Celebrating Christmas

The message given in the Christmas Eve services in the Wheatland Parish December 24, 2012.

This is, of course, Christmas Eve. Tomorrow will be Christmas Day. So which are you, a Christmas Eve person or a Christmas Day person?

It’s funny the way these traditions evolve. Wanda’s family is a Christmas Eve family. That was their big deal, when they’d open all the presents and everything. My family is a Christmas Day family. We’d open the presents on Christmas morning because, after all, Santa didn’t come until we were all in bed on Christmas Eve.

What’s interesting to think about, at least to me, is that in the early Christian church, there were neither Christmas Eve families nor Christmas Day families. Christmas was not celebrated at all in the early church.

It’s hard for us to imagine the Christian church without Christmas. It was a long time, though, before we recognized Christmas as a holiday. The big deal in the early Christian church was Easter, the day when Jesus was raised from the dead.

It’s easy to see why. After all, the resurrection was the ultimate proof of who Jesus was. Without that, Jesus would just be a man—a good man, perhaps, a wise man, maybe, but still just a man. As for Jesus’ birth, well, everybody knew he had to have been born somewhere, sometime, so it was not considered that important.

In fact, only two of the gospels even tell the story of Jesus’ birth, and they don’t tell it the same way. In Matthew, the focus is on the angel, Joseph, the wise men, and King Herod. In Luke, the focus is on the angel Gabriel, Mary, and the shepherds. The traditional Christmas story we tell is a combination of those two gospels. In the gospels of Mark and John we don’t see Jesus until he’s an adult and starting his ministry.

Eventually, though, people started to feel like something was being left out of Christian celebrations. It seemed like, if they were going to celebrate the end of Jesus’ earthly life, they should also celebrate the beginning of his earthly life. The resurrection was an incredible gift, proof of our chance for salvation, but Jesus’ life on earth was also an incredible gift. They thought there should be a celebration for that, too.

And so, in the fourth century we started celebrating Christmas. It was a matter of some controversy. The Bible really does not give any significant clues as to when the actual date of Jesus’ birth might be. It was a fourth century pope who decided Christmas was be celebrated on December 25. The date was chosen because there was a pagan festival called Saturnalia that took place at about that time.

Choosing that day had a couple of effects. It made it easier for the holiday to gain popular acceptance, because it was piggy-backing on an existing holiday. On the other hand, it made it hard to get people to stop thinking of Christmas as a secular holiday and instead emphasize the religious aspects. Eventually, there got to be lots of partying and not much worship.

Because of that, by the 1600s a lot of religious leaders actually opposed celebrating Christmas. The first Puritans in the United States actually passed a law banning the celebration of Christmas. Then, after the American Revolution, most English traditions fell out of favor, including Christmas. In fact, Christmas was not recognized as a national holiday until 1870,

The point is that, from the time it started, Christmas was both a religious holiday and a secular holiday. It still is. We celebrate the birth of Jesus, but most of us still tell our kids about Santa Claus. We have nativity scenes with sheep and camels and donkeys, but we also hear about Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer. We talk about the birth of Jesus as the greatest Christmas gift, but we also love to go to the Christmas sales and buy gifts for others.

And maybe that’s okay. In fact, maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be. I mean, think of Jesus’ life. Jesus did not set himself apart from the world. Jesus was part of the world. Jesus did not get mad at people for having parties. In fact, Jesus sometimes went to the dinner parties and the wedding parties and the other parties people had.

Now, that does not mean that Jesus did not care what people did. He certainly did care. He said it pretty simply. He said we should love God and love other people.

What does that mean? It means we should reach out to others. It means we should not take advantage of anyone, but instead treat people honestly and fairly. It means we should go the extra mile to help each other. It means we should give as much as we can to help others.

It also means, though, that we should enjoy our lives on earth. God wants us to enjoy our lives on earth. That’s why God created the world with all the beauty it has. That’s why God created the world with all the wonderful things it has. God wants us to enjoy our lives on earth. It’s just that God wants us to enjoy our lives in ways that will help others enjoy their lives, too. God wants us to enjoy our lives in ways that will benefit everyone else. God wants us to enjoy helping others, to feel the joy that comes from making others’ lives easier and better.

See, what’s most important is not what we do to celebrate Christmas. What’s important is what’s in our hearts and how that shows in our lives. What’s important is not that we celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25. What’s important is that we have God’s Holy Spirit in our hearts and in our lives the other three hundred sixty-four days of the year.

So, if you celebrate some of the secular Christmas traditions, that’s okay. It’s okay if you like to watch Frosty or the Grinch on TV. It’s okay if you want to see the Hallmark Channel save Christmas for the thirtieth time. It’s okay to have a party and give gifts to celebrate Christmas. None of those things hurt anybody. They add enjoyment to our lives and the lives of others.

Just make sure that you also take some time to do what we’re doing here tonight. Make sure you remember that we don’t worship Frosty and no one ever got their salvation from believing in Santa Claus. We worship God, and we get our salvation from believing in Jesus Christ. If we love God and love others, and if our lives show that we do, then we will be able to enjoy our lives on earth. And then Christmas truly will be a day to celebrate.