December 2005

Christmas is certainly the most popular festival of the Christian Church, and it is equally important in the American culture around us. Lots of people think about how they will decorate their home or which gifts to purchase for family and friends many months beforehand. (In Frankenmuth, Michigan, it is Christmas year round at Bronner’s.)

Christmas church services are the most attended of all church services. Many folks, even those who do not normally attend church, will come for special Christmas services, when carols are sung, churches are beautifully decorated, and pageants are held. That children love Christmas can also put us back in touch with the child part of ourselves. Christmas is a time when we are often able to set aside our disappointments, our cynicisms, and our fears. Children invite our generosity and wonder by their openness and joy.

Christmas is not simply a day, but a season. The challenge for us, as Episcopalian Christians, is that, in the culture around us, the Christmas season begins right after Halloween. Yet, in the Church, it traditionally begins on December 24 and extends through February 2, the Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple. It takes little observation to realize that the Church Christmas season is completely out of sync with the greater culture’s Christmas season.

Furthermore, in the Episcopal, Lutheran, and Catholic churches, Christmas is traditionally preceded by the season of Advent. Advent is a time of subdued church décor, purple or royal blue vestments, special lectionary readings of prophecy, preparation, and anticipation, and devotional practices, such as the use of an Advent wreath with four candles. It is also a time when Christians are encouraged to take time for reflection and renewal before the big event of Christmas. All of this adds to the disharmony with the larger culture.

Moreover, how many people even keep the season of Advent? It is a good bet that almost all of the members of St. John’s will decorate their homes well before December 24th. Many will celebrate Christmas with other family members on a different day (such as Thanksgiving), because so many people go away at this time of the year. There will be community parties or other events in December before Christmas. We even plan to go caroling as a parish on December 18, not during the Twelve Days of Christmas.

All of this involves celebrating Christmas well before the 25th arrives upon us. Unfortunately, this also means that Christmas Mass may feel like the end of a rather exhausting and comprehensive period of celebration. The day after Christmas may feel like a let down, rather than the beginning of a Season of Christmas celebration, as it used to be. We all know folks who will take down their Christmas trees and decorations the day after Christmas, effectively ending their personal Christmas Season. (The Federal Government actually requires employees to remove Christmas decorations from offices right after December 25 and before January 1.)

What to do? It certainly seems as if the culture has won! The question for Christians is whether it is important or even possible to celebrate Advent in the Church, when all around us the events and trappings of Christmas are in full swing? There doesn’t seem to be an easy or obvious answer.

As always, at St. John’s we will keep the church sparsely decorated during Advent, we will light the Advent candles, and we will sing the Advent carols. Perhaps one solution to our cultural dilemma then, is to approach Advent in the Church as an oasis from the larger culture’s frantic and excessive commercialization of one of the two great mysteries of Christianity. Perhaps we can live in two worlds – the world of our society and the world of a spiritual reality that gives ultimate meaning to the social events around us.

Keeping Advent and Christmas in the Church can be like diving into an ocean of meaning, where we must learn to breathe differently than when we are on land. And what a swim! What wonders Christian Advent and Christmas reveal through the eyes of faith! They allow us the possibility of experiencing true joy: the joy of knowing that God has come among us, able to bear our sorrows and pains, able to provide our deepest happiness, able to save us from ourselves.

Jesus yearns to be born in our hearts once again this year, where His Risen Presence can heal our deepest wounds, where his Sacrifice can save our very souls, and where His Living Spirit can call forth our greatest creativity. Let us seek this Jesus, who came from and is one with God; who was born of the virgin maiden, Mary; who was raised with his brothers and sisters in Galilee by Mary and Joseph; who taught and healed throughout Galilee, Judea, and even Samaria; who was tortured and crucified by Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem in the year 33 c.e, to bear the burden of our sins; who rose from the dead, witnessed by more than 500 followers; and who sends the Holy Spirit to heal, guide, and strengthen us now. Let us approach this 2005 Nativity Crèche with gratitude and awe at the act of such a loving God, whom we name: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.