Think Christmas is over?
I hope not.
We landed in
Athens, Greece one year on January 6. We
had heard stories of traffic gridlock in Athens, but on this day the streets
were almost empty. What was going on? It was Christmas! Greece and most of the Eastern Orthodox
countries don’t observe Christmas on December 25, but January 6 or 7.
The birth of
Jesus was not even observed in the early church. The focus was on his death and resurrection
and with good reason. The gospel writers
devoted approximately one-third of their writings to the final week in the life
of Jesus. The cross and resurrection are
at the very heart of our understanding of the Christian faith. Two of the four gospels say nothing at all
about the Nativity. Since the crucifixion
occurred during Passover, the church knew when to observe it each year. No one knows when Jesus was actually born,
but it wasn’t on December 25 or January 6.
No good shepherd would have his flocks abiding in the fields on a cold
winter night.
When the Roman
Emperor Constantine became a Christian, the date of December 25 was selected to
celebrate the birth of the savior. The
Romans already had a big celebration named Saturnalia (for the Roman God
Saturn) that was held to celebrate the Winter Solstice that they thought was
December 25. It became a natural time
to celebrate the birth of God’s only son.
When the
Gregorian calendar was developed, Orthodox churches refused to change from the
old Julian calendar. December 25 on the
old Julian calendar is January 6 or 7 on the Gregorian calendar, which is why
Christmas is celebrated later in Greece and other Eastern countries. Hence we have the 12 days of Christmas with a
partridge in a pear tree.
Why stop with 12
days of Christmas? What if we kept the
Christmas spirit of love, kindness, and giving all year? One of the greatest preachers of the 20th
Century, Dr. Peter Marshall, suggested keeping Christmas in a 1950 sermon that
we would say today, “went viral.”
Dr. Marshall with
his spell-bounding Scottish brogue proclaimed:
“I thank God for Christmas. Would
that it lasted all year! For I have
observed that at Christmas all the world is a better place, and men and women
are move loveable. Love itself seeps
into every heart, and miracles happen.”
In this epic
sermon Peter Marshall addresses the “sophistication” that says Christmas
belongs only to children. He says, “The
older you get, the more it means, if you know what it means. Christmas, though forever young, grows old
along with us.”
He concluded his
powerful sermon with the challenge to keep Christmas all year. “So we will not “spend” Christmas or
“observe” Christmas. We will “keep”
Christmas in our hearts that we may be kept in its hope.”
That may be the
best New Year’s resolution of all, to keep Christmas all year. Keep the spirit of generous giving, keep the
spirit of kindness, keep the spirit of peace and reconciliation. My prayer for 2018 is that the spirit of
Christmas, the spirit of Christ, will fill us with faith, hope, and love. Let’s keep Christmas all year!
