Normally in writing I wear two separate hats, one my historian hat, and the other my pastor hat. When I write about things from "back when" I usually write under my hat as a "rememberer" and as a student of things as they used to be. When I write about things Biblical, I normally write under my pastor hat. This time, however, I have both hats on. In writing about Christmas, I am thinking both of its roots in the Bible and in the customs of the church, and about our society's observances of Christmas seasons across the years.
One of the central issues of Christmas in our time is the question, "Whose holiday is this? Whose festival is Christmas? Is Christmas a church festival of holy days? Is it a secular holiday? Is Christmas a great celebration of a momentous religious event? Or is Christmas a time for indulging our wants, for acquiring new possessions, a time for fun in the party spirit, a time for reveling in the fruits of commerce?
First off, I'm trying to remember when we began being concerned about where we were going with Christmas observances. As I recall, that was not a recent thing. During the mid-1940s, when I was becoming aware of being alive and beginning to remember things happening around me, we were talking in church and in Sunday School about the need to "put the Christ back in Christmas." That was a long time ago. So there is nothing new about resolving to keep Christmas focused on Christ the Savior, and avoiding surrendering Christmas to the control of cultural and commercial activities that have become seasonal and traditional in our society.
I want to acknowledge that the early followers of Jesus Christ invented the Christmas festival, and that they did so to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who is the heavenly Father's gift for the salvation of the world. Christmas, as first conceived, was not just a seasonal activity, although setting the celebration during the early winter each year was done partly in an effort to solidify the conversion of certain societies where the church was taking root, to win them away from their earlier pagan winter solstice ceremonies.
The church, in the early Christian centuries, also took up a practice of emphasizing certain aspects of the gospel and of biblical teaching at selected times, in an effort to present the gospel message full and whole. That goal resulted in formation of the Christian Year, with its six seasons, each focused on certain aspects of Christian devotion.
The Christian Year begins with Advent, involving four Sundays before Christmas Day, a time for preparing for Christmas, and focusing on the anticipated coming of Jesus the Messiah (Christ).
Then comes the Christmas season, beginning on Dec. 25 and continuing through Jan. 6 -- 12 days to celebrate the birth of Jesus and salvation in His name.
The Christmas festival is followed by Epiphany Day and the Epiphany season, celebrating the coming of the wise men from an eastern country to worship Christ, and the disclosing of Christ to the wider world.
The comes the season of Lent, a penitential season focusing on Jesus's ministry as he approached the suffering of the cross, and a time of preparation for Easter.
The peak of the Christian festivals is Easter, with Easter Day and about six Sundays after, celebrating the resurrection of Christ and God's gift of eternal life.
Then comes the long season of Pentecost, focusing on the gift of the Holy Spirit and on the Spirit's leading as the Church applies its witness and ministry and teaching to winning disciples for Christ in all the world.
Christmas practices in our United States have come from a variety of church influences, some of which were reacting against older traditions of the ancient church. Some of our Protestant churches have tended to minimize their use of traditional practices of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican churches. For example, in the Methodist Church in which I grew up, we used to observe only Christmas Day and Easter Sunday. Little attention was given to the fuller festivals of the Christian year.
I have come to an opinion that by making too little of our great Christian festivals, we have opened the doors to allowing popular secular influences to shape our seasons of Christmas and Easter. Today's customs and observances have come to be more inspired by business, social, sports and entertainment interests, and less by the great Christian proclamations which originated our holidays. A few years ago some of our local businesses were even observing a "12 days of Christmas," by which they meant the 12 shopping days "before" Christmas. That was just one indication of how our secular observances throw Christmas off track! But, keeping Christmas is not just a matter of getting businesses to say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings. It is more about putting our hearts in the right place, celebrating the season as a rejoicing which lifts up the faith and hope we share in Jesus Christ. To "celebrate" merely our gifts, or our wealth or our parties or our decorations or our food and drink or our hilarity or our football games is to try to have Christmas without the Christ, without the heart, without soul!
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge and an award-winning columnist, is vice president of Pea Ridge Historical Society. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Editorial on 12/07/2016