What We Celebrate at Christmas

I realized the other day that I’m so old I can remember when “reason for the season” was a fresh, new expression. Now, of course, it is a cliché, but it is no less true: Jesus is what we celebrate at Christmas.

At least in theory.

Truth is, it’s complicated. We celebrate a lot of things at this time of year.

It is good news and bad news that Christmas is such a deeply entrenched tradition in our culture.

The good news is that the Christmas season provides so many opportunities for Christ-followers to rehearse the Wondrous Story. It is enriching and encouraging for the people of God to remember again what God gave us in Christ.

It’s also good news that people who are far from God are often exposed to the Gospel during the Christmas season. They hear the carols, they see the nativity scenes and the Christmas pageants. The Spirit can use these glimpses into the Gospel to awaken faith.

The bad news, of course, is that the “Christmas” tradition is so elastic, stretching to encompass any number of cultural expressions: Christmas is gathering with loved ones, Christmas is shopping and going to parties and concerts, Christmas is eating too much rich food (“tis the season to be pudgy”).

Our problem is that because our attention is diluted, we can get distracted by it all.

The truth is that even Christ-followers can be co-opted by the culture so that what we celebrate at Christmas is actually not the birth of Christ but the treasures of our family relationships and our prosperity.

We betray our actual priorities in the way we talk about Christmas. If money is tight or if loved ones are unable to gather, we might say it’s not a good Christmas.

This isn’t so, of course. The birth of Jesus is the entrance of God in human form into human history; in Jesus, God himself came to live in the same space-time continuum that we live in. This is the transcendent Truth that eclipses everything else. Even if there aren’t enough shekels in the coffer and we can’t be with the ones we love, Christ has come, and that is reason for celebration!

The last thing I want is to add a little Jesus over-lay to my usual Christmas celebrations. I want to enjoy all the good things that this season has to offer, but I want my attention to be anchored on what actually happened and what it means.

This means I must set aside time and space to give my full attention to the Story.

And there’s the rub.

Because we are so busy at this time of year, there is no extra time and mental energy for anything else. If I want to give concentrated attention to the grand Story of God’s arrival among us, I must carve it out.

I must create space for a kind of Christmas Sabbath where I can breathe and think deeply and thank God for the kindness he has shown us in Christ.

May your Christmas be both merry with the joy of the season and bright with gratitude for God’s most excellent Gift, His Son in flesh among us.

There will be no Discipleship Weekly for the next two weeks. See you in the new year!

Persevere, 
Paul Pyle  Discipleship Pastor