How do you keep Christmas ?

There has been about as much contention and controversy surrounding the celebration of Christmas in the Anglican church as there has been controversy between Protestant and Roman Catholic. There seem to be several sources for this friction .. some of it historically accurate and some of it fictional. There are very good reasons to accept both sides of the argument and that creates a real dilemma for modern Christians. Some of the issues and questions surrounding Christmas are ...

Christmas is an adaptation of a pagan holiday. Why do we celebrate the “birthday” of the Lord on a day or even in a season (winter) in which it is almost certain he was not really born? How does this distortion of the facts reflect on our claims to truth as Christians?

Christmas wasn’t even recognized by the early Church. To the early church, and indeed, even to this day in the Eastern Church, Easter was and is the most important event in the Christian “celebrations” (derived from the word to “remember”, not to “party”). Easter has a message of hope, joy, victory. Christmas on the other hand reminds us that our Lord was born to die a terrible death for us sinners. Why should we be “joyous” about that event? Christians didn’t observe Christmas until sometime in the third century, apparently right after Constantine the Great (I) converted to Christianity and made it the dominant (though unofficial) religion of the Roman Empire.

Early American settlers despised and banned the holiday. Puritan settlers in the New England area were dead set against celebrating Christmas, and in Massachusetts it was actually banned by law. It had been banned in the Old World too. In Scotland and later in England it was legally banned by the Puritans while they had brief control of the two Parliaments. However, the ban was lifted in Great Britain upon the restoration of the monarchy. In the New World, there was constant friction between the English and the Puritans over the issue of Christmas and the traditions practiced during the holiday that had come over from England.

“Christmas” is named for a Roman Catholic tradition. The word “Christmas” is derived from “Christ’s Mass”. If a “mass” is historically a re-sacrificing of Christ for the atonement of sin, then aren’t we furthering a theological principal which we don’t believe in? Protestants believe that Christ was sacrificed “once for all”. Aren’t we being hypocritical by joining in a Roman Catholic holiday?

Christmas has become completely commercialized. Christmas has become a holiday of office parties, drinking, excessive gift giving, plays, Holiday on Ice, celebrity “Christmas Specials” (funny thing ... most celebrities don’t believe in Christ yet are willing to make money on him) and Santa Clause. A lot of people lay the blame entirely at the feet of Macy’s Department Store. The fact is, Christmas has been that way for hundreds and hundred of years .. probably as many years as it has been celebrated. Here is what Increase Mather, a Puritan preacher in Massachusetts wrote about Christmas in the late 1600s ...

"The generality of Christmas-keepers observe that festival after such a manner as is highly dishonourable to the name of Christ. How few are there comparatively that spend those holidays (as they are called) after an holy manner. But they are consumed in Compotations (drinking parties) , in Interludes (quasi-religious plays), in playing at Cards, in Revellings, in excess of Wine, in mad Mirth ..." Sounds a lot like the criticisms of Christmas that we have today doesn’t it ? So .. what’s a Christian supposed to do? Where does a Protestant go to “keep” Christmas?

Let’s start with a basic principal of philosophy. What a tradition represented at one time does not necessarily mean that it represents that same tradition today. Just look at the view that our founding fathers had of the Constitution, and what view of the constitution most law makers have today? Not the same at all is it! Christmas is a time of joy. Not the carnal revellry type of joy of previous generations but rather great spiritual joy. That joy is a recognition that where once all God’s people (Israel) were under the law and unsuccesfully sought their righteousness there, they are now free from its bonds of failure by the promised fulfillment of a savior. In Christ, God has lavished upon us the greatest gift that one can give ... eternal life. And God paid the most precious price that a father could pay to purchase that gift for us.. the very body and blood of his only begotten son. So we should “make merry” .. as men let out of prison, not as men seeking to fulfill their many carnal pleasures and lusts. We owe it to other Christians to recognize them and remind them at this time of year just who they are by declaring “Merry Christmas” to one and all. Just as we ministers preach the gospel to all Gods creation in the sure and certain hope that it will fall upon the ears of those who were chosen before the foundation of the world, we owe it likewise to one and all to remind them of Gods special gift to us.

As we work our way through the season of Advent we should ponder these many issues of Christmas and by doing so we will find the true spirit of Christmas and the right ways of celebrating what it really means. Don't wait for someone else to give you the answers to the questions above, do the work yourself ... you’ll be a better Christmas Keeper if you do. Let your hearts be merry, God has chosen you to be his children. And just as he has lavished the most magnificent of gifts on his children, so we should do the same to others .... in the same spirit. Not because we are somehow obligigated to do it, not because we are seeking their approval, not because we will get anything in return .. but simply because we love the brethren.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

This is the reason that we keep Christmas. To remind us of God’s love. In closing tonight I’d like to share with you John Donne’s great poem “Nativity”. I think it captures what Christmas is really all about. For those of you not familiar with Donne, he was the Rector of St Paul’s Cathedral, London and was a product of the English Reformation. Much of his poetry deals with divine subjects.

Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb,
Now leaves His well-belov'd imprisonment,
There He hath made Himself to His intent
Weak enough, now into the world to come;
But O, for thee, for Him, hath the inn no room?
Yet lay Him in this stall, and from the Orient,
Stars and wise men will travel to prevent
The effect of Herod's jealous general doom.
Seest thou, my soul, with thy faith's eyes, how He
Which fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie?
Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high,
That would have need to be pitied by thee?
Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go,
With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe.

On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
This is the month, and this the happy morn
Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.
That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty,
Wherewith he wont at Heav'n's high council-table,
To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid aside, and here with us to be,
Forsook the courts of everlasting day,
And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

Say Heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein
Afford a present to the Infant God?
Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain,
To welcome him to this his new abode,
Now while the heav'n, by the Sun's team untrod,
Hath took no print of the approaching light,
And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?
See how from far upon the eastern road
The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet:
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet,
And join thy voice unto the angel quire,
From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire