…in the outer…

Megachurch bashers are at it again. This time around it has to do with Christmas services. I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but apparently the news that many of the larger churches around the country have decided not to hold any services Christmas morning because Christmas this year falls on a Sunday have caught the attention, and in many cases, the ire of many a news reporter, op-ed editor, community leader, and of course, your friendly neighborhood blogger.

I first caught on to this story through DJ Chuang’s post, which include two lists: those churches that will not be holding Sunday services on Christmas morning, and those that will be having services. Rev Ed has a more balanced post about the issue, and he also points to the post at Church Marketing Sucks that provides a bit of a round-up of other blogposts on this storm in the Eggnog mug.

Ahhh! Life used to be much simpler! When carolling season comes around each year, while folks dashed back and forth through the shops, or frantically baked and decorated, every now and then someone would stop long enough to rant unconvincingly that Christ was being left out of Christmas. This year the usual complaints have been joined by other more knotty ones. Indications that indeed we live in a postmodern, complex world. But, still, it seems strange to me that people are so riled up about what some other churches do or not do. Apparently, when you are a large church, you are answerable to more than just your own constituency. Even if people do not attend your church, give to your offering or volunteer at your activities, the fact that you are a church in “their community” they expect you to have some responsibility to live up to their expectations of how you operate as an organization.

When I was younger, I remember my leaders used to encourage us not to make a big deal of Christmas or Easter. “Followers of Christ,” they encouraged us, “celebrate His incarnation and the sacrifice He made for salvation of the world each and every day!” That helped us not to be too fret about whether or not the rest of society was taking Christ out of whatever day or season. Our focus as disciples was to keep Him in the right place, enthroned in our hearts, and to live peaceably with others, to share His love and to demonstrate what an impact He makes in our own lives. That also helped us to remember that Christmas and much of the traditions that we have built up about this season are just that: traditions. And, as traditions go, they become entrenched in community practice and sometimes they get revised, transformed and even enriched by much newer practices. Whatever the practice, usually underlying principles linger. For Christmas, what undergirds it, is that it is a joyful time, a wonderful time of community, sharing, celebration, renewal, relationships and family. It is a time to be charitable, to give, to love and to remember. And, if people, communities and churches remember this, then I think they are celebrating the season, and we ought to give them grace to do so in the way they seek.

Perhaps those pastors and leaders who made decisions not to hold Christmas services can find solace in the Apostle Paul’s admonition in Colossians 2:16, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” And, perhaps to those who are inclined to pass judgment, to censure and to critique, that verse could well be read as, “Therefore do not judge anyone by what they do or not do on Christmas day.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 13th, 2005 at 12:05 am and is filed under Church, Culture. Subscribe to RSS: RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Email This Article Or Print This Article