Who knows but that here lies your way back not only to Heaven, but to Earth too, and to the great human family whose oldest hopes are confirmed by this story that does not die?”
God born as a human is the Christmas story. His dying on a cross for your sin is your personal story. His coming again is the hopeful story. Whether you believe it or not, the story persists.