Sermon: Attend to the Baby

Our pastor graciously asked me to preach this morning while he and his family traveled to visit relatives. My sermon is about keeping the season of Christmastide, from the Gospel text for the day, Luke 2.22-40.

If you would like to read it, you may access a PDF copy HERE.

Why Don't We Go to Church on Christmas Day?

In my experience, I have found it rare that churches hold services on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve, yes, but not on December 25.

Why is this? Christmas is arguably the second most important holy day in the church year, behind Easter Sunday. On Christmas Day we mark one of the most remarkable events in human history: God taking on human flesh to inaugurate his promised salvation and new creation. Should this not be an occasion of highest worship?

What do our practices say about our real feelings regarding Christmas? I read one question and answer column where it was asked, "Does your family go to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?" A respondent replied, "No, for us Christmas is to be spent with the family, not with the priest." As a pastor, I heard that sentiment many times.

It tells me that our cultural celebration of Christmas owes more to Charles Dickens than to the Biblical text or church tradition. In the early 19th century, the author almost singlehandedly transformed and revitalized the holiday as an occasion for family, feasting, and charity through his story, "A Christmas Carol."

While Dickens saw his work as complementing and applying the message of Christ to confront the sins of his own society, isn't it striking that the church plays no role in his ethic?

Scrooge's transformation of heart leads him to value good things: human kindness, the simple gifts of home and hearth, compassion for the poor and needy, concern for the conditions of workers, and a spirit of joy, optimism and cooperation. These are all aspects of our mission as the church scattered in the world, and we must not neglect them. But is there no place for the church gathered on Christmas Day?

I would love to hear comments on this.

Christmastide, or the Twelve Days of Christmas

I saw signs in the retail community this year advertising "Twelve Days of Christmas" sales. For the twelve days leading up to Christmas, the stores that held these sales had certain items at special prices each day so that shoppers could get ready for the holiday. This reflects a common understanding of the Twelve Days in our culture—that they lead up to and end on Christmas Day.

However, the Twelve Days of Christmas actually begin on Christmas Day. In the Christian Year of the Western Church, it is Advent season that leads up to Christmas, and then comes Christmastide, a twelve-day feast of our Lord's nativity. Christmastide ends with Epiphany on January 6, which celebrates God's revelation of Christ to the Gentiles in the story of the magi. The last night is traditionally known as "Twelfth Night," a feast that includes removing Christmas decorations. In different cultures and throughout the centuries, this season has been marked in various ways, but the point is that celebrating Christ's birth takes place over a SEASON, and not a single day.

Here is a prime example of how following a church-year pattern of spirituality can form us and transform us in Biblical ways and help us not be conformed to the ways of our fallen culture.

For most people, Christmas is over. After Thanksgiving, a season of shopping and special events builds up our spirit of anticipation toward the day for which we are all waiting. That morning, we run down the stairs, pass around gifts and open them until the room is inundated in a sea of paper and ribbon, and then we go to the grand feast. That's Christmas. The day after, when in our view Christmas is over, is "gift return and exchange" day, when we eagerly begin a new season—the season of post-Christmas sales.

However, in the liturgical tradition, Advent preparation for Christmas involves meditating on God's promises of salvation and the coming of Messiah. And Christmas Eve and Christmas Day usher in a period of almost two weeks to consider the wonder of the Incarnation. Christmas is the beginning of our walking in the Good News of great joy for all people which has come among us.

We welcomed a new baby into our family this year, about a week before Christmas. One thing we know—life is different now. Suddenly, we don't make decisions without considering the baby. New thoughts, new concerns, new priorities mold our choices. And even though the child is small and, at this point, devoted mainly to eating and sleeping, we have found ourselves taking time—time to hold him, look at him, ooh and aah over him, rock him, kiss him, tend to his needs, and make sure at all times that he is safe and secure in our care.

Christmas is not over, it has just begun. Take time these twelve days and give attention to Jesus, the newborn King.

Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Prayer

Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to be born this day of a pure virgin: Grant that I, who have been born again and made your child by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through my Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

The Eve of the Nativity

The Prayer of the Church on this Christmas Eve...

O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that I, who joyfully receive him as my Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.