Jesus is not the Reason for the Season

It’s pretty much a cliché this time of year for clergy to rail against the secularization and commercialization of Christmas. Episcopal clergy are particularly dour because we add in the enforcement of Advent. Not only is the brash consumerism of the magnificent mile the devil’s corruption of Christmas, you shouldn’t even be thinking about Christmas at all until maybe sundown tonight. So don’t shop or even sing or decorate! I’d like to think that most of you have some small nagging voice saying the same things to you, tickling your conscience even without my prodding. Some small twinge of guilt as you succumb to this year’s advertising campaign. A faint tape playing in the back of your mind that says… “If I were a better Christian… If I were a better Christian, at Christmas time I would…”

You would what, I wonder. And what really keeps you from doing it? Why aren’t you doing what you think a better Christian would do?

But putting that question aside, I’m beginning to think that those of us who do take Jesus’ birth seriously end up fighting a lot of the wrong battles this time of year. Rather than fight what contemporary culture has fashioned this winter holiday season to be, maybe we should work more on actually taking Jesus’ birth seriously ourselves. Maybe we should worry less about trying to wedge Jesus into the culture’s holiday season and look at whether we are truly welcoming him into our lives. The Nativity of our Lord, which we are here to celebrate this evening, and culture’s winter holiday season are two quite different things. At least this year, I’m wondering if it wouldn’t help us as Christians to just keep them separate, rather than fret so much about trying to merge them.

Speaking of the holiday season, it might be helpful to note that Jesus really is not the reason for the season. And probably never was.

Jesus is not the reason for the season. Yes, you heard it from a Christian pulpit on Christmas Eve. Technically and historically speaking, the reason for a festive season in late December is the winter solstice. Just a few days ago the sun began to return; believe it or not the days are now getting longer. It takes the climate a while to catch up with the sun, but with the passing of the winter solstice, we have been promised spring. That is certainly something to celebrate. Whether or not Jesus is a part of your life. Cultures have been celebrating the winter solstice since long before Jesus was born. For us in more modern times, of course, the winter solstice still lurks in the background of our festivities, but the winter holiday season has come to be much more than just a celebration of the return of the sun. It is sleigh rides and lights glittering outside in the snow. It is warm fires and family dinners. It is gatherings with friends and family. It is really good music. For most people it is vacation. It is beautifully decorated trees, a pagan custom, and a time to celebrate tradition. The holiday season is an outpouring of generosity and gift giving.

These are all really glorious things, and aren’t you glad that our culture gives us an opportunity to experience them? But Jesus was not born to bring us spring or vacations from school or even a warming of the human spirit. Jesus was born to be our Savior. Jesus is much, much more than the precipitant of the winter holiday season, even at its best. Jesus is not the reason for the holiday season. Jesus is the Son of God, born to redeem us from sin and death. What does that mean for you in your life?

There is a lot to commend and enjoy in the holiday season. At its best it does stimulate generosity, raise spirits, celebrate love and peace, and bring people together. But even these are not the “true” meaning of Christmas. They are some of the best aspects of human nature, but Jesus was not born to help us celebrate the best of human nature; he was born to redeem the worst of human nature.

The true meaning of Christmas is God born in a filthy stable in Bethlehem. The unimaginable immensity of God’s love embodied in a child come to live with us. God is born among us. Right in the midst of whatever is going on in your life right now. God is come to make your life holy by his presence with you. The real meaning of Christmas is God in heaven being born of a human mother off some back alley in Bethlehem. Born to save us from the muck of sin and the slavery of death. The wonder of it is breathtaking. The nativity of our Lord. God with us. All we can do is fall down in awe and adoration. Gasp and sing God’s glory and praise. For those of us who take the birth of our Lord seriously only one activity, one response, is appropriate or expected of us at Christmas: worship.

We need not lament the secularization of Christmas. The nativity of our Lord can’t be secularized. The secular activities of this holiday season aren’t really Christmas. But do enjoy them. Why not? Enjoy all the secular parts of the holiday season. In general, they are secular culture at its best. Laugh with Santa; join in “holiday” parties at work and school; get a snow globe; revel in the lights on Michigan Avenue or on Dartmouth. Enjoy the holiday season.

And maybe we Christians should be the first to call all this the “holiday season” and not insist upon our own naming rights for all that happens this time of year; after all, most of it really isn’t about Christ’s birth. Calling the whole cultural winter holiday season Christmas seems to me to do more to obscure the real meaning of Christmas rather than illuminate it. Let’s save the word Christmas for things that really do revere and celebrate our Lord’s birth.

And maybe while we’re at it we Christians should not insist upon the presence of the crèche, the nativity scene, in the public square or along the magnificent mile… unless we are prepared to kneel there in that spot and offer worship. Christmas is about worship. We keep Christmas sacred when we join the shepherds glorifying and praising God in worship. “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth stand in awe of him.” A slightly different translation of a verse from this evening’s psalm. The Lord is born among us. Worship the Lord. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Worship the Lord in the back alleys where he is born today. Kneel there in awe and offer praise. Worship the Lord in all the moments of our life’s sadness and joy where our savior’s presence is revealed with us. Name Christ’s glory, not just in the holiday season, but throughout the year when life is born from death. And worship the Lord here tonight. This is Christmas, us gathered in this place to worship… to kneel in awe and thanksgiving… to sing God’s glory and praise. Our Savior is born among us. Come, let us adore him.