The TRUTH About Christmas
First Congregational Church – Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Christmas Eve – December 24, 2009
Rev. Steven A. Peay, Ph.D.
[texts: ] Isaiah 52:7-10/Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12)/John 1:1-14
In the last couple of weeks how many of you have seen or heard one of the following:
If you haven’t, I’m surprised because they’re everywhere this year. It appears that the whole situation of the economy and world affairs in general have people longing for simpler, more basic and comforting realities.
One of the better examples of these articles is Philip Chard’s ‘Out of My Mind’ column in the December 21 Journal-Sentinel. His point is that our observance of Christmas has changed over the years. We’ve gone from a celebration focused on family, with only modest – and often home-made – gifts exchanged, to what he describes as “commercial gluttony.” Yet, Chard is hopeful because, as he wrote, “This holiday has been morphing for centuries and will continue to do so.” And there’s a truth about Christmas.
I also came across something from our friends at the Freedom From Religion Foundation over in Madison that flipped a switch or two of mine. They’re sponsoring billboards on the sides of a hundred buses out in Seattle this year reading: “Yes Virginia, there is no God.” It’s a clever take-off on Francis P. Church’s famous response to a little girl’s letter to the New York Sun back in 1897 asking if there is a Santa Claus. The ad campaign is backed-up with quotes from famous atheists, like Katherine Hepburn, Clarence Darrow and Richard Dawkins. I’m sure that God is amused.
Something one of the leaders of the Foundation said did ring true to me, however. Dan Barker said, “Most people think December is for Christians and view our solstice signs as an intrusion, when actually it’s the other way around. People have been celebrating the winter solstice long before Christmas. We see Christians as the intruder, trying to steal the natural holiday from all of us humans.” While part of what he said is also a truth about Christmas, I would remind him that, last I looked, Christians are humans, too. Now as to his “natural holiday” idea, I don’t think the folks who originally celebrated the solstice would have called it “natural.” History shows us that they saw signs of divinities all around them. Mr. Barker – like most atheists I’ve encountered – is quick to condemn generalities by Christians, but not too quick to avoid them himself!
Both pieces, though coming from different perspectives, still make a valid point: the real truth about Christmas, if you will. Christmas now is very different from what it was. I would take it even a step farther, because there was a long period in the history of the Christian Church were there was no Christmas. Yes, Virginia, there was a time when there was a Saint Nicholas (who really did live in 4th Century Asia Minor), but no Christmas.
The truth about Christmas is that it only began to be celebrated in the Western Church in the mid-fourth century (sometime between 336 and 354 to be more precise). It is also true to say that Christian’s “borrowed” the date from existing festivals and then borrowed the festivals themselves – though we did “baptize” or “Christianize” them. The truth is that the Bible is not clear about when Jesus was born. The distinguished Roman Catholic Biblical scholar, the late Father Raymond Brown, concurred with others that the date could have been between March and November. Shepherds don’t “abide in the fields” in winter, even in Palestine!
Why December 25th? Well, if you happened to watch the comedy “The Big Bang Theory” this past week, you heard Sheldon give a fairly accurate description of the Roman Saturnalia and the customs of the Scandinavian/Germanic ‘Jul’ (‘Yule’) – along with a hilariously accurate description of gift-giving as an exercise in appropriate reciprocity. The truth is, people have long celebrated the promise of light’s return – the solstice – and the promise of new life and growth that it brings. Not to mention that they’d just done some slaughtering to thin the herds for winter and had the stores of freshly harvested grain and produce. This, of course, means that there would have been fermentable stuff readily available. How better to overcome the menacing darkness than a good party and a big, roaring fire? Add a little evergreen, some holly and ivy (they bear fruit in the midst of winter) and you’re set to celebrate, plus keep out the evil spirits of the dark.
The Christians came along and didn’t want anything to do with it. Their big party is tied to the Jewish celebration of Passover. Paul’s letters – the earliest New Testament writings – have nothing in them about “Christmas.” Only two of the four Gospels – Matthew and Luke – have birth stories. John’s Gospel has this mystical material we read about the creative Word of God taking human flesh. Then Christianity becomes a legally tolerated religion in 313, begins to articulate its theology in 325 and not long after – Christmas.
