Survey some predictable guesses as to what Christmas is all about: Santa Claus. Getting gifts. Giving gifts. Doorbuster sales. Black Friday. Time off from work. Family. Friends. Jesus’s birthday.
You will often hear a refrain that calls people back to the true meaning of Christmas: “Keep ‘Christ’ in ‘Christmas,'” they say. But I think we need to go back a step further. We probably shouldn’t assume people have a solid idea of who “Christ” is in the first place.
We need to recover God’s view of Christmas:
Incarnation Day.
In a season that keeps us breathlessly preoccupied with shopping and shipping and spending and sales and snowflakes and stockings and Santas and Scrooges, trees and traveling and time off, presents and parties, cookies and candy canes and carols and cards, Grinches and gifts and giving and getting, family and friends and feasts and festivities and fruitcake and fa-la-la’s, have you ever stopped to think—
—really stopped—to really think—
—about what the Incarnation means?
God became a baby… but kept on being needless, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and uncreated.
God became the obedient child of a sinful man and woman… but kept on being sovereign and righteous and holy.
God became a man… but kept on being God.
Let’s think about Christmas in terms of the shocking truth that God put on human skin and lived a perfect life as one of us.
Up next: Happy Birthday, Jesus? Stay tuned…
The other day I was riding in the car with the kids and a song came on 104.7 the FISH and went something like this…
Now, I know you can be a Christian songwriter and compose a Christmas song that is not exactly and specifically explaining on the incarnation. But when you are a “Christian” radio station claiming to be “keeping Christ in Christmas” you have to wonder, “do they really mean that or does that slogan just sell to the Christian community?” Doesn’t the playing of songs that speak of Santa and trying to be good give a hypocritical rub to the stated mission of 104.7 during the Christmas Holiday’s? Am I a prude? Or, am I just weary of thinking we are being bold as a community of Christians when all we are doing is creating unauthentic slogans that push a thin veneer of Christianity? Or, are we just living in time when Christianity is watered down? Maybe I am experiencing all of the above…
Is it too much to ask people to wrestle with issues of God-centered authenticity and media? Let’s NOT become critical people who throw theological lightning bolts to decry everything we see in our culture, but let’s be willing to be critical thinkers who have the ability to evaluate the messages that are coming at us from “inside” our own community.
Here is a good example of someone trying to reexamine the marketing veneer that is so dominant in the “Christian” music industry.
You’re no prude… I confess I’ve been sitting on this post for a few days. I wanted to sort of “count to ten” before reacting after I heard the following on the radio:
Serenity Now…!
Jamming on your theme of decrying worldliness inside the church… Touchstone Magazine recently had a forum discussion on “Evangelicalism Today”. I found the comments from Russell Moore, Denny Burk, and Michael Horton especially insightful on this point.
Hail to the king of alliteration. Some good points, Hugh, albeit based on a wobbly assumption. I’m not even at the point of trying to “keep Christ in Christmas.” Actually, I’m astonished at the lengths to which I go to keep Christ out of Christmas.
There is no part of the incarnation that does not baffle and bewilder me.
Why come at a time when national pride is at a low? And why do nothing to change the status quo? I would’ve snuck off to secret meetings with the zealots, planned an overthrow, established my throne as king after rising triumphantly from the death, led a heavenly army to topple the Roman empire, and got my kingdom off to a flying start. Why the ignominious life and death?
Why hang out with fisherman and tax collectors? Why not select a few scribes, a few priests and one or two influential business men? Surely they would’ve had the theological background to grasp the teachings much better, and the credibility to convey the message of the kingdom afterwards.
If His mom had to go through the heartache of watching a child suffer and die, why not at least let her have the support of a husband? Why put Himself through the pain of losing a parent? If the toppling of the Roman empire scenario was followed, He could have spared those whom He had chosen, loved, drawn to Himself, so much of the horrible suffering and pain. Dipped in tar to become a living torch? Not nice.
And at Christmas time, I want nice. Nice decorations, nice presents, a nice life, full of happiness and convenience and stuff.
It gets inconvenient to consider Christ when I’m on a spending spree to buy gifts I can afford (and to charge the rest that I desire and can’t afford).
