As long time readers will know, I very much like Christmas. I know being a scrooge, a grinch and a bit of a misery might seem on brand, but if you think it is so, shows what you know! I love Christmas.
However, as long time readers will know, I am not a wild fan of an over-Christmassed church. For me, Christmas is a largely cultural festival. It is not in the bible, it is not a command of Christ and it is no measure of your spirituality. We celebrate Christmas in this country at all because our history and culture is so enmeshed with the church calendar. But for me, it is equivalent to Bonfire Night. A perfectly decent, very enjoyable but nonetheless essentially cultural festival. You can read more on that here if you are so inclined.
What that means, however, is that much as I think you have every right to enjoy Christmas or to sit it out entirely, to centre the whole thing on nativity themes, focus on family or just enjoy a rare old time indeed – you are free in Christ to do to his glory as you please – it is less excellent to bring all that heavily into the church. If it is something that we are not commanded to do together in public worship, I am not convinced it is something we should be majoring on in public worship.
Now, don’t get me wrong here. If you run a carol service into which you can get some visitors, go for it. If you want to run a Christmas Day service in the middle of the week, no problem at all. I think these things can have both evangelistic and discipleship benefit. What I am less for is giving up an entire month of your regular teaching programme, focusing significantly on Christmassy themes, singing carols non-stop when Christmas isn’t a festival in scripture we are commanded to celebrate and advent is an entirely made-up tradition in the church calendar.
Again, let me be clear. I don’t think this is sinful. Clearly the nativity is in scripture and it isn’t sinful for churches to spend a full month focusing on the incarnation if they’re so inclined. But then it isn’t sinful to preach nothing but the parable of the sower week after week, non-stop, for 40 years but few people think that would be a good idea. Likewise, I don’t think it wrong to preach thematically, I just don’t tend to think it is best. Just because it isn’t a matter of sin doesn’t mean it matters not at all and just because it isn’t a matter of sin doesn’t mean that it is necessarily a good and excellent thing to do. I would put the giving over of most of December to advent and Christmas themes in that kind of category. Not sinful, not wrong, but perhaps not most excellent.
Is it really wisest to to give over 1/12th of your teaching programme to this one festival? A festival that is not in scripture and not required of us, neither personally nor in our worship. Even the gospel writers were not primarily writing about the incarnation. Of course, it is a significant part of the story – no incarnation, no gospel – but the incarnation is not what they were writing about per se. They were writing about the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, so that you might believe Jesus is the Christ and have life in his name. We might mount a case for preaching on theme of the gospel every week, but as we all know, the gospel has many angles (hence why we have a fulsome bible) and there is a lot more to say about it than that Jesus was born in Bethlehem to a virgin mother.
None of that is to say the events of the nativity are unimportant. Of course they matter, that is why three gospel writers include something about this. But it is the death and resurrection of Jesus that all four cover. It is the death and resurrection of Jesus that the Apostles labour repeatedly in their letters. It is the death and, more specifically, resurrection of Jesus that led to the early church setting a pattern of meeting weekly on Sundays. The nativity is clearly necessary for these things to take place, but it isn’t the primary thing that the biblical writers emphasise. Which makes it an odd choice for us to major on because it has been culturally appointed for us to do so.
This is not a case for sacking off teaching about the nativity at all. I am not of the view we should skip it or cut it out of our bibles or anything like that. I am not suggesting it doesn’t matter at all. All I am suggesting is that we perhaps think about whether it is best to give over such vast chunks of our teaching programme to this one theme. We have a big bible to preach and limited time in which to teach it, focusing on the same few chapters quite as much as we do may not be the best way to build up the Lord’s the people.
Hi Steve,
Your comment is spot on. As you said, preaching on Christmas for the whole of Advent is not a sinful thing but it might not be the best thing to do. What do you think about churches (like mine, a Fiec church) who light a candle every week for each advent Sunday. I find it a bit strange.
Such as your church want to light a candle every week for advent, I don’t think it falls into the category of sin. They are free to do it if they want, but it is reasonable to ask what they are achieving through it – they may have some compelling reasons!
My concern here is much more to do with giving over such a large chunk of teaching time to one festival; particularly one that isn’t in scripture. To me, it seems sub-optimal at best.
Yeah, why spend four weeks talking about the incarnation and Second Coming when you could keep on talking about Nehemiah’s wall?
Why would you be talking about the second coming if you are focusing on the incarnation? And if you are in the middle of speaking on Nehemiah which you probably haven’t preached before – and no doubt drawing out the key gospel themes as you go – why return again to four weeks on the same few passages that get trotted out every year?
I agree that you shouldn’t give up all your Sundays in December to the incarnation.
However, this isn’t the same as giving over your Sundays to Advent.
Advent is the start of the liturgical year, which, I would suggest, has three dimensions:
We look back to the how the prophets and the people living in exile longed for the coming of a Messiah to liberate them from bondage.
We look forward to the second Advent, the second coming, and our longing for the return of Christ to usher in the new heavens and the new earth.
Finally, we think about ourselves and the countdown to the festival of Christmas (which begins on Dec 25th and lasts for 12 days).
Advent is a much much richer season than the simple a countdown to Christmas it has come in the wider culture. I agree that we shouldn’t rush to Christmas, but in order to do that let’s not ignore the season of Advent and all it offers us.
Thanks Andy.
I appreciate your more thoughtful approach to advent than that of many.
Nevertheless, as I argue in the post (and elsewhere), I see it all – Christmas itself included – as an artificial imposition. I enjoy it on a secular/cultural level and very much love the trappings of Christmas. I am less convinced by its value in the church, and certainly not by the sheer amount of time it tends to get in the average church.
As a Baptist, I am largely not favourable to the imposition of the church calendar and liturgical year at all!
I appreciate your approach, and the freedom which you point out that we have in Christ to do these things or not—always prayerfully. As an educator of children, both in my home and in my church family, I see great value in the season of Advent. For all the reasons mentioned by Andy Grice (in his comment), and for the additional value of instilling in our covenant children an understanding of God’s fulfilled promise of the Messiah’s first coming, and our expectation of His faithfulness concerning the eventual return of Christ, celebratory ritual can be very helpful. Did not our God establish similar teaching patterns when He taught the people of Israel to celebrate Passover?
I am absolutely of the view you are free. I should also emphasise again, I am specifically concerned about gathered worship and our usual teaching programmes. I am totally sanguine (and see more specific value) in these things being done at home as we will.
I would be a little wary of applying God’s specific commands to the nation of Israel and suggesting that is a pattern set by God in defence of the man-made liturgical calendar. God was clear that passover was put in place for a specific purpose (to remember rescue from Egypt). There was no such specific festival given to us for the nativity, we have just invented one. Which isn’t to say (once again) we cannot or shouldn’t have one, but I think we are putting words and thoughts in God’s mouth that he has not said if we suggest that is some sort of mandate or teaching pattern.