A Witness At Christmas (1)

 This was written at the request of a friend...

We were so excited that our new neighbors, Frank and Maureen, accepted our invitation to our Christmas open house. During the evening Maureen approached me and said, “Of course, you don’t think that Jesus is the only way to God, do you?”

“Well, yes, I do. Thanks so much for asking. I’d be happy to chat with you about Him any time. We are so glad you and Frank are here with us tonight.”

There are many reasons I love Christmas, and they all center in Jesus Christ. To me the idea that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” means more than wearing a pin with those words on it; in fact, while I do have one of those pins, I’ve seldom worn it. I do have some Christmas ties, some red socks (thank you Red!), and red and green sweaters and turtlenecks that I mix and match during Advent. No, I don’t put reindeer antlers on my car or hang a wreath on my SUV’s grill. 

Yes, I am turned off by stores with Christmas displays during September and October and early November, and also by Black Friday. But I also have sweet childhood memories of department store windows with trains, planes, automobiles and fake snow during Christmas in Washington, D.C. 

While I was nominally raised in a liturgical church, after encountering Christ I participated in churches and fellowships that did not pay much attention to Advent or the Easter season – yes, yes, they recognized Christmas and Easter and some had children’s pageants, but that was the extent of it. However, during seminary I served as an interim pastor in a Congregational church that made a big deal of Advent. Vickie and I participated in the “greening of the church” and I prepared an Advent series titled, “Postcards of Promise,” which focused on God’s promises being fulfilled in Jesus Christ. (If anyone from Cliftondale is reading this, “Thank you!”)

In part, because of Cliftondale my preaching schedule has always included an Advent series and an Easter series, two times during the year that we have extended seasons of reflection, and hopefully witness, to the Incarnation and Crucifixion – Resurrection. Hopefully we have learned to not only observe Jesus Christ in His Incarnation and Crucifixion – Resurrection, but to also participate with Him in His Incarnation and Crucifixion – Resurrection as our Way of Life. 

However, it is not only my preaching calendar that has included Advent and Easter, more importantly it has been my living calendar, including my living calendar in my business career. I recall how, as a young Christian working at a gas station, I gave a Christ – centered Christmas gift to the owner of our chain of gas stations. As an executive, the gifts I gave my bosses and peers and direct reports need not have been explicitly “Christian” in message, but they were in intent. What I mean is that they were thoughtful, of quality, and were heartfelt. I did not buy junk for people, including, if you will pardon the expression, “Jesus junk.” I think I can say that I have never run into a store to just pick up something to give to someone – if anything I overthink my gifts.

But you see, all of this is part of the package of sharing Jesus during Advent (and Easter), because whether Christmas is observed reverently or not, it is all around us; whether it has been prostituted or not, it is all around us and it provides a natural conversation starter about Jesus. 

Because my coworkers knew me, and knew the way I was throughout the year, they naturally expected me to talk about Jesus during Christmas, after all, I talked about Him during the rest of year. During the Easter season they were not surprised if I asked, “Well, what do you think? Did it happen? Did Jesus rise from the dead?”

When I was a young executive, I worked for a Jewish – owned firm and was the only non-Jewish executive with the firm. During Jewish holy days I covered for my colleagues, and during Christian holy days they covered for me. I shared my story with them, and they shared their story with me (and since they represented Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism I heard more than one story). What would they have thought had I said, “I don’t celebrate Christmas or Easter”? That would have been a great testimony…yes? Would I have been a good steward of the Gospel? 

Vickie and I once worked for one of the finest men we have ever known, Earl was quite active in our city’s Jewish community and a leader in his synagogue. He used to say, “I have a rabbi, and I also have a pastor.” He gave us both freedom to share our faith with others, to be a blessing to others, and we always did so with respect for him and thankfulness for his kindness to us. What would Earl have thought had we said, "O Earl, we don't celebrate Christmas. Leave us out of our company’s festivities”? (We were his two key executives). Would we have been good stewards of the grace of God, of the gift of Earl, of Earl’s gift of trust in us, and of the Gospel?

In my last business position prior to retirement, I again worked for a firm owned by Jewish families. During large corporate gatherings I was often asked to pray an invocation. During our regional Christmas luncheons, attended by employees from around our region, I was able to say a few words about Christmas prior to my invocation. Not only that, but employee groups from different locations performed songs telling the story of Jesus’ birth. Would we have been gracious to our coworkers, and good stewards of the Gospel, had we said, “We don’t celebrate Christmas”? 

Suppose in our offices we had said, “Don’t ask us to help putting the tree up. Don’t ask us to help hanging wreaths”? Would people have understood us? What would they have thought? How would this have helped us share the love and grace of Jesus and the story of Christmas?

Now some folks get worked up over the likelihood that Jesus wasn’t born in December, or that the winter solstice was celebrated by non-Christians. O my, there are a number of responses to these concerns, more than it makes sense to touch on, but we’ll mention a few.

Firstly, we are called to worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24) and “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing” (John 6:63a). We are called to stand fast in the freedom that Christ has given us and not be entangled in a yoke of slavery (Gal. 5:1). 

We have the freedom to celebrate Advent as well as the Easter season, whether Jesus was actually born on December 25 or whether or not He was actually crucified on the day we celebrate Good Friday or raised on the day we celebrate Easter. It would be, I think, dangerous to actually know the date of His birth because then we would make something out of it that would be pagan, truly pagan. When we think we know dates, when we think we know actual locations of certain events in the life of Jesus, we tend to get legalistically religious about those things and attribute importance to them that is earthly rather than heavenly. The holy places of the true and living God are in the hearts of women and men and children, they do not have GPS coordinates.

While I am not opposed to a trip to the land where Jesus lived, if we want to truly visit the Holy Land then we ought to pay attention to our brothers and sisters and get to know them, for the Holy Land is the People of God; it always has been and it always will be. I’m not saying that “place” cannot have a place, but I am saying that there is a holy dance in how we live; we hear the music in Spirit and in Truth, we dance to the music of the Trinity. There is much beautiful music surrounding Advent – in many spheres. Advent can be a special realm in the Holy Land, in our life with the People of God and in our witness to the world.

To be continued...