It gets inconvenient to consider Christ when I practice hospitality and invite friends with whom I plan to share the gospel. I rush about frantically, yelling at my husband for not having turned the oven off, irritated with his attempts to appease me by setting out appetizers (wrong plate Honey how many times do I have to tell you green never goes on green yes you have to move them take the purple plate it’s right in front of your nose how can you not see it don’t tell me no-one will notice I notice and so will Sheila and hurry you still have to get the napkins folded for me) and threatening my kid with strangulation if even one toy escapes her playroom. We move like tornadoes through the house but when the first car pulls up, we go into that slow-motion, languid mode, exchanging knowing glances when the guests are impressed with our “effortless” entertaining. Oh yeah, about sharing Christ? Well, we don’t want to come across too pushy, you know?
So putting Christ back into Christmas and then in addition consider the incarnation or demand authenticity? Nah. Too costly. I’ll have to give up my discontentment about not having just a little more money. I’ll have to stop competing with my neighbors. I’ll actually have to care about people. I’ll have to stop pretending. I’ll have to face the rottenness and corruption of my heart as well as my own inability to change a single thing about it. I’ll have to consider that this life isn’t it, that I’m following a Leader who embraced suffering and death. That will really spoil the Christmas spirit now, wouldn’t it? So bring on the eggnog and Nat King Cole and the chestnuts and the pretty decorations and my Christmas cards that have more glitter than those my sister sent out. And leave me to enjoy my Christmas parties and my make-believe life in my make-believe world.
Nice satire Sandra. All too close to home. Someone please give this woman a blog because goodness knows I will never get one here. 😉
With the current “Slam-the-Fish Christmas fiesta party above” if it is possible to put too much Christ in Christmas, try VICTORY 9.15 sometime instead of the Fish.
In fact “so much Christ” year round they are oozing from every pore. I think there is a balance in everything and this station accomplishes that fishy balance for sure.
A constant booming voice saying “JESUS! JESUS! JESUS! the rock that holds not the rock that rolls…Victory 91.5” Time again for the Christmas story parable played “every hour” until Christmas for the past 25 years about the birds, snow, heathen, church bells, and the warm barn. I do love Evie though with “C’mon Ring Those Bells”
Yeah. Nice. Lots of that stuff make we yearn a few more songs about snow and Santa every so often. Like eating sugar out of the bag with a giant spoon.
Sorry. I know we advertise on 91.5 and they were a vital part of my early Christian years in the 80s. Times change and so do Christian stations.
Broadcast radio is a dying medium anyway. In ten years most will listen to satellite radio or streaming Internet directly in your cars. I know as official gadget boy that does both of those things right now.
If anyone is reading this I hope you all find balance in your lives and have a nice weekend as I am chucking all Fishy Christmas symbols and heading down to the Kingdom Hall to worship. 🙂
Ny-tol.
I think you are right Hugh. When many people, even many churches and Christians, talk about “keeping Christ in Christmas” their goal is not to have people come to a better understanding of the significance of the incarnation but to ensure that Target and Wal-Mart use the word “Christmas” rather than “Holiday” in their stores and advertisements.
Sadly, I think the desire behind that goal is not so much to honor Christ as it is to maintain the way of life and traditions we grew up with, in other words its more about us than about God seems to me.
As for the 104.7 thing, we need to remember that they are a for-profit business. I agree with CA about 91.5. They are a listener supported ministry, in other words they’re in it for different reasons that the folks at 104.7 therefore we can expect different products from the two.
Not that there’s anything wrong with listening to “The Fish” but we shouldn’t deceive ourselves as to their purpose and then be disappointed when we hear things that seem out of sync with our expectations of a “Christian” station.
Yo! Yo! Preesh the ack Larry! You explained the contrast perfectly, but I still think both stations are at extreme ends of the spectrum at times, and could find some balance.
I sure used to love 91.5 back in the day (1980s) before feeling the need to over spiritualize so many things. The music can do the talking IMO. The message is in the music right? Even 91.5 will still throw in a generic/secular Christmas song like “Silver Bells” on a rare occasion, or they used to.
Today there are so many other choices than two local Atlanta Christian broadcast stations.
Especially MP3 players (I-Pod) where we can choose the music (an even movies) we wish to listen to and watch that keeps Christ in Christmas.
There is no better way to keep Christ in Christmas than by shining His light to others (through us) and telling about what He has done in our lives during this special time of year. Let’s all pray for more opportunities to do so….shall we?
Thanks for the discussion guys. I didn’t mean to start a radio station-bashing vent, so perhaps we can agree that there’s “’nuff said” about the radio thing.
The spirit of my original post was that we need to focus more on what Christmas is about (God with skin on) and less on what Christmas is not (see alliterative run-on sentence above).
I’ll second C.A.’s suggestion that we get that done by bearing witness to his goodness… and I’ll add that the central truth of Christmas is beyond our experience. It’s that we have a wonderful mystery in which God became a man, and kept on being God. Everything rides on that.
