MERRY CHRISTMAS?

MERRY CHRISTMAS?

Monday, December 15, 2014

James [ESV] 1:2-5  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

  Jingle Bells, Santa Claus, Elf on the Shelf, decorations (Especially fantastic yard displays!), gorgeous trees and garlands, Noel carols, candlelight services, uplifting cantatas, exchanging gifts, all involved and enjoyed in celebrating Christmas . . . but others cannot and do not experience Christmas in these ways. They celebrate Christmas in quite a different manner.

  For centuries Aleppo was a prosperous industrial and commerce powerhouse and the most populous Syrian city. At one time its marketplace was one of the largest in the world.

  This is no longer so.

  In 3+ years of fighting more than 100,000 Syrians have died and countless injured and crippled. 3.2 million have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, North Africa, and areas protected by Kurdish forces. Most have lost everything they possessed. Aleppo is in ruins. The marketplace destructed with the few remaining shops and booths unable to open. The unemployment rate exceeds 80%. Food and fuel are scarcer than a friendly hyena.

  But the Chaldean bishop, Audo, and those remaining of his congregation are still worshipping Christ, doing so largely by feeding 7,000 families a month under horrific conditions lit not by holiday lights but by terrifying devastating barrel bombs dropped from the sky.

  As God’s family let us not forget Merry Christmas, joyfully worshipping Lord Jesus, is distinctly different in practice for some brothers and sisters in Christ. (And, that if ISIS and other Muslim world-caliphate groups have their way, making for the same worship situation in our neighborhood.)

EBB4

Ø  Aleppo (Arabic: ﺣﻠﺐ‎ / ALA-LC: Ḥalab, IPA: [ˈħælæb]) is the largest city in Syria and serves as the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate.^[4] With an official population of 2,132,100 (2004 census), it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant.^[5][6] For centuries, Aleppo was the region of Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third-largest, after Constantinople and Cairo.^[7][8][9]

Ø  Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it has been inhabited since perhaps as early as the 6th millennium BC.^[10] Excavations at Tell as-Sawda and Tell al-Ansari, just south of the old city of Aleppo, show that the area was occupied since at least the latter part of the 3rd millennium BC;^[11] and this is also when Aleppo is first mentioned in cuneiform tablets unearthed in Ebla and Mesopotamia, in which it is noted for its commercial and military proficiency.^[12] Such a long history is probably due to its being a strategic trading point midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia (i.e. modern Iraq).

Ø  The city's significance in history has been its location at the end of the Silk Road, which passed through central Asia and Mesopotamia. When the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869, trade was diverted to sea and Aleppo began its slow decline. At the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Aleppo ceded its northern hinterland to modern Turkey, as well as the important railway connecting it to Mosul. Then in the 1940s it lost its main access to the sea, Antioch and Alexandretta, also to Turkey. Finally, the isolation of Syria in the past few decades further exacerbated the situation, although perhaps it is this very decline that has helped to preserve the old city of Aleppo, its medieval architecture and traditional heritage. It won the title of the "Islamic Capital of Culture 2006", and has also witnessed a wave of successful restorations of its historic landmarks, until the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011 and the Battle of Aleppo.^{[13] (An excerpt from Wikipedia.)}