My Christmas Rant
Lately I have come to the realization that I rarely use my blog as a ranting ground. After all, it is my blog and these actions are fully justified. So I dedicate this RANT to my cousin johno.Ok, so in the last few days my wife had a very strange conversation in which she was told that many Church of Christ do not celebrate Christmas as Christ's birth. Instead they celebrate it as a time of giving, friends, family, and even Santa. These are all good reasons for the season, however I had never heard that they didn't celebrate Christ's birth. I was completely surprised.
The individual that supported this gave us a few reasons. I also did a little online research and from all of this I was able to come up with 3 common reasons why SOME (not all) COC's don't celebrate Christ's Birth on Christmas. They are as follows:
- Christ was not born in the winter months, he was born in the spring. We know this, as we know when Jews were to pay taxes and Mary and Joseph were going to pay taxes at the time of Jesus’ birth.
- Nowhere in the Bible are we asked, commanded or encouraged to celebrate Christ's birth.
- December and the Solstice was a Pagan celebration and Catholics borrowed it to celebrate a special Mass or Christ-mas and as such is not a Christian activity. My church celebrates Christ's life everyday of the year, with no day being greater than another.
Christ was not born in the winter months, he was born in the spring. We know this, as we know when Jews were to pay taxes and Mary and Joseph were going to pay taxes at the time of Jesus’ birth.
HAHA, so apparently you are not allowed to celebrate anything unless it is historically accurate down to the day. Assuming this stipulation is a good reason, we need to go ahead and throw out about half of the other days we celebrate over the year. After all, we are not 100% sure of the exact time of the year of many of them so there is no need to celebrate them. Historical accuracy is the trump card. Oh yeah, lets not forget about the Sabbath that you still celebrate on Sunday. In case you have forgot, Sunday is the first day of the week and God rested on the 7th. Why are you not moving your services to Saturday?? I guess it was just easier to worship on Sunday with everybody else. But Christ's Birth??? I guess you will selectively put your foot down on that one. Moving on..
nowhere in the Bible are we asked, commanded or encouraged to celebrate Christ's birth.
This is my favorite of the 3 points. Have you asked, commanded or encouraged anyone to celebrate your birthday lately?? You better make sure you get those requests out or WE WILL NOT CELEBRATE IT THIS YEAR!!! After all, we are not going to go above or beyond the call of duty here. I am almost sure that if Christ wanted his birthday celebrated he would have taken time out while on the Cross to let us know....right?? I am going to have to throw the Bull Crap flag on this one. Is it even necessary for me to explain how ridiculous this sounds? As a human my purpose is to Glorify God. Occasionally, I like to take time to worship him and praise his name without being asked!! What glory lies in actions that are only to fulfill orders or requests??
Lastly..
December and the Solstice was a Pagan celebration and Catholics borrowed it to celebrate a special Mass or Christ-mas and as such is not a Christian activity. My church celebrates Christ's life everyday of the year, with no day being greater than another.
This is almost as good as the last one. So basically they are saying that Catholics decided to create a Christian celebration during a very popular Pagan celebration. Wow!! That sounds like a really bad idea. UMM NO! That sounds like a great idea and a great evangelism tool. Why do so many churches have activities on Halloween?? You think this might be for the same reason?
On top of this, you’re saying that Catholics "borrowed" it. I ask you, are you still celebrating Christmas? Oh yeah, that’s right you are. I guess you "borrowed" it from the Catholics to celebrate giving, friends, family and even Santa. You also improved it by removing that horrible tradition of celebrating Christ's birth. And all because you "celebrate Christ's life everyday of the year, with no day being greater than another." This is a decent policy I have to say. So in support of this belief they don't celebrate Easter either right?? Oh wait, They DO!!
I would not have made this post if they would show their true beliefs by not celebrating Christmas. Instead they choose to celebrate it by making it very clear that Christ's Birth is not the reason.
I wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS from the bottom of my Christ's Birthday Celebrating Heart!! Jesus didn't ask for it, but he is sure going to get it. I guess we will call this Birthday Celebration a Surprise and maybe he will forgive us for not getting the day perfect. Afterall, he is in the forgiving business.
Posted by dmac at December 23, 2005 03:23 PM
Comments
I have a question. I'm kind of playing devils advicate here, just to see what you think. Would it be better to take Jesus out of Christmas all together, and make it a holiday where we celebrate giving, friends, family, and santa. And then add a holiday, say sometime in the spring, where ALL we do is celebrate Jesus' birth. No Chirstmas lights, presents, or trees. That way you are truely celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Again I am only playing devils advicate here. Just wanna know your opinion.
Posted by: Patrick at December 23, 2005 11:02 PM
I think 90% of the people that celebrate Christmas associate it with Christ's birth regardless of their relegious beliefs. Giving presents in the name of Christ is wonderful too. I think the main point here is that Christmas and Easter are two National Hollidays where almost everyone goes to church. Many make fun of those who only go to Church on Christmas and Easter. I think it is great. This is a wonderful time to share God's word and Celebrate Christ life with those that may not otherwise here it. For this reason, I think leaving Christmas in its current form is the best idea. And if you have watched the Chronicles of Narnia there is a great line about Christmas. Christmas is to give hope during the long Winter.
Posted by: dmac at December 24, 2005 08:24 AM
Hey Derek. Good blog. I hit on a subject like this one time too. It was about halloween.
http://sozo1.blogspot.com/2005/10/halloween-or-all-saints.html
Posted by: Sozo at December 27, 2005 12:46 AM
