This video below showed me that the Christmas story can be told in the language of today’s Social Media and still share the same message.

Here’s the YouTube video entitled Social Network Christmas by Ignitermedia.com

So here’s a question: does something have to be new and popular to be relevant?

If something has been around for a while, or even a long while, does that automatically make it outdated?  Does that make it irrelevant?

If something isn’t real popular, if it doesn’t have a large following, does that automatically make it irrelevant?

Does it really come down to age and numbers?

The word “relevant” means having significant and demonstrable bearing upon the matter at hand.¹

“Significant” means important enough to be worthy of attention.¹
“Demonstrable” means clearly apparent or capable of being proved.¹
So something is relevant if it clearly has something to offer us today, or could be shown to.

Is the message of Christmas relevant today?
Is it outdated because the birth of Jesus occurred over 2000 years ago?
Is something automatically irrelevant if it has been around for a number of years?
Is the message of Christmas irrelevant because it has been told many times?

Christians throughout the world certainly find the message of Christmas to be relevant – indeed – important enough – to celebrate it each year.

So how is the message of Christmas relevant?  What do we learn from the virgin birth of Jesus? The Bible tells us that God loved the world so much that He sent his Son into the world so “that the world through him might be saved” and “have everlasting life.”² Doesn’t the Son of God show us that God is the Father, that God is our Father too, that we really are all the sons and daughters of God, that we can be happy and healthy, that we can increasingly gain freedom from sin all the way to the point of experiencing eternal life?!  Isn’t this the promise, even if we don’t or won’t fully achieve it in this lifetime? But we can begin to experience it to some degree here and now.  Mary Baker Eddy wrote in the textbook on Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (page 224), “There should be painless progress, attended by life and peace instead of discord and death.”  Some Christians that I know (including myself) appear to be experiencing this to some degree.

Clearly the Christmas message is relevant despite the birth of Jesus having occurred many years ago.  The message of Christmas is the same message today as it was then.  If it was relevant then it is relevant today.  Jesus said that his words would never pass away.³  That’s a statement of continued relevance!

So there’s the time issue.  Years haven’t rendered the Christmas message irrelevant. But what if the numbers of Christians were to dwindle?  What if the numbers of Christians in the world were very small today?  What if there were only a few thousand or even just a few hundred? Would that make the Christmas message any less relevant? Or any less different?

Did you notice in the Social Network Christmas video (at 2:00) that when Joseph made it clear that Jesus had a virgin birth 23 friends of Joseph “unfriended” him?  If the message is deep, difficult to understand, stretches us beyond our present understanding, does that render the message irrelevant?   Does that say something about the message, or about us?

There was a time in Jesus’ ministry when many of his followers went away.  Jesus then asked his twelve disciples if they too were going to go away.  Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life?”4  Even though the numbers of followers had diminished, still, Jesus’ disciples found his teachings very relevant.  And don’t you think that the people Jesus healed and the people his disciples healed would say they were relevant?Isn’t something relevant, not just because it is widely used, but also because it can be widely used?

Years and numbers aren’t relevant to relevance!

On this basis I find Christian Science to be relevant.  It has been around for more than 100 years but being the Science of Christianity it is the Science of living the teachings of Jesus and therefore is very significant.  And being a Science it is demonstrable.  It gives laws of God that can be relied upon and proven to be demonstrably true.  It clearly helps me in a significant way to find healing, to be healthier and happier, to understand better the life and teachings of Jesus, and to experience some of that peace and painless progress as I work out my salvation whereby I will find myself fully saved and having eternal life, even as the child of God that I am, I already do, even though it does not yet fully appear to be so.  Christian Science gives me this and it offers this to all of us.  So years and numbers don’t mean quite so much here either.  Christian Science is relevant!

Sometimes I think about how special it would have been to be able to actually meet Jesus in person.  Obviously, I don’t get to do that.  So I’m grateful that the divine nature and presence he lived (which I think of as being the Christ) is always with us.  And Christian Science helps me know Jesus better, helps me understand and follow his teachings and his humble, obedient, loving example better.

The Christmas message is relevant to me whether I hear it told in the language of the King James Version of the Bible or in the language of today’s Social Media.

If Jesus were on today’s social media I would want to be “friends” with him.  How about you?

And his name shall be …….. Jesus !

Thanks to Ignitermedia.com and YouTube.com for the video and Flickr.com for the picture.
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1  Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
2  John 3:16-17
3  Matthew 24:35
4  John 6:66-68