It just make sense that our Christian ancestors would look at those Roman festivals of Saturnalia, Kalends and, especially Sol Invictus – the unconquerable sun – held on December 25 (then calculated as the Winter Solstice) and saw in them a way to reach people. After all, we worship the unconquerable S-O-N, who is the “light of the world.” Along with the “baptism” of these celebration came the customs. As one historian said, “The pagan Romans became Christians, but the Saturnalia remained.” Long story short, trying to keep Jesus as “the reason for the season” began in the late fourth century and has been an effort ever since. The Puritans in both Old and New England – the spiritual ancestors of Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Baptists -- even banned Christmas for a while.
The real truth about Christmas is that it is a Christian, religious celebration AND it’s a cultural, commercial celebration, too. The latter celebration elevates “Santa Claus” and “Frosty the Snowman,” sings “White Christmas” (“Blue Christmas” for Elvis fans) and “Jingle Bells,” and promotes gift-giving on a grand scale. So be it. It is what it is. For Christian there is a celebration of a God who loves us so very much that God became one of us: living our life and dying our death so that human life and death are transformed and renewed. God has become one with us, so that we might become one with God.
I think this transformative element, so easily overlooked, is the reason why so much good music and literature has been produced about Christmas. Think about the lovely carols that we sing, the choral music that uplifts and delights us, and then listen past the melodies to the words. Let’s look at just a couple of them, shall we? One ancient Latin hymn, written by Prudentius in the fourth century, sings: “Of the Father’s love begotten/Ere the worlds began to be,/He is Alpha and Omega,/He the source, the ending he,/Of the things that are, that have been,/And that future years shall see,/Evermore and Evermore//Oh, that birth forever blessed,/When the virgin, full of grace,/By the Holy Ghost conceiving,/Bore the savior of our race,/And the babe, the world’s redeemer,/First revealed his sacred face,/Evermore and evermore.” There is the doctrine of the Incarnation in a nutshell – the mystery revealed – God with us and God for us. It’s a lot different than “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” isn’t it?
Phillips Brooks wrote “O Little Town of Bethlehem” after visiting there in the eighteen sixties. It’s a lovely poem, set to an equally charming tune, but the fourth verse makes the point we too often forget: “O holy Child of Bethlehem,/Descend to us, we pray;/Cast out our sin, and enter in,/Be born in us today./We hear the Christmas angels/The great glad tidings tell;/O come to us, abide with us,/Our Lord Emmanuel.” The birth long ago in Bethlehem is to happen in our lives, in us, today. That’s where this story is different, because while it happened long ago, it continues to happen whenever and wherever we open ourselves to the reality of God-with-us.
If we look to literature there are countless stories inspired by the Lord’s birth, but the man who made Christmas in so many ways, was Charles Dickens. His “Christmas Books” The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, The Haunted Man, and best known to us A Christmas Carol are all stories of transformation and of hope. They all speak to the possibility of our humanity actually living up to its potential to love and to care for others – as God meant us to do. All you have to do is to look at the experience of Ebenezer Scrooge and the transformation that takes him from “Bah! Humbug!” to one who “kept Christmas well” to see the enduring power of the story that inspired it. We can change and we can grow – if we open ourselves to do it and in that possibility is the story of Christmas.
The truth about Christmas points us to what God has called us to be. This is what Leo the Great preached to his people in Rome back in the fifth century and his words still ring true today. Leo said, “No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no one free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice – seeing the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad – receiving the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage – being summoned to life. . .Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.” Amen to that.
Want to keep Christmas as a CHRISTIAN? Well, then live as a Christian, that’s the point isn’t it? Perhaps our friends at the Freedom From Religion Foundation wouldn’t be doing their thing if more of us lived the reality of lives made new? There are also some practical things that we can do to put Christ into Christmas. Remember that the 25th is just the FIRST DAY of the twelve days of Christmas – don’t throw out the tree on the “Feast of Stephen” (December 26), you’ll upset “Good King Wenceslas” – and while the radio may quit playing Christmas tunes, it doesn’t mean that we have to. Here are some very good ideas I came across in a delightful book Christmas: A Candid History from yet another book, Unplug the Christmas Machine by Jo Robinson and Jean Coppock Staeheli. The ideas are summarized in “the Christmas Pledge”:
Now you know the truth about Christmas. The truth is there is a God who loves us very much and has given us a dignity as humans to be children of God by sharing our lives. The truth is that this God is among us still. And the truth is that we are to live the truth, not just on Christmas, but on the other 364 days of the year, too, like we really believe it. We keep Christmas every day, when we bring Christ to birth in our everyday living – that is the truth about Christmas. So, be conscious of your dignity, Christians, and have yourselves a very Merry Christmas!
Bruce David Forbes Christmas: A Candid History (Berkley: Univ. of Cal. Press, 2007), p. 149