So, we come to the end of another long, long \u201choliday season\u201d that now begins sometime before Thanksgiving and lasts until at least New Years Day and, this year, anyway, through the day after that. Let me say first that I thoroughly enjoyed this year\u2019s \u201choliday season\u201d because it afforded special opportunities to spend time with family. I have absolutely no complaints about the family or religious aspects of these holidays and the season surrounding them\u2013except that it\u2019s difficult to separate those wonderful aspects from the not-so-wonderful ones. And that the church-related events have dwindled considerably over the years.<\/p>\n
This is a side bar but not a totally irrelevant one. I wonder how many people know that, for the most part, the Puritans and their religious offspring (up through the 18th century and some into the 19th century) did not observe Christmas at all.\u00a0 To them it was a pagan holiday. There is some debate about it, but some historians believe even Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer, author and composer of Joy to the World! did not celebrate Christmas. (One thing I\u2019ve learned from hosting this blog is that any time I make a statement someone is going to contradict it. So, let me say, yes\u2026I know there\u2019s debate about this.) Joy to the World! was not written as a \u201cChristmas carol.\u201d It was written to celebrate and anticipate the second coming of Jesus Christ and his kingdom on earth. (To me the lyrics sound very premillennial, but I\u2019m not sure Watts intended that.) All that is simply to say that \u201cChristmas\u201d has not always been a holiday embraced by all Christians; many strongly opposed it. Even Luther condemned bringing trees into houses and decorating them. (I believe there\u2019s a verse in Jeremiah that condemns it as well!)<\/p>\n
Okay, back to my main message. I absolutely love watching my granddaughter (now 2.5 years old) enjoy her first Christmas\u2013the first one where she actually understood some of what was going on. And I very much enjoyed the family gathering, feasting and gift-giving and game-playing, etc. What I DIDN\u2019T enjoy was the extreme commercializing of Christmas and all that went along with that: near riots in stores (apparently there was an actual riot in the Mall of America!), crowds of people rushing around in the streets and malls and grocery stores, competition to see who can give the most impressive gifts (not in my family!), and, above all\u2026Santa Claus.<\/p>\n
Okay, now I know I\u2019ve touched a nerve with some people. Fine\u2026if you like Santa Claus (and the Easter Bunny), fine for you. I don\u2019t. Thank God (!) the church where we attend now doesn\u2019t have a man dressed in a Santa Claus costume come into the church with a sack full of little presents for the children and give a kind of \u201cchildren\u2019s sermon\u201d and hand out the gifts. (Yes, that actually happened in one church we attended some years ago!)<\/p>\n
It may sound petty to some of you, but I really do think Santa Claus is something we could all do without. This one figure, totally divorced from his original saintly personage of history, has become far too visible leading up to Christmas. The songs (\u201che sees you when you\u2019re sleeping\u2026.\u201d), the picture cards featuring him, the mall
\n\u201copportunity\u201d to sit on his lap and have your picture taken with him, but especially\u2026the deception aimed at children! To my way of thinking, allowing children to believe in Santa Claus is simply wrong\u2013especially for Christians. What are they going to think about parents\u2019 veracity and sincerity when they learn the truth? How many harbor doubts about God because their parents told them God and Santa Claus are watching them and then they found out (usually from a friend at school) that Santa Claus is a myth?<\/p>\n
I was raised in a very strict fundamentalist (Pentecostal) home and church. Santa Claus was pretty much treated as demonic. That\u2019s one thing I don\u2019t regret about my strict upbringing. I don\u2019t think I ever missed out on anything by not believing in Santa Claus. (And I\u2019m sure I was one of those children who went around demythologizing him to friends at school!) And I know I didn\u2019t miss out on anything by not believing in the Easter Bunny! We raised our daughters without those symbols and I am sure they didn\u2019t miss out on anything important.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not one of those (like my friend Rodney Clapp) who advocates Christians giving Christmas back to the pagans (the majority of Americans) because it has become a pagan holiday (again as it was in Roman times). On the other hand, I can respect that. I value SOME traditions and customs and practices of this overly long holiday season. I love our church\u2019s Advent observance (even though that wasn\u2019t part of my upbringing\u2013we considered churches that observed the church calendar liberal or dead). I love Christmas Eve service. I love the annual Christmas concert we attend at a large church in the area. (We also attend that church\u2019s Easter concert and twice now we\u2019ve found ourselves sitting very near George and Laura Bush!) I love the warmth of family eating together, singing together and playing games together near the decorated tree and crackling fire in the fireplace. I love watching my granddaughter open presents on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n
