Pastor Pat Edwards 12/24/2005
Grace Baptist Church in Bountiful, Utah

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

What Christians have is wonderful - so it’s no wonder people want it - but what is it that we have? According to the angels of heaven it’s not an it but a person, a savior, Christ the Lord. A savior who offers us a new relationship with God based on God’s love for each one of us. Each of us needs love. Without love life is an animal’s existence seeking only what physically meets the need of the moment. But those who choose to follow Jesus experience his life and love and much more than any animal of the forest or field, fish of the sea or bird of the air. And that fullness of life gets expressed in the joy of Christmas. Over the centuries since the birth of Jesus a multitude of traditions have grown up to help us celebrate his birth: the Christmas tree, caroling, the advent wreath, luminarias, to mention just a few. But the most dominant and universally popular is the giving of gifts. Gift giving reminds us God the Father gave us the gift of his Son to live with us and die for us.

But as often happens people adopt traditions without understanding that if they don’t adopt the principle and spirit behind the tradition they end up with a hollow shell that doesn’t satisfy. Lately I’m hearing the expression "war on Christmas." It refers to the attempt to drop the word "Christmas" from the events that surround December 25. To Christians that’s silly because Christmas is about Christ. But what we need to remember and accept is that the celebration of Christmas is not found in the words, "Merry Christmas" or even in the various traditions that are important to us.

Let me share with you some history about the celebration of Christmas. The church didn’t celebrate the holiday for the first four hundred years of its existence. The first Protestants also didn’t celebrate Christmas because there’s no instruction concerning it in the New Testament. During the 1650's the celebration of Christmas was forbidden for a decade in England and even longer in certain parts of America. One author reports, Even as late as 1855, newspapers in New York reported that Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches would be closed on Christmas Day because "they do not accept the day as a Holy One." By the 1860s only eighteen states officially recognized the holiday. And it wasn’t until 1870 Christmas was declared a national holiday in the US. The Church of Scotland continued to discourage the celebration of Christmas, which remained a normal working day until 1958. One weblog reports, The New York Times conducted a survey of Christmas sermons in 1931 and reported a common theme: "the suggestion that Christmas could not survive if Christ were thrust into the background by materialism." Another popular sermon of the period railed that Advent had become little more than a "profit-seeking period."

Those fears go back seventy-five years or more. Have they come true? I don’t know. I do know our nation seems less Christian but I’m not certain that it is. It may only be that given more choices and less peer pressure the weeds are more distinguishable from the wheat. That’s an analogy Jesus made concerning what the kingdom of God is like, a mixture of believers and unbelievers that is hard to separate. Maybe all those people acting Christian seventy-five years ago no longer feel the pressure to do so.

In some ways maybe it would be a good thing if what the world celebrates no longer is called Christmas. I remember the first time I heard about the growing popularity of Christmas in Japan. I was surprised since it’s not a Christian culture until I realized it’s not Christmas they celebrate but gift giving and the fairy tale of Santa Claus. So let the world have it’s imitation of Christmas; let it even change the name of the holiday. Let it do what one public library in Memphis tried to do. Before backing down and permitting a full Nativity scene, a public library in Memphis agreed to allow the scene, but only if the baby Jesus, Joseph, Mary and the wise men were removed. This left a shepherd boy and some farm animals. That’s not a nativity scene and that’s not Christmas! We don’t need the approval of the world to celebrate the birth of our savior - at least I hope that’s why we’re here tonight. I hope we’ve come to remember his birth but more than that to celebrate his presence with us as individuals and as a community, now and forever more. In John 14.23 Jesus told his followers, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. And in John 15.9-13, he adds, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

The miracle of this day is that Jesus comes to us; we don’t need to seek him, he’s already here, he found us. The only question that remains is what will you do as he stands before you? Will you take up a new life with Jesus? Or maybe take the next step of obedience he’s asking of you? Will Jesus be the reason you celebrate Christmas or just a porcelain figurine you pack away in a few days until next year? In a moment we’re going to break the law, at least the law of Cromwell’s England which forbid the singing of Christmas carols. Even though the law didn’t last long it took decades before the English reestablished the habit. Charles Wesley's "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" was written during that period. In 1856 the lyrics were joined to a tune written by Mendelssohn, a tune that Mendelssohn strictly admonished was to be used only in a secular manner. Somehow in spite of all the obstacles this beautiful praise to God exists today. So let’s forget about the war on Christmas and proclaim the Prince of Peace, the Savior born to us this day. We have Jesus, rejoice!