The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday was 2011. That has only happened 11 times since 1938. I am told there is a pattern. The pattern is 11/6/5/6 years between. This means the next time Christmas falls on a Sunday will be in the year 2022, God willing.
In 2005 the New York Times reported that “Some of the nation’s most prominent megachurches have decided not to hold worship services on Christmas Day.
Megachurch leaders say that the decision is in keeping with their innovative and “family friendly” approach and that they are compensating in other ways. Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., always a pacesetter among megachurches, is handing out a DVD it produced for the occasion that features a heartwarming contemporary Christmas tale.
“What we’re encouraging people to do is take that DVD and in the comfort of their living room, with friends and family, pop it into the player and hopefully hear a different and more personal and maybe more intimate Christmas message, that God is with us wherever we are,” said Cally Parkinson, communications director at Willow Creek, which draws 20,000 people on a typical Sunday.”
An Internet blogger commented on the decision of churches across the US not to have services on Christmas Day:
I’m sorry, but this would not do it for me. I know, I know, “God is everywhere and we don’t need to be in a church to worship Him…” But we’re supposed to be not simply “believers” but a “community” of believers, a “church.” To suggest that shoving a DVD into a machine and gathering ’round the television is a proper substitute for getting out there for worship and fellowship among the brethren…well, I don’t get it. {end quote}
Let's ask ourselves, which is more important? Seeing to it that families have a warm, family-friendly Christmas or keeping the Biblical imperative of assembling together on the Lord’s Day? (Hebrews 10:23-25)
Many churches obviously have chosen convenience over conviction and pleasure over principal. The pursuit of pleasure over the clear command of Scripture plays right into the hand of modern Epicureanism.
A Greek philosopher by the name of Epicurus promoted the pursuit of pleasure as the chief aim in life. Listen and consider the following words of Epicurus, contained in a letter:
Wherefore we call pleasure the Alpha and Omega of a blessed life. Pleasure is our first and kindred good. It is the starting-point of every choice and of every aversion, and to it we come back, inasmuch as we make feeling the rule by which to judge every good thing.
Like Epicurus, many today believe that the ultimate purpose of life is to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Their philosophy is "Total Indulgence—Zero Guilt." Years ago, a commercial on television reminded its viewers that you only go around once in life—therefore "Go for the gusto!" Get all of the pleasure you can, while you can!
But rather than living life with reckless abandon, Epicurus advocated a more "dignified" approach to seeking pleasure. Epicurus advanced the idea that one could enjoy life by pursuing a more sophisticated level of pleasure. He, and his followers, sought to obtain pleasure without losing all control of their faculties.
In fact, the dictionary defines an "epicure" as "a person who cultivates a refined taste, esp. in food and wine; connoisseur." The word "epicurean" is defined as someone who is "fond of or adapted to luxury or indulgence in sensual pleasures; having luxurious tastes or habits, esp. in eating or drinking."
Church-going Epicureans are not the kind who around Christmas sing, “Here we go a wassailing…” A “wassail” was a festive occasion where people drank a whole lot. Yes, they prefer pleasure over principal but do it sophisticatedly.
When opting out of church because they are “tired”, they make sure they get their “praise” on with BET and Bobby Jones’ Gospel. They get their “spiritual vitamin” from Lee Michaels or The Word Network, The Church Channel or TBN. TV, Radio church service, they’ve found, have good bedside manners.
It would seem that among many of our church folk today—no matter how they try to justify it or spiritualize it, pleasure is the principal thing.
The late Bishop Eddie L. Long said that his church was "always promoting family," and that many members of his congregation were transplants to the Atlanta area who traveled far away to be with their families on Christmas. "We're encouraging our members to do a family worship," Bishop Long said. "They could wake up and read Scripture and pray and sometimes sing a song, and go over the true meaning of what Christmas is, before opening up their gifts. It keeps them together and not running off to get dressed up to go off to church."
His church offers streaming video of the Sunday service, and Bishop Long said he expected a spike in viewers that Christmas. "They have an option if they want to join their family around the computer and worship with us," he said.
Staff members at Willow Creek said they had had few complaints from members about the church closing on Christmas. Said the Rev. Mark Ashton, whose title is pastor of spiritual discovery: "We've always been a church that's been on the edge of innovation. We've been willing to try and experiment, so this is another one of those innovations."
Someone has said, “The real question is not why churches are skipping Christmas, but why individual Christians are skipping church on the second holiest day on the Christian calendar next to Easter.”
Let me share with you a few passages of Scripture that will serve to help us to get God’s perspective on this controversy.
Eccl 3:12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives,
Eccl 3:13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor; it is the gift of God.
Here Solomon is letting us know that it is God who provides down to the most routine, everyday and commonplace aspects of life—eating and drinking. We are able to enjoy the simplest of the benefits this life has to offer. But we should not make the mistake of forgetting that everyday, routine blessings are not within our power to bestow upon ourselves, but must come from a higher source.
