Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day. It is also Christmas Eve. It is not wrong if our hearts become excited as the Christmas holiday approaches. There is a way to embrace, celebrate, and promote Christmas as a day that honors God and exalts Christ. But it may be appropriate this evening for us to examine what it is within our hearts that yearns for Christmas. It may not only be the spiritual and devotional aspects, but also the family, food, gifts, and traditions we enjoy at this time of year. That is not wrong. It is God who gives us good things to enjoy, and we are not honoring him by pretending not to notice that the turkey is juicy, the stuffing is scrumptious, and the pies are sweet and bursting with flavor. It would be sinful ingratitude to receive the season’s good things and not thank God for them or refuse to enjoy them. We were made to glorify God and to enjoy him, and he is not most glorified by starched collars, straight back chairs, and sour expressions on baptized faces.
It is good and right that we look forward to and enjoy the trappings of the Christmas season, but we should also be delighted by the Giver and not only his good gifts of providence. God has given us himself in the Person of Jesus Christ, and though it may sound evangelically trite, he really is the greatest Christmas gift of all. We want our children to love the gifts we give them, but we want them to love us all the more. It is not a good sign if our sons and daughters cherish only their presents while remaining indifferent to their parents. We are not cultivating materialism and greed by buying gifts at Christmas, and if we find that is the consequence of what we are doing, perhaps we should reevaluate our tradition and make some adjustments to our customs.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, but it is also the Lord’s Day. The juxtaposition unites the traditional celebration of Christ’s birth with the weekly, biblical remembrance of his resurrection. We dare not divorce one from the other. He was born as a Man to die for our sins, to rise again in righteousness and power, and to ascend to his throne to rule and conquer all of his and our enemies. The story of Christmas is not of a baby but of a Savior, of a King. This was the message brought by angels to the shepherds. It is the reason eastern magi traveled for so long in order to lay their gifts at the Child’s feet. The Babe they heralded and worshiped is the Redeemer-Lord whom we extol and adore every Sunday. There would be no cross, no resurrection, and no redemption without Christmas, but there would be no point at all in Christmas unless the Child had become the Lamb and Lion by whom salvation comes.
However you choose to observe Christmas, let it be accompanied by songs of joyful praise and thanksgiving to God, Scripture reading, and prayer. Let God’s word be heard in your home, and let Christ’s Name be praised by your household. Bring your family to worship with the Church, to sing Zion’s songs and to pray with and as the Church of God redeemed by Christ and enlivened by the Holy Spirit. Then celebrate with merry toasts, delicious food, and lavish or silly gifts, and in all of these, remember to give thanks to God who has given these good things to us all but who first gave himself, in Mary’s womb, in Bethlehem, on the cross, and from the open tomb. O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, come and worship Christ the King! --JME
