Thursday, December 25, 2025

It is the 25th of December 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

  

Merry Christmas! What do we do on this show when it lands on a regular day? I was curious about the history of this show and what I do for this, the big day (Easter is the other one, but it’s a Sunday and this show, being strictly sabbatarian, makes the mics lay fallow for a day).

In 2019, I did a rundown of the most famous events to ever take place on the 25th- after the nativity- Clovis is baptized! Charlemagne is crowned! Isaac Newton was born, as was Christmas Evans, the one-eyed Welsh preacher.

In 2020… remember that year? I was struck by an article from 1918 calling that year “the worst Christmas ever”- the aftermath of the war, the influenza… 2020 seemed like a good year to challenge any modern “worst” Christmas.

In 2021, I did the evolution of Christmas, in 22 it was on a Sunday, in 23 I reprised the story of “I heard the Bells,” and in 24 I did the same for “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. SO- what to do today? And especially for those of you keeping your regular patterns of show listening and coffee making (maybe even driving to work- God bless you if your vocation calls you to work today).

Today I want to give you one of my favorite Christmas readings- I’ll do Scripture at the end- and I’ve quoted Advent and Christmas hymns ad nauseam- but this is a reading from G.K. Chesterton- he has his own Weekend Edition and is a favorite of mine- like C.S. Lewis he was a literate Englishman and Christian who cold write theology and mystery novels and one of the best Christmas poems of all time.  

So- it’s the House of Christmas, written in 1915- amidst the great war- you can listen just for the patterns and sounds, you can listen for allusions and most importantly how Chesterton is using the language of inversion- the “homelessness” of the messiah- us being “at home” but “homesick” with battle and blazing eyes… a homeless child in a foul stable who brings us to our true home..

House of Christmas
By G. K. Chesterton 

There fared a mother driven forth

Out of an inn to roam;

In the place where she was homeless

All men are at home.

 

The crazy stable close at hand,

With shaking timber and shifting sand,

Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand

Than the square stones of Rome.

 

For men are homesick in their homes,

And strangers under the sun,

And they lay their heads in a foreign land

Whenever the day is done.

 

Here we have battle and blazing eyes,

And chance and honor and high surprise,

But our homes are under miraculous skies

Where the yule tale was begun.

 

 

A Child in a foul stable,

Where the beasts feed and foam,

Only where He was homeless

Are you and I at home;

 

We have hands that fashion and heads that know,

But our hearts we lost – how long ago!

In a place no chart nor ship can show

Under the sky’s dome.

 

This world is wild as an old wives’ tale,

And strange the plain things are,

The earth is enough and the air is enough

For our wonder and our war;

 

But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings

And our peace is put in impossible things

Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings

Round an incredible star.

 

 

To an open house in the evening

Home shall men come,

To an older place than Eden

And a taller town than Rome.

 

To the end of the way of the wandering star,

To the things that cannot be and that are,

To the place where God was homeless

And all men are at home.

 

Amen and Merry Christmas to you and yours from your friends at the Christian History Almanac.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and a great Christmas reading from Titus:

But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 25th of December 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a good company man who reminds you that the Christmas season is just beginning! He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who says Christmas ends when the witch lights go out tonight- we start the tear down tomorrow… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.