My church dropped Jesus for Christmas. That’s right. My church chose Santa over Jesus. The lights will be off on Christmas morning and I am left to wonder why. Worshipping on Christmas Day is implied in the very name–Christ’s mass or Cristes Maesse as it was first called in 1038. Christmas, of all days, should remind us Jesus is Lord. It isn’t so much a celebration of his birth as it is why he came. Too many self-professed Christians are good with letting Jesus be their Savior, but Lord, well, not so much.
I pastor a senior congregation in an independent living facility. Normally I would be able to preach and worship with them on Christmas Day. But this year the residents, who couldn’t wait for a Christmas service, were placed in COVID-19 lockdown. Their proactive, facility administration would not allow us to meet for corporate worship. So, I decided to go to my home church. It is where I often worship, before heading over to the facility to preach.
Imagine my surprise to learn its doors would be locked that day. The reason given was, wait for it, because Christmas Day fell on, of all days, a Sunday. Christmas on Sunday has happened six times since 1983. In a brief video my pastor told the congregation his decision was made to allow staff to enjoy the day with their families. I have attended this church for many years. Such a decision must be a recent change. I recall attending the Saturday night candlelight service and returning for the one on Christmas Sunday morning.
We burn with self-righteous indignation when we hear “Happy Holidays,” instead of “Merry Christmas,” and silently simmer because Starbucks adopted a generic cup design for the season. Yet, if we attend many, especially independent, larger, churches, the organs, drums, and guitars will be silent this Christmas morning. It has happened before. The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday was 2016.
In a Federalist article published that Christmas season, G. Shane Morris, citing a Christianity Today finding, praised Mars Hill and Willow Creek for bucking the trend by holding services on Christmas Day. Obviously, doors open on Christmas do not cover a multitude of sin. In those instances, the pastors knew to do right, but didn’t always do it. That’s a story for another day. Regardless, at least that year, their door were open on Christmas.
Morris also cited a Chicago Tribune article about a mega church pastor who gave this reason for cancelling Christmas Day services.
We don’t see it as not having church on Christmas. We see it as decentralizing the church on Christmas—hundreds of thousands of experiences going on around Christmas trees. The best way to honor the birth of Jesus is for families to have a more personal experience on that day.
Experience (smoke machines, laser lights and rock and roll worship music) is a staple of many consumer-driven mega churches. Those are the churches people attend to be entertained, but not sanctified.
Church is not about an experience, but a relationship; vertically with God through Jesus and horizontally with brothers and sisters in Christ. We demonstrate that through our actions. It isn’t about how full the church is, but how full of Jesus the worshippers are. What good is it to have a sanctuary full of people if many of them are going to miss the cut at the final judgement because they were members, but not disciples? They know all about Jesus, but do not know him. And the pastors who pandered to their “worldliness” by “rockin’ around the Christmas tree “will have to give account to the one whose birthday they skipped to celebrate with Santa.
I just have to say I will never hear, “Keep Christ in Christmas” the same way again. Without actually admitting it, the decision of my pastors and others like them have demonstrated they have tacitly approved replacing Jesus with Santa Claus. The same folks who shake their heads 51 weeks of the year over church absenteeism for “frivolous reasons” bagged the second most holy day on the Christian calendar so families could open gifts together.
In an Op-Ed in The Christian Post, David Ruzicka, put his finger on what is really going on. “Christmas is about family, and presents, and eggnog and Santa Claus! That’s what the atheist argue. And by action (which speak louder than words) so does the church when it cancels the exact thing it does every other week of the year.” He went on to say, “We’ve bought into the secularization of Christmas and the idol of family over Jesus just like everyone else but talk a good game!”
Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26 | NIV) That one is pretty hard to hide from. But the next verse clearly explains where some draw the line. “And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27 | NIV) Apparently, they draw their “cross-carrying” line at celebrating the birth of Jesus on the one day of the year set aside for that purpose.
Churches forgoing Sunday worship will still pass the plate during the services held the week prior to Christmas. The message sent and received is that it’s all about the bottom line in the First Church of Contemporary Culture. Perhaps that is why the pastors skipping Christmas church don’t take a public stand against Christian Nationalism or a stand for Christmas Day worship. It seems pastors of such attractional churches will do whatever it takes to keep butts in pews. If they think they must compromise principles to keep the lights on, how are they any different from other small business?
Another phrase I have heard in churches that are closed on Christmas is, “The church is a hospital for sinners.” Baloney! My daughter is an emergency room physician in a trauma hospital. How likely do you think it is that her administration would lock their doors to give her and her coworkers Christmas off so they can open presents with their families? Even as a hospital chaplain, I worked Christmas Day. Of all days, Christmas is the one on which many people feel most alone. It is the day they welcome the company of strangers.
It is possible that I am overreacting, but I believe such churches had the opportunity to stand for something, but, instead, demonstrated they have sold out to the culture. They have abdicated responsibility for being hospitals for the lost to become temples to the idol of family and consumerism. Some people have given up the habit of meeting for worship, but we must not do that. We should keep on encouraging each other, especially since you know that the day of the Lord’s coming is getting closer. (Hebrews 19:25 | CEV)
The author of that passage was writing to people who risked everything by going to church. Are we such weak Christians we cannot even arrange our schedule around an hour or so on a Christmas Sunday morning? If so, haven’t we lost the true meaning of Christmas?
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