Loading ...Ever Wonder about Christmas
This whole Christmas thing in the churches of Christ is a odd tradition to understand. There are a ton of arguments surrounding this event’s place in the churches expression. There are the for Christmas arguments and the against Christmas arguments. I have experienced this odd blending of tradition and opinion numerous times in my past with the church. When I was a new Christian in Nova Scotia, I participated in a Christmas play. Yes, a Christmas play. It was cool, I was a wiseman and an Angel in the play. It was a great time of getting to know some of the people in the congregation. It was during this play that I learned that some people did not like it. The argument was that it was fine, but not at Christmas time. This lead to the book of arguments why Christians do not celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. There are a bunch of them. 1. We are not commanded to celebrate Jesus’ birth. 2. We celebrate Jesus every week, not just at Christmas. 3. People only want to celebrate baby Jesus because he is not commander or authoritative as a Child. 4. The denominations celebrate Christmas. 5. The world celebrates Christmas. 6. Christmas was a pagan holiday. I am sure there are more.
But has this ever confused you? It did me. I would go to the homes of these same people that would tell me why Christmas is wrong and they would be celebrating Christmas. Mostly these people told me that this was a Christmas without Jesus. Come on now. Why are we trying to get rid of Jesus? I like Jesus. I like telling about Jesus. I never want to get rid of Jesus in anything I do.
I think we do the same thing in the church context. We will have Holiday parties, we will exchange presents, but everybody, we will tell them- Do not talk about Jesus! Come on now. Imagine if you are a new Christian or a non-Christian, does this not seem confusing? We are doing everything to appear that we do Christmas except let Jesus be involved. Now of course if a new Christian or non Christian asks about this odd behavior we state, the 6 arguments from above. From one side of the mouth we are stating Christmas is great and the other side is stating Christmas is bad. We are talking from both sides of the mouth. You might feel you are making perfect sense, but this sense is only perfect to people who understand the whole church of Christ mindset on Christmas, but for people from a different background, it amounts to a ton of double speak. In fact, really, I do not want to do anything, and I mean anything that Jesus would not be invited to. If Jesus cannot come, I do not want to be there myself.
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Matthew,
Thanks for making the confusion plain. Although I do not believe Jesus’ birth was on or near our Dec 25. I do not mind if individuals want to take time to remember God’s gift of His Son. I think this season is a great door opening opportunity for the Church. While we do not need to put out misinforming signs saying, “Happy Birthday, Jesus;” we do need to acknowledge that many in the Western World are thinking more about Him during this time of year and use that to the advantage of the Gospel.
I personally think much if not all of this should be done individually (person to person) and that congregations need to avoid, ‘Jesus is the reason’ mentality. Atheism loves to point out the “stupidity” of celebrating the Winter Solstice as the birth of Christ and uses the opportunity to show how the “Orthodox” community borrowed if not stole the celebration from pagan cultures and religions.
Is there a way to use the fact that others are thinking of Him as a way to open doors without celebrating Jesus birth as the myth of Dec 25 suggests? I have been working on a solution for over 20 years and am still looking for a better way.
Matthew,
Great blog post. I agree it can be confusing. I do not care the least if we consider it Jesus’ birthday. I just finished praying with and giving a lady some food from our food bank because she can’t work due to her terminal cancer. This is what we need to be worrying about! And I have a feeling that’s what Jesus would want us doing…not splitting hairs.
On the Sunday before Christmas I know there will be those in the audience that are only there because of the holiday. You know what? I’m going to give them a Jesus sermon not a “we aren’t suppose to celebrate His birthday” sermon.
Personally, I’m greatful He was born…let celebrate it!
Where I grew up we went caroling at church and sung Silent Night and the like but not Noel or any song that said Jesus was born on Christmas.
Where I am at now we go to great pains to take Christ out of Christmas because so many are opposed to it. But many seem to be offended that greeters at stores will say happy holidays and not merry Christmas.
I can’t help to think that Romans 14:5-10 should apply to people celebrating Christmas.
Two years ago Christmas was on a Sunday. We were visiting a church and I counted 4 times that during the service they made sure to tell people why they didn’t celebrate Christmas in a religious way. I couldn’t help but to think what a non-Christian visitor would think.
Great comments everyone. Thank you for commenting on this. Rusty, I was given the night off on Christmas eve, the elders were really nice because I never asked them for this kindness, but they knew I was heading up to see family. Out of the goodness of their hearts, they allowed me to leave early to be with the family on that night. Just another example of working with a great eldership, but the congregation we attended did not mention anything about Jesus. It was a Jesus-less service. I was disappointed. I refuse to ever avoid Jesus just to make people feel that I do not believe that Jesus was born on Dec. 25th.
Scott,
I normally address the Christmas issue a few weeks in advance with our students in about a 5 minute walk through of how we got Christmas. This is mostly to diffuse the Christmas haters. Then I tell them we have two options to stress why we don’t celebrate Christmas or to use it as an opportunity to share with our friends. Your friends expect you to talk to them about Jesus at Christmas and if you don’t they will wonder why not. We are always looking for opportunities to share our faith and this is a national holiday that all your friends celebrate and will be more open to hearing you share Jesus with them now than any other time of the year. So bring them on __ night and we will talk about the birth of Jesus and why it was and is the greatest gift of all.
I never tell anyone Jesus was born on Christmas but I always talk about his birth during this season. To me this is like Acts 17. Paul used what was obviously on everyone’s mind and preached Jesus.
It seems to me that if Jesus could participate in Hanakkah (Festival of Dedication, Jn 10.23-24) which is not commanded in the Torah but developed within Jewish Tradition, then we are free to participate in a Christian holiday not commanded in scripture but still developed in Christian tradition.
As with many, I only wish that Christians would do more to make the Christmas holiday about Jesus. And I am not talking about engaging in a political war over the use of the phrase “Merry Christmas.” In the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph is confronted by the angel of the Lord and told about Mary’s pregnancy and what to do about it. In Matt 1.24 we are told that Joseph “…did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him….” Joseph made “Christmas” about Jesus by obediently participating in what God was redemptively doing in the world through Jesus. Maybe we would take a cue and find more ways to show how God is redemptively at work in Jesus – to show how truly God is with us in this world (Immanuel).
Grace and peace,
Rex
P.S. Rusty, I feel sorry for you. I grew up in a church that used to have those same practices and they drove off every visitor we had…as well as many members.
Excellent thoughts and the comments are outstanding. I too grew up in a church much like you described. You could sing a “Christmas” song from the song book January-November, but never in December. Thankfully I see that old tradition slowly slipping away. I start a series of Christmas sermons this Sunday called “Crave more Presence,” all from Luke 2. I’m thrilled that the world looks to Jesus this time of year and that now I do too.
We tell folks Jesus is the message and reason for 365 days per year and then tell folks they’re wrong on the two days they get it right (Christmas and Easter.) So , I guess we only need Him 363 days per year. We tell folks Jesus is the message of scripture and then chastise them for reading scriptures about the birth announcement. Materialism and a red-clothed fantasy aren’t the answers to what most family need; incredible that we fall for the line, “Christmas for us is about being with family” and then remove Jesus from the picture.
If we’re itching so bad to differ from denominations, perhaps we should celebrate Christmas on more days and more times during the year than they do. =o)
Hope you’re doing well my friend,
–Guy