Give Back Christmas
This message may strike some as controversial and others as stating the obvious.
I have to confess that for me, Christmas, as we know it today, has largely become something to survive, not celebrate.
And before you judge me too severely, I would suggest I may be in good company. There is another who may feel as I do, and that is Jesus. I can’t help but wonder if Jesus celebrates the Christmas that most people celebrate.
At some level, you may feel at least somewhat as I do. You may wish at least for a simpler way to celebrate Christmas, with less financial stress, less time stress and less emotional stress. But most of us are on a conveyor belt that takes us through the same path every year at this time. We are stuck in a pattern of meeting the expectations of others and ourselves. If we were to get off the conveyor belt and say, “I’m going to choose another path this year,” we would hurt and disappoint many around us, as well as ourselves. And since its not a very good witness and not very loving to hurt and disappoint family and friends, we feel that even if did want to make some changes in how we celebrate Christmas, we cannot.
Christmas has become far more about family traditions, about time spent together as a family, and, of course, about giving and receiving gifts. These are good things and if this is what Christmas means to us, let’s be honest about it. Let’s not pretend its all about Jesus, if it’s really mostly about family and traditions and gifts. Let’s be honest about what Christmas is really about for us.
We all have seen Christmas pageants before. We have all heard of the ‘Christmas story.’ If your Christmas was a story, let’s say as a play, who would have the starring roles? Not who is most important in the play, but who has the biggest parts (because in some plays the most important person – general, president, king, etc – may not have a starring role)? Who would have the biggest parts, who would you see most on stage? Would it be you, or your children, or your spouse or your mother or father or a sister or brother? Which characters take center stage at Christmas time in your Christmas story?
Now, next question, what should your Christmas story be about?
I don’t believe this is a black and white matter. I know of the pagan roots of many of our Christmas traditions and agree we would be better off without them. But I also believe this is a place for acting in faith based on what we are individually convinced of (so long as it is not inconsistent with Scripture) and not being quick to judge one another.
Please turn to Romans 14, verse 1. I want us to read this chapter together because I believe it applies to Christmas and to every other holiday we celebrate. I am reading from the NIV.
1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11It is written:
" ’As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
’every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.’ "[a] 12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
13Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. 14As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food[b nothing] is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. 15If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. 16Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. 17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
19Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
22So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
The central two verses in this passage for our purposes today are verses 5 and 6.
5One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord.
Let us use this standard for evaluating our own Christmas story and those of others. If you know Christians who do not believe in celebrating Christmas, according to this passage, that’s ok. And if you regard Christmas as a special day, that’s ok too IF you do so to the Lord. “6He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord.”
Having said that, we must each guard our hearts that we do not view our own observation of Christmas as a religious requirement that is necessary for pleasing God or even for salvation. We are saved by grace and not by observing special days.
In Galatians chapter 4, Paul says this to the Galatians, beginning in verse 8.
8Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.
We hear militant cries from conservative Christians that we should take back Christmas from those who have long commercialized it and from those who, over the last twenty years, have increasingly called for the secularization of Christmas. Take it back! But it is not ours to take. It doesn’t belong to us. It’s not our birthday.
No, instead of taking back Christmas, we need to give back Christmas… to Jesus. We need to give it back to him and ask him what he wants for his birthday. Many of us get irritated with those people in our family who either don’t ask us what we want on our birthday, or worse, ask and then get us something else we don’t want anyway. Let’s us not be that kind of person on Jesus birthday. Let’s ask him what he wants on his birthday and then give it to him.
Regardless of all our different family traditions, what would Jesus want Christmas to be about? What does he want to be the central part of every one of our celebrations, regardless of the specifics of them? Here’s a hint: it applies to every other day of the year, as well as Christmas day.
I believe it is that we celebrate the life of Christ within us as we walk in obedience to his word in all we think, say and do. Do our hearts and minds belong to Jesus at Christmas? Do our hearts and minds belong to Jesus the other 355 days of the year? Do we celebrate the birth and life of Christ on Christmas day AND on every other day of the year? It’s hard to show your love and appreciation for someone one day a year if you haven’t shown it the rest of the year.
As Christians, we are called to make the most of every opportunity to share Christ, to make him known to every one around us. Christmas presents us with unique opportunities to share Christ with others in ways that would be resisted by non-believers and seem pushy to them any other time of year. There is no higher priority for Jesus, no greater gift we can give him on his birthday than to share him with others – not just with our words, but with our lives. Lay down your expectations for Christmas and take up his expectations for Christmas.
When we do this we will avoid three of the most common sins of Christmas: anxiety, worldliness and idolatry.
Phil 4 says this about anxiety.
6Do not be anxious about anything [at Christmas], but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
James 3 says this about worldliness and worldly wisdom.
13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it [at Christmas] by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
And Colossians 3 says this about idolatry.
5Put to death [at Christmas], therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
An idol is anything we put before the Lord in our lives, including our expectations of Christmas IF we put them ahead of the Lord’s expectations of Christmas.
On Wednesday, I’m going to ask “what do you do or what do you plan to do to honor, celebrate and share Jesus on his birthday this year?” Or what are ideas you have heard of that you would like to put into practice to honor, celebrate and share Jesus on his birthday this year? Of course, no one has to answer the question, but I want to create an opportunity for us to share with each other steps we can take away from the pagan version of Christmas and toward the true meaning of it. I want each of us not just to see a gap between what Christmas is and what is should be (if you feel there is a gap), but to be encouraged as we hear what others are doing to bridge that gap.
Our celebrations of Christmas should be an extension of our celebration of Christ every other day of the year. If we give special attention to his birth and use the focus of the world on this adopted holiday to show and share the love of Christ and the true Christmas story, we give the Lord the best birthday present we could give him. But for that gift to be given with sincerity, it must be given to him the rest of the year as well. Each in our own way, lets make Christmas exactly what it means, a true celebration of Christ.
