Advent and Christmas

NickImage

Any Christian discussion of holidays must begin with the recognition that we observe them in the absence of any biblical requirement. Does this mean that it is wrong to celebrate holidays? Not as long as the holiday is simply a focused instance of something that Christians have a biblical obligation to do anyway. Christians ought to ponder the incarnation, so it is not wrong to have a day or even a season regularly set aside for that purpose. Christians ought to exult in Jesus’ resurrection, so it is not wrong to set aside a day to focus especially on that event. Observances such as Easter and Christmas are allowable as matters of circumstance, but they must never be treated as required elements of our worship.

What complicates the discussion is the large number of cultural and commercial accretions that tend to attach themselves to the holidays. Holidays can even become occasions of vice. Something like this has happened within American Christianity. Evidently, the liturgical calendar of modern America includes seven principal holidays, each of which is devoted to the pursuit of a deadly sin: Thanksgiving (gluttony), Christmas (greed), Valentine’s Day (lust), Easter (envy), Independence Day (pride), Labor Day (sloth), and Halloween (vengeance).

To be clear, I do not believe that every cultural addition to the holidays is necessarily evil—just as long as we are careful to distinguish the Christian holy day from the cultural festivities. Plenty of enjoyment can be found in Christmas trees, eggnog, and tinsel, but they should be kept in our homes, not brought into our churches. Still, these cultural observances are the very things that get exploited by the hucksters who wish to commercialize Christmas. In this respect, we may discover that the growth of secularism works to the advantage of biblical Christianity. The cultural and commercial celebration of “Christmas” is dropping the façade of having anything to do with Christ. It is rapidly becoming simply the “Happy Holidays” or the “Winter Celebration.” Since the Lord Jesus was never the object of the buying and selling, separating the commercial and cultural festivities from the Christian observance may actually help to clarify what Christmas—the real Christmas—is about.

What American evangelicals think of as “the Christmas season” used to be divided between two distinct observances. The first was Advent, which began four Sundays before Christmas. The second was Christmas, which was not just a day, but a festival of at least twelve days. Each observance had its own emphasis.

Advent anticipated the entrance of the Savior into the world. It focused upon the reason for which God needed to send a Savior—namely, human sin. It was an occasion for pondering the darkness of the world into which God sent the true Light. Consequently, Advent was a season for affliction of soul rather than festivity, a time to consider one’s own contribution to the weight of guilt that the Savior would have to bear. The sensibility of Advent is nicely captured in the most famous of the Advent hymns:

O come, O come Emanuel, And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear.

Just as Advent represents the anticipation of Christ’s coming in the incarnation, it also represents the anticipation of the Second Coming. The two comings are analogous in certain ways: as the world groaned under the guilt of sin until the Savior came to provide forgiveness, now the Lord’s people groan under the combined weight of depravity, mortality, and oppression until Jesus appears to bring deliverance. One of the important themes in the counterpoint of Advent is yearning for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In spite of its afflictions and ponderings, however, Advent is hardly a season of unrelieved gloom. The element of hope, of anticipation, is always present. Advent ends with Christmas, and for that reason, the blessing and joy of the incarnation, while subdued, are constantly bursting in. It is no accident that the hymn repeats the refrain,

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Because Advent combines elements of sorrow for sin with elements of anticipation, it is an appropriate season to consider those who were longing for the first coming of the Savior. Figures such as Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, and Anna provide models of the viewpoint of Advent. Above all, Mary typifies the spirit of one who anticipates the arrival of her Savior. Since Christians can learn from their godly example, we should give attention to these saints.

Whatever its secondary emphases, the primary message of Advent remains, “the Savior is coming.” The entire atmosphere changes with the arrival of Christmas itself, when the message becomes, “the Savior has arrived,” or, to put it in biblical terms, “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.” Anticipation bursts into celebration and affliction into exultation as the season takes on the aspect of unmitigated joy.

