Christmas

My latest “Worship Matters” column in Christian Week:

By Michael Krahn  |  ChristianWeek Columnist

That Christmas is a season of Christian worship probably isn’t news to you. For all its materialism, uninhibited spending and consumer debt, there is still some residual knowledge of the fact that the reason we have Christmas is Jesus Christ.

Some retailers, advertisers and other secular institutions are waging war on the word “Christmas” itself, hoping to rid the season of its Christian roots, thereby making it more palatable for our multicultural society and more profitable for retailers.

Some Christians are a little ticked off about this—but not so ticked off, it seems, that they take time out of their participation in materialism, uninhibited spending and consumer debt to do much about it. Maybe next year. This year, I need to get to Wal-Mart by 4 a.m. to get that piece of plastic little Jimmy so desperately wants.

In other words, the reason for the season was lost long before these “secularists” waged war on the season’s name.

You may also know that this soon-to-be-secularized holiday has pagan roots anyway.
The response from everyone except the most ardent neo-Puritan is, “Yeah, so what? It doesn’t mean that anymore”—so we carry on with the celebration.

But this got me to thinking about that despised and recently past day of celebration that is Halloween. What does Halloween mean anymore? If it really is a night about worshiping Satan, I have to say—Satanists are failing as badly at making it a significant day of worship as Christians are failing at Christmas.

Secularize Christmas? Christianize Halloween!
So if Christmas is on its way to being secularized, why not try to Christianize Halloween? Who’s to say it can’t become a day of Christian worship in the future? It seems like there may be a trade-off in the works.

As with many other customs and holidays, we allow the world to dictate to us what they’re about. Usually, we acquiesce to the culture around us and by all definitions of worship, we worship. We worship created things rather than their creator. This goes for Halloween as well as Christmas.

The world says Halloween is a night to glorify evil; I choose to use it as a night to build relationships with my neighbours. The world says Christmas is an opportunity—or more like an obligation—to wallow in the trough of materialism; I choose to use it as an opportunity to glorify the Saviour of the world by acknowledging His birth, His life, His ultimate sacrifice and His returning to life as the “firstborn from the dead” as Paul calls Him in Colossians 1:18.

Of course an effort to re-Christianize Christmas would also be worthwhile. To do this we’ll need to rid it of the overwhelmingly glossy cuteness it has come to embody—Rockwellian scenes of bliss, doe-eyed Precious Moments© angels singing sweetly in the sky and all that. The commercialization of Christmas is a tragedy; our continued, overzealous participation in it is too.

An Undomesticated Christmas
And to disinfect and domesticate the event is a disservice. We can’t understand the scandal of Jesus birth, life, death and resurrection unless we see it in its historical context. That context was a far cry from the cutesy, glowing, serene scenes we’re often presented with. Mary’s labour was difficult; Jesus’ cries were that of a newborn infant; Joseph had real concerns about his reputation; Herod massacred many children in search of this one. And so on.

Neither of these celebrations may have Christian origins, but as far as it’s up to my family and me, they’ll both have a Christian future. My thinking is: we Christianized one pagan event, why not another? Why can’t we mount a subversion campaign that yields the eventual result of Christianizing Halloween? Maybe in 20 years it will be known as “Firstborn of the Dead Day” and churches can celebrate it as a second Easter.

“One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord” (Rom. 14:5-6).

The point is this: let’s avoid judging days based on what other people choose to do on them. Otherwise we might eventually end up rejecting a certain day of each week when the dominant form of worship involves TV, football and beer. Every day can be a day to worship and worship brings transformation—transformation of self, of our neighbourhoods and our world.

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And so ends my run of “Worship Matters” columns in Christian Week. The column has been renamed “Church Matters” and will take a wider look at church life.