Can you imagine Christmas without Jesus?
I can. In the fellowship where I was hatched, we were unaware of our Puritan roots, but we were rigorously true to them. Most of us avoided celebrating religious holidays. Especially those our Roman Catholic friends considered most holy. I guess it was a lingering form of the “protest” preserved in the word “Protestant.”
As a kid I felt sorry for the offspring of the “true believers” among us, who shunned Christmas trees and refused to exchange gifts in December. My own parents were more moderate. Christmas was fine in our home as long as Jesus did not intrude.
My brother and sister and I spent December praying for Santa Claus to arrive. Except for the penury of our gifts, we celebrated a Christmas any Jewish merchant would have gladly participated in.
Many of us outgrew these Reformation hang-ups years ago. My wife and I now set up miniature manger scenes in our home every Christmas and join our grandchildren in thanking God for the Christ child’s birth.
Some of our people, though, are still prisoners of conscience on this matter. They rigidly adhere to the Puritan’s phobic rejection of Yuletide cheer, sometimes embarrassing the rest of us by preaching surly Christmas sermons entitled, “Why We Don’t Believe in Christmas.”
Years ago in mid-December I was invited to preach in a sister church. All month long their little ones had gleefully practiced special Christmas music. That night, right before the service when I was to speak, a church full of proud parents assembled to hear their progeny belt out the songs of the season: “Frosty, the Snowman,” “Jingle Bells,” “Sleigh Bells Ring,” “White Christmas,” “Rudolph.” Anything that didn’t mention Jesus!
My heart ached as I listened. Down the street, in a church some of these folks would have criticized, kids were singing, “O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord!” I dared to point this out.
How, I wondered aloud, could we possibly feel holier because we sang about a fat old man and a ruddy reindeer instead of praising God’s Son?