Traditionally, the preparations for Christmas take place after mid-day on Christmas Eve. Decorating and baking form the immediate prelude to the celebration that begins at midnight. Furthermore, when Christmas day is over, Christmas itself has just begun. The celebration extends through the next twelve days, ending with a commemoration of the arrival of the Magi on what is sometimes called Epiphany (January 6).

While none of these observances is obligatory, they can be done so that they honor the Scriptures and communicate genuine spiritual values. If we are going to do them rightly, however, then we need to become genuinely counter-cultural. If we are going to celebrate Christmas, it needs to be the Christian Christmas, not simply the commercial or cultural Christmases. The advertisers want us to begin to celebrate on the day after Halloween, and they want us to celebrate mainly by using our credit cards. One very good way of both resisting the commercial Christmas and keeping the cultural Christmas in its place would be to reinstate the historic distinction between anticipation and realization, between Advent and Christmas. Perhaps we should make the attempt.

Thus Angels Sung
verse 1: George Wither (1588-1667); verses 2-7: anon.

Thus angels sung, and thus sing we;
‘To God on high all glorie bee!
Let him on earth his peace bestow
And unto men his favours show.’

If angels sung on Jesus’ birth
Then we have greater cause for mirth,
For it was all for our poor sake
He did our human nature take.

Dear Christ, thou didst thyself abase
Thus to descend to human race
And leave thy Father’s throne above:
Lord, what could move thee to such love?

Man, that was made out of the dust,
He found a paradise at first:
But see! The God of heav’n and earth,
Laid in a manger at his birth.

Surely the manger where he lies
Doth figure forth his sacrifice;
And, by his birth, may all men see
A pattern of humility.

Stupendous Babe, my God and King!
Thy praises will I ever sing,
In joyful accents raise my voice,
And in the praise of God rejoice.

My soul, learn by thy Saviour’s birth
For to abase thyself on earth,
That I may bee exalted high
To live with him eternally.

Discussion

“Any Christian discussion of holidays must begin with the recognition that we observe them in the absence of any biblical requirement.”

For our consideration: Requirement? No. We are under Grace, not Law (Col. 2:16-17, Rom. 14:6). Pattern? Yes (Lev 23, et al). Example? Absolutely! (e.g. John 7 [the Feasts point to “Jesus”]; Acts 20:7). Are they profitable if used correctly? Absolutely. (I Tim. 1:8).

Thank you, Dr. Bauder, for continuing to teach and challenge; for helping us all to “bring every thought captive in obedience to Christ.” And especially thank you for the hymns and poems.

“While none of these observances is obligatory, they can be done so that they honor the Scriptures and communicate genuine spiritual values.”

Jim Lowery,

Richmond, VA

One very good way of both resisting the commercial Christmas and keeping the cultural Christmas in its place would be to reinstate the historic distinction between anticipation and realization, between Advent and Christmas. Perhaps we should make the attempt.

Because holidays- Christmas especially- is supposed to involve a gathering of family, observing Christmas in a way that honors Scripture is often made unpleasant if not completely impossible. It feels as if one either has to shun family gatherings (or in our case, they shun us), or accept the insanity that is Christmas.

Thanks, Dr. Bauder, for a very powerful and well-written article.

I would love for the church to get back to “the Christian Christmas.”

Being raised in a conservative Lutheran setting where the church year was featured prominently, my own perspective, for what it’s worth, is that many evangelicals and fundamentalists make a clumsy, half-hearted attempt to celebrate “the Christmas season.”

At worst, their efforts seem to mirror (or even be driven by) “the commercial Christmas.” At best, they want to “take the opportunity to share the real meaning of ‘the cultural Christmas.’”

What most are neglecting is giving a Scripturally substantive basis to have such a prolonged celebration at all – at least in a way that can be sustained meaningfully for a month or longer.

The season of Advent (a Scriptural concept, as Dr. Bauder shows) should be a spiritually rich time that draws on thousands of years of Biblical history to prepare Christ’s people for the climax of Christmas, when we actually remember the birth – His coming to earth to redