Celebrating the Birth of Christ

Dear Fellow Christians:

Today I write in response to the SEBTS Blogspot query: Is there a mandate to celebrate the birth of Christ?

My father and mother had a strong interest in the Holy Land. They chose to live in that area while my father served as a physician in the US Air Force, stationed in Karamursel, Turkey, from 1960-62. On leave, they seem to have hit just about all the highlights of the Holy Land. Somehow, from the wealth of photos and perhaps also from the poignancy of photo subject choice, it seems they knew they would never return.

My father made a manger scene for us so early in his marriage that I never remember not having it. It was the shape of a rough concrete cave in a hillside, stretched over some newspaper over chicken wire, supported by a small wooden frame on a stage, with the whole thing sporting the appearance of a normal distribution curve from the frontal perspective. And, he had traditional, realistic figurines for the manger scene, including a donkey, a few sheep and one or two cows, in addition to the standard figures of the shepards, wise men, parents and baby Jesus. If my siblings do not show much interest in it, I would like to inherit that manger scene, and let my children grow up with it. There were two sheep which had legs broken off on one side, but which could therefore more easily stand on the concrete hillside above the cave.

What is a mandate? "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." comes to mind. But I feel that the Bible speaks to me with authority beyond the grammar forms which might surely claim a place as commands from God.

I do love the commands, as they are clear and keep me from much pain and wrong. However, I love guidance I receive in other parts of Scripture, and do not feel that I need to judge it less important to the conduct of my life than commands. I believe the Bible complete, meaning any abstraction of the story of the birth of the Christ Child from Scripture leaves the Bible somehow wanting, incomplete. The birth of Christ underlies the incarnation, a glorious mystery. And the way our family celebrated Christmas, the presence of Christ in our lives was only amplified. We had four stockings hung from the mantelpiece, one for each child.

While not commanded, were my parents to have excluded Christmas celebrations from my childhood, I can't help but think that they would have needed, vis-a-vis the power of Christ's birth in popular culture, in some way to have overlooked the story of Jesus' birth in Scripture. I say this because the culture was strong then, in the early 60's with celebration of that portion of the Bible, having taken a secular holiday, one born of heathen drunkenness, and transformed it into a splendid time for illuminating the birth of Christ, so much so that even Charlie Brown could not avoid getting involved, with a voice in Linus which resonates with me today, and the singing, the singing of Charlie Brown's Christmas, rings in me today. Then, secular culture was replete with reverence for the birth of Christ.

The only thing remaining for them to exclude it entirely would be for Christians to capitulate and "acknowledge" that Scripture does not mandate we celebrate the birth of Christ. But we know we live our lives by more than mandate, and that Scripture guides us in ways far too fine to be worded strictly within a set of rules or mandates. Jesus taught with parables, understanding the superiority of such a medium, for rendering truth we needed for the conduct of our lives, beyond that truth amenable to simple codification.

Too, human tradition in a Christian culture is not always entirely a bad thing, nor utterly antithetical to the Gospel message. In fact, such tradition may embody much inexpressible wisdom.

Humans, particularly children and older people, seem to yearn for ceremony, the rituals of holidays, marking the seasons of their lives. Eggs did not spoil Easter for me in my childhood. They did add to the allure of Easter Sunday. And along the way, while painting my eggs at home, I heard and thought of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

The context, set by my parents, was thoroughly Christian. Color did not dampen the Christian import, as I see it. We had no gifts, nor rabbits. Just eggs, and an egg hunt at church, Taylorsville First Baptist. I think we even ate the eggs afterwards.

Ultimately the birth of Christ is of importance to me beyond the sentimental, as without it, I would have no incarnate savior, or not in the manner chosen by God revealed in Scripture. God could have created a body for Christ by fiat, but He chose to use the Virgin Mary, in, I think, an expression of loving humility. The significance of that goes beyond my full ability to express in words.

I realize it is important to be vigilant that our holiday activities do not contravene, Holy Scripture. However, I cannot think of a more perfect or alluring story to amplify in our Churches and in the broader community, than that of the savior’s birth. If you take away my sense of Christmas, you risk eviscerating something very important from my childhood. I am a Christian and became one at age seven, when I invited Jesus into my heart and received baptism.
Even to me, it is not entirely clear why I opened my heart to Christ. All of my value lies in this early decision in my life. There are people who turn away from Christ. Why did I accept Christ and they did not? Well, there are probably many contributing factors, but I loved Him. He gave his life for me, for my eternal soul.

But I cannot tell you how important, or unimportant, having a childhood replete with beautiful images of Christians celebrating the birth of Christ in my home and community was to preparing my heart to rest transcendently in the will of God for me, not to take offense.

It seems that I could not easily live a life of faith and wholly ignore any outward expression of Luke's story of the Savior's birth. The incarnation of Christ and His reincarnation are part and parcel with His life. I would not parce them merely from an impulse to be more culturally palatable. Celebrations of Christ's birth are an ineluctable part of my Christian heritage and cultural expression of my inner beliefs.

The story of the birth of Christ are not only very attractive, but compelling to young non-Christians in my experience. To begin to think any celebration of it unnecessary for me brought up in and continuing in the tradition that was my heritage seems not just silly, but even potentially harmful, inimical to the expression of our love of Christ in our lives, something I cannot imagine the Holy Spirit advising me in.