The Directory of Public Worship states that
“THERE is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord’s day, which is the Christian Sabbath.”
It went on to say
“Festival days, vulgarly called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued.”
I am in complete agreement. An excellent series of sermons can be found below on this and I would commend them to you. 🙂
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=121806115551
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=121806115617
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=12240616173
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=122406161879
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=12310617958
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1150716413
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1150716553
Rather lengthy but very edifying! 🙂
Richard, thanks for the links to the sermons. In all honesty I have to confess I don’t plan to listen to them; given limitless time and attention things might be different.
To your citation of the Directory of Public Worship (specifically its Appendix), I would raise two objections:
1. I reject the idea that the Lord’s Day is to be regarded as the Christian Sabbath. After the Gospels, the Sabbath is never spoken of in the New Testament except in terms of Christ himself being our Sabbath-rest (Heb. 4), Paul’s admonition to fret not the Sabbath (Col. 2:16), and narrative descriptions (numerous places in Acts, e.g., such-and-such happened “on a Sabbath day,” etc.).
2. On the observance of holidays, Col. 2:16, taken together with Romans 14 and 1 Cor. 8-10, would seem to indicate that we are free within our consciences to observe holidays or to abstain from such observances. I understand that the Puritans had their reasons for rejecting observances like Christmas, but I submit that these reasons were matters of conscience and circumstance — not because observances (like Christmas) were necessarily wrong.
Therefore, if a person is convicted in his conscience that observing Christmas is an affront to God, then for him it is sin. But I must insist that what makes it sinful is his weak conscience, not the Bible. The abundant testimony to our freedom in Christ (Gal. 5, et al) should make that clear.
Hi Hugh,
1. Your use of Colossians 2:16 and Romans 14 are irrelevant to this issue in that they were written by St. Paul rebuking Christian Jews who kept Jewish ceremonial days which were a shadow of Christ and wanted the gentiles to keep them also.
2. Whilst we do have freedom in Christ we are to serve him and we are not free to break his holy law which is our rule.
3. Your understanding of the sabbath is wrong. It is a part of the moral law of God and like marriage is a creation ordinance. It is stipulated in the decalogue which is binding on all men for all time.
http://www.biblebb.com/files/edwards/sabbath.htm
http://www.apuritansmind.com/TheLordsDay/JCRyleSabbath.htm
Kind regards.
Richard, I get the sense I’m not going to convince you of much…
1. The larger issue pointed to by the “disputable matters” questions (Romans 14, 1 Cor 8-10) is whether engaging in or abstaining from certain practices is a component of the gospel. Paul says these things are immaterial to the gospel, and this comports with his teachings on faith as the sole instrument of justification. In Galatians, Paul strenuously attacks those who would add circumcision to the requirements of the gospel. It seems to me that one who requires Christians to observe the Sabbath is in danger of the same rebuke.
2 & 3. No it isn’t. The commandment to keep the Sabbath in Exodus 20:8 is a ceremonial, not moral, part of the Mosaic covenant — i.e., the very Law to which those in Christ have died — and therefore is not binding on followers of Christ. It is true that much of the Law is repeated in the Law of Christ, but the Mosaic provision for Sabbath observance has no corollary in New Testament faith and practice. As such, our assembly on the Lord’s Day is not a Sabbath observance, but a means of grace through which the body of Christ is edified and God is glorified.
On reflection, I think it’s very interesting that you take umbrage with observing Christmas as a voluntary celebration of the Incarnation, but you have no problem with regarding the Lord’s Day as a Sabbath observance — as if it were a requirement of the gospel!
We all know that Jesus took the Pharisees to task on this topic in Matthew 12 when he healed the man’s withered hand and spoke about getting a sheep out of a pit. Both on the Sabbath.
Here are a couple of great NT verses that can be viewed as warnings or at least admonitions on this subject.
(Romans 14:5) – “One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.”
(Colossians 2:16) – “Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.”
Should we also be working Sunday to Friday and resting each Saturday? Thanks to Jesus we are no under the law but under grace.
And when it comes to keeping a particular day “holy”, should that not be every single day as Christ indwells the believer?
Hallelujah that the veil has been torn!
From last Sunday morning…now everybody together with me….where the Spirit of the Lord is “THERE IS FREE-DOM”!! 🙂
Oh, and to get back on topic at Hugh’s request, in looking at my above comment about every day being a holy-day in the life of the believer, that means that we can also keep Christ in EVERY DAY and not just in “Christmas”.