Hooray! We Discovered a New Issue to Fight About

Back in my days as a preacher in a local church, we had a member who was quick to be critical of anyone – but especially elders and deacons – who missed Sunday morning church for any reason other than near-death sickness. Oddly, on the Sunday of the Indianapolis 500 every year, he always missed church! He was a good guy who loved Jesus and the people who followed Jesus – but somehow, he was utterly blind about the hypocrisy of his judgment for “missing church” on the part of others while thinking that the Indy 500 somehow trumped Sunday worship!

Christmas will be on a Sunday this year, which has sparked some controversy in the Christian world. The last time Christmas was on a Sunday, in 2016, Andy Stanley and lots of other megachurch pastors decided not to hold services on that day. Stanley and those following his lead were all but burned at the stake for such “heretical” behavior.

What seemed to have been lost in the hoopla was that those churches also planned all sorts of opportunities for “family worship” in homes on Christmas Day. It wasn’t like they were suddenly forgetting that Christmas really is about Jesus, period. 

Before you read further, let me be quick to say that my entire life – growing up, because of my parents’ insistence, and as an adult, because of my own conviction – I have consistently attended church with the people of God on Sunday. Ask my kids: we went to church on vacation! I particularly enjoy the outdoor worship space, overlooking the water, at the Methodist church near the beach where our family vacations. 

My church, Legacy Christian Church, is having a worship service on Christmas Day, as well as two Christmas Eve services. If they weren’t having a service, I wouldn’t think that they were heretics! I believe that the gathering of God’s people on the Lord’s Day to celebrate resurrection and “proclaim His death until He comes again” through the Eucharist is important – and an authentic blessing! But there are all kinds of ways to do that.

Early Christians would never have imagined the need to assemble in buildings created specifically for worship with a set time and liturgy, much less viewed that as a sign of faithfulness. Yet the judges, juries, and executioners among us are quick to decide who is faithful and who isn’t based on issues foreign to the pages of Scripture.

In a Facebook ministers’ group that I follow, I saw a preacher post this statement: “An honest question for those canceling services on Christmas Day. Why don’t you ever cancel on Easter?” To compare what the Bible says about Easter with the utter lack of what the Bible says about “Christmas” seems to me to be a bit of a stretch. The comments in response to the post reminded me of why I seldom look at such groups!

In Romans 1:11,12, Paul notes how much he wishes he could meet and worship with the Roman believers. If that could happen, he would “impart a spiritual gift” – charisma – to these believers. He defines that spiritual gift as encouragement together with them, each by the faith of the other, both yours and mine. In other words, Paul believes that his faith and their faith could be encouraged by worshiping together. Note the emphatic sense in which he says that: with you, each other, yours and mine. That’s what happens when together, in the name of Jesus, we meet on the Lord’s Day and celebrate the Eucharist – proclaiming His death until He comes again.

But honestly, if I’m doing that because of some cultural compulsion that says “make sure you get the perfect attendance pin” at the end of the year, I’ve missed the point! And if I do that with some sense of believing all the trappings of Christmas are straight out of the Bible, I’m deceiving myself.

Lots of what we think of when we hear the word “Christmas” is something less than biblical. It may have more to do with Hallmark Christmas movies and cultural traditions. I’m not opposed to Christmas movies and cultural traditions. I’m just bothered by the fact that we sometimes pay more attention to those ideas than we do Scripture.

In a Bible study last Wednesday night at my church, the leader had us spend time in groups with various biblical texts from the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke. He pushed us to identify what is actually biblical and what is reading between the lines. There’s a whole lot of reading between the lines that somehow gains the status of “biblical revelation.”

If your congregation is meeting on Christmas Sunday, I hope you are planning to go. If your congregation isn’t planning on meeting on Christmas Sunday, and you feel strongly that you should be in church on Christmas Sunday, visit somewhere – you might learn something. But, for the sake of the kingdom of God, let’s not start another fight among believers about what is, at best, a matter of opinion, not faith.

May God forgive us and lead us to not only celebrate the birth of our redeemer, but to live as redeemed people who love God and love our neighbors – and model the Jesus story to all around us!