Putting Christ back in Christmas?

Well, another Christmas season has come and gone. As usual, there were an ample number of Church signs that reminded us to "put Christ back in Christmas", or "Jesus is the reason for the season." I am sure that an adequate number of pulpits echoed this sentiment as well. I certainly have no quarrel with that sentiment, but I have noticed a disturbing trend over the last couple of Christmases, that is that several Churches, especially those of the variety that emphasize the Bible as God's word are cutting back on the number of worship opportunities they offer on either Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day. This was probably more apparent last year and this year because Christmas fell on Sunday last year and Christmas Eve was on Sunday this year.

For example, Summit Church, which I wrote about earlier, cut back from the usual three, to one service on Christmas Eve Sunday. I mention this not because it is unusual but it seemed to be the norm. As I searched several Churchs' websites, I found only one near where we were staying in the Little Rock area that had a worship service in the evening on Christmas Eve.

Contrast this to Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls who had three worship services on Christmas Eve, and one on Christmas day. Admittedly this is a large congregation that can pull off three worship services in one evening, but that is beside the point. The point is that we, as the Body of Christ need to take our celebration of the birth of our Lord more seriously as a spiritual celebration, rather than a gift giving time, or simply a family event.

An important first step in "putting Christ back in Christmas is for every local Church to resolve to have a worship service on either Christmas Eve or Christmas day to celebrate Jesus' birth and what it means to us. I can remember how meaningful these services were back in the past of my "wandering period" as this was one of the few times in a year that I actually went to Church. And I don't believe that we need to worry about how many will attend. "If we build it they will come." If they don't, at least those of us who are there will be making a statement about what the day means to us.

Another step we can take is to make the Christmas story a part of our family celebrations. One of the things I found meaningful in Christmases past was that just before we opened our gifts as a family, we read the Christmas story as a recognition of the best Christmas Gift of all. This Christmas, for the third year in a row, we managed a Holiday Gift Center for See's Candies, so we were right in the thick of the commercial aspect of Christmas. This year, and last year, to balance this out, I gave each of my employees a gift of a New Testament, along with the suggestion that they make the reading of the Christmas story a part of their celebration with their families. This gift was very well received. I think that every nominal "Christian family" and certainly every believer family should incorporate the reading of the story of the birth of our Lord into their celebration of Christmas.

Putting Christ back in Christmas begins with us. If we who are redeemed by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ are not giving Him His proper place in our Christmas, how do we expect the world to do anything else?

Thanks for spending this moment with me today.