In other words, those who decide to stay home and celebrate Christmas, may not know or do not remember that they wouldn’t even be able to have a Christmas if it weren’t for the Lord’s ordinary, everyday, commonplace blessings:
* They would not have housing to celebrate Christmas in
* They would not have heat to warm their housing
* They wouldn’t have money to purchase any presents
* They wouldn’t have health and strength to open their presents
* They wouldn’t have eyes to see the presents
They wouldn’t have His air to breathe—“for in Him we live and move and have our being…” (Acts 17:28)
Eccl 2:24-25 - There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen, that it is from the hand of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?
The Epicurean would misinterpret Solomon’s reference to "eating and drinking" to refer primarily to bodily pleasure. Instead Solomon’s emphasis is this: the means and ability to enjoy these things comes from God!
The Apostle James says it this way in the New Testament, “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.” (James 1:17)
Solomon writes in chapter five of Ecclesiastes: “Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage.” (Eccl 5:18)
Solomon makes two points:
God gives you and I life - “…all the days of his life which God gives him…” -
It is God’s blessing that enables us to eat and drink, labor and enjoy - “for it is his heritage”
And then he further writes, “As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.”
Life and the ability to enjoy life is “the gift of God.”
A “gift” is a favor which one receives without merit of his own. The recipient did not buy or pay for it and oftentimes, does not deserve it.
Solomon says that even the ability to take a morsel of food from your hand to your mouth is from God.
Eating and drinking—the most routine activities of this earthly life are the gift of God. So often we take these things for granted while there are many who cannot feed themselves.
The activities of our limbs, the articulation of speech, the blood running warm through our veins and the breathing of oxygen and exhaling of carbon-dioxide ALL are the gift of God!
And because we are the recipients of God’s gift we ought come to worship God—especially on the Lord’s day as He has commanded.
Because we have received the gift of God, when He says to come worship, we come—even if it intrudes on our “family time.” He has given us His gift—we wouldn’t have family, shelter, presents, air, food, water or clothes if it wasn’t for God’s gracious gift!
But Solomon is writing about the Lord’s ordinary, commonplace, everyday blessings—the gift of God that sustains us physically. But there is another “gift of God” that is designed to sustain us eternally.
The gift of God that Solomon writes about is only temporary. Food and drink are only temporary. Jesus says in Matthew 15:17, “Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated?” But there is another gift that sustains us forever.
The gift of God that Solomon mentioned provides for our needs while we are on this earth but there is another gift that will take us to heaven.
The gift of God for this life is temporal—just like that wrapping paper you threw away—it gave you a short-lived pleasure. But Psalm 16:11 tells us that in His presence is fullness of joy; At His right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The gift of God Solomon writes about is a good gift but there is another gift that is excellent!
The gifts that you may have received from a loved one this morning are ok but you may not even remember what you got this time next year but there is another gift that will never be forgotten.
Toys lose your interest, clothes get old or out of style, colognes and perfumes run out, household appliances break down but the gift that I am talking about will never fade away.
The gift of God that I am referring to is what the Bible calls the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ—have you received this gift? Rom 6:23 says, “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Several weeks ago I was meeting with my aunt and had on a fleece shirt that she really thought was nice and wanting to know where I got it. When I couldn’t remember, I “gave her the shirt off my back.”
A couple of weeks ago my wife asked where my fleece shirt was and I told her what I had done with it. Then she dropped the bomb—she reminded me that she had given that beautiful fleece shirt to me as a gift.
Needless to say, I contacted my aunt and told her that I needed that shirt back.
The point is this: I can look in my closet and find clothes and ties; I can look on my dresser and find cologne and watches and other things that I have received as gifts from my wife and children and other people and as much as I wholeheartedly appreciated those gifts of their love for me, sometimes I can’t recall “who gave what.”
But there is a gift that I wear daily. There is a gift that I keep in my possession—I do not leave home without it.
I can remember when it was and where I was when I received it and who gave it to me. I will cherish this gift for the rest of my life and then after that.
This is a gift that once it is given, it will never be taken away—no one will ever come to me and ask for it back.
This is a gift that I cannot take back to the store and exchange it for another. I could not give it back even if I wanted to.
What gift am I talking about? I am talking about Jesus! I am talking about eternal life.
Eph 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
This gift was given to me the moment I believed. It didn’t cost me anything—the price was already paid in full!
It came with a wrapping. It came wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. But that is not the wrapping I am talking about.
This gift was God Himself—wrapped in human flesh—He was the God-man—very God and very man.
“...though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)
How did He do this? He came as a baby; grew up as a sinless man; went to the Cross as my substitute to pay the penalty for my sin.
He died on that Cross for me but then He got up and came out of that grave on the third day!
What a gift! Paul writes in 2 Cor 9:15, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
God gave His best; He gave His all. Words cannot express our gratitude so we come to offer up joyful praise, worship and thanksgiving for God's wonderful gift!
I know that some elected to stay home in order to open their gifts and share a warm, family-friendly Christmas with one another but I have come out to worship Him for His gift!
