Westside church of Christ - Irving, Texas

Why Doesn't Westside Have a Christmas Service?

by Mark Roberts

At a time when most churches are planning special services for Christmas Eve and Christmas day Westside’s calendar remains remarkably constant. Nothing special is planned. Nothing special will be done. Why is that? Further, as we probe that question, we find room to look and see why many Christians choose not to celebrate Christmas in a religious way.

Let us begin our study by noting that a lack of Christmas celebrations at Westside is not an indicator that we don’t love Jesus or care that He was born. Jesus is the most important person ever to walk this earth. His sacrificial death and resurrection provide the basis for any and every hope we have for eternal salvation. That means everything about Jesus is important and worthy of our study and thought. Such easily includes His birth. Two Gospels record the miraculous events that brought God in the flesh to this planet. Angels rejoiced when Jesus was born (Luke 2:10ff) and we should rejoice as well. The birth of Jesus is extremely important to us - let no one misunderstand this vital point. Why then don’t we celebrate that birth with special services at Christmas time?

First, the origins of Christmas trouble us. Many assume the Bible details the date of Jesus’ birth and has all sorts of information about how to celebrate Christmas. Yet the Bible says nothing about either matter. The date of Jesus’ birth is unknown and there is no record that any Christians in the first century ever had any kind of special celebrations for Jesus’ birth. Instead, Christmas celebrations arose in response to paganism, and combined some pagan practices into a “mix” of Christianity and idolatry! Encarta Encyclopedia 2000 relates the following facts about Christmas’ history: “Historians are unsure exactly when Christians first began celebrating the Nativity of Christ. However, most scholars believe that Christmas originated in the 4th century as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. Before the introduction of Christmas, each year beginning on December 17 Romans honored Saturn, the ancient god of agriculture, in a festival called Saturnalia … Although the Gospels describe Jesus’ birth in detail, they never mention the date, so historians do not know on what date he was born. The Roman Catholic Church chose December 25 as the day for the Feast of the Nativity in order to give Christian meaning to existing pagan rituals. For example, the Church replaced festivities honoring the birth of Mithra, the god of light, with festivities to commemorate the birth of Jesus … The Catholic Church hoped to draw pagans into its religion by allowing them to continue their revelry while simultaneously honoring the birthday of Jesus… Over the next 1000 years, the observance of Christmas followed the expansion of Christianity into the rest of Europe and into Egypt. Along the way, Christian beliefs combined with existing pagan feasts and winter rituals to create many long-standing traditions of Christmas celebrations.” Borrowing from paganism seems a poor basis for pleasing the One true God of the Bible, doesn’t it?

Second we are very concerned about acting outside the will of God. This is a matter that gets very little attention today but certainly needs more consideration. Common thinking says we can do any thing religious and it will please God. Yet this is demonstrably untrue. Cain offered a sacrifice, but God didn’t accept it (Gen. 4:5). Nadab and Abihu burnt incense before the Lord, but again, were not accepted (Lev. 10:1-4). Worshiping God in a way that is barren and useless is possible. Jesus said “in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9). When the ideas of men replace the commandments of God worship becomes vain. We cannot and must not assume that because we want to make something into a special celebration that God desires that as well, or is even pleased when we do so. Makes one think a bit about Christmas, doesn’t it?

Third, we want to put the emphasis where the first disciples did: on Jesus’ death and resurrection. Some may wonder what the disciples in the first century did celebrate if they did not celebrate Jesus’ birth. The answer is simple: the special services in the New Testament were to remember His death and resurrection in the Lord’s Supper. This is the observance that Jesus commanded (see Matthew 26:26ff). Notice: Jesus said nothing about remembering His birth, but gave detailed and specific instructions about remembering His death and resurrection. That ought to get our attention, shouldn’t it? The first century disciples did as Jesus commanded. “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread . . .” (Acts 20:7). Each Sunday disciples gathered to “break bread” - a common phrase for the breaking of the unleavened bread in the Lord’s Supper. This was (and remains) a proclamation of Jesus’ death, burial and certain return (1 Cor. 11:23ff). This is what Jesus desired, this is what the first Christians did, and this is what we want to do today as well.

We realize that most people never give a second thought to Christmas’ religious aspects. Yet an examination of Christmas’ past and a careful approach to scripture combines to warrant that second thought, don’t they? A fast and loose attitude toward all authority is very prevalent in our world today. Such thinking easily creeps into our thinking and distorts our view of worshiping God. Many simply do not take their obligation to obey God and do what He says seriously. Instead of doing what Jesus ordered we do what we want. Instead of remembering the end of Jesus’ life we focus on its beginnings. Instead of pleasing God we end up pleasing ourselves. Perhaps it is time we took our Bibles in hand and re-evaluated exactly what kind of worship and remembrance Jesus truly wants. At Westside you can be sure you will find a group of disciples totally committed to doing just that - even on December 25th.

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Abundant Life: December 2009