What I don\u2019t love is feeling pressure to get \u201cjust the right gift\u201d for someone and fighting crowds at the stores and in the streets, addressing Christmas cards (this year we didn\u2019t do it!), putting up Christmas lights on the outside of the house, etc., etc. But all those things are minor compared with Santa Claus. I despise him and the way he has taken over so much of the attention that should go to Jesus this time of year EVEN in Christian contexts.<\/p>\n
What I MISS is the childrens\u2019 Christmas pageant at church. When I was a kid it involved Saturday practices, costumes, learning a \u201cpart,\u201d getting \u201cChristmas candy\u201d in a sack after the pageant and..of course, the play itself. I was always relieved when it was over, but I actually enjoyed being in it even if only as a shepherd or casual bystander outside the \u201cstable.\u201d I also miss Christmas caroling. And it just isn\u2019t the same without snow, anyway! I miss gathering at the church on a (usually) Wednesday evening hear Christmas and going out around the neighborhood in groups with little song books and flashlights, stopping especially at homes of elderly people and \u201cshut-ins\u201d and singing carols for them. We often went to nursing homes and the people there were so appreciative (well, most of them). And then going back to the church for hot chocolate and baked Christmas treats.<\/p>\n
And I miss our church\u2019s New Years Eve \u201cWatchnight Service.\u201d Does any church do that anymore? I learned as an adult that the custom was started by the Moravian leader Ludwig Nicholas Count von Zinzendorf in the 1700s. (He also started the custom of Easter \u201cSunrise Service.\u201d) The whole congregation, all ages, gathered at the church around 5:00 PM for a potluck dinner together. Then we went to the sanctuary for singing and \u201ctestimonies\u201d of what God has done in people\u2019s lives during the year. After that we had desserts and fellowship and then (usually) a Christian film. I still remember some of those awful films like \u201cThe Gospel Blimp\u201d and \u201cWithout Onion\u201d and, later, Billy Graham films like \u201cThe Restless Ones\u201d and \u201cFor Pete\u2019s Sake.\u201d Then we would have the Lord\u2019s Supper and right at midnight the organ would play as people prayed \u201caround the altar\u201d for Jesus to return (or something). (I remember as a teenager praying that Jesus would NOT return until I grew up and got married!) At our church we had a post-Watchnight Service tradition of everyone going to homes of people in the church for late night\/early morning snacks and fellowship. I remember falling asleep at most of those events as my parents and other church folks chatted and sometimes prayed together into the wee hours of the morning.<\/p>\n
Over the years Watchnight Services became shorter and shorter\u2013beginning later and ending earlier. Then they stopped altogether. I wonder if any church still has a Watchnight Service anything like the ones I enjoyed as a kid? Or any at all? I haven\u2019t seen one advertised on the \u201cReligion Page\u201d of a newspaper in years. The same with Easter Sunrise Service. As a kid I experienced it as a highlight of the year for our whole church. We gathered around 6:00 AM at the church for a worship service celebrating Jesus\u2019 resurrection and then went together for breakfast at the Settlement House (our little church didn\u2019t have a basement or fellowship hall). Then we all went back to the church for Sunday School and another Easter worship service. I miss singing \u201cHe Arose!\u201d Later, when I was a teenager, our church joined with other evangelical churches for a \u201cUnion Easter Sunrise Service.\u201d Then, gradually, that stopped as well.<\/p>\n
I wonder what happened to those special events that most evangelical churches enjoyed and that were so much a part of my religious formation? And whatever happened to Sunday evening services\u2013those more relaxed, informal gatherings? I don\u2019t know of any church that still has a regular Sunday evening service outside of rural and small town churches. In the last three churches we\u2019ve attended those cozy Sunday evening services where people suggested songs to sing and gave testimonies,etc., simply stopped without explanation.<\/p>\n
My wife and I were talking about these changes and came up with the theory that they are due to TV. Even good Christian folks can\u2019t tear themselves away from Sunday night TV. (When I was a kid we had TV sometimes, but I never saw The Wizard of Oz until I was an adult because it was always on Sunday evenings! We didn\u2019t have VCRs and Tivos to record shows back then. But we do now, so why don\u2019t people just record their favorite Sunday evening programs and watch them later?)<\/p>\n
All in all, I must say that I barely recognize Christian church life anymore\u2013it\u2019s changed so dramatically. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. But the most outstanding change is how little time we actually spend at church and how little we actually know our fellow congregants because, for the most part, we only see them on Sunday mornings. \u201cChurch culture\u201d has changed dramatically. Does Christian life stay the same when church life changes so dramatically? I\u2019m not sure it does.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, we come to the end of another long, long \u201choliday season\u201d that now begins sometime before Thanksgiving and lasts until at least New Years Day and, this year, anyway, through the day after that. Let me say first that I thoroughly enjoyed this year\u2019s \u201choliday season\u201d because it afforded special opportunities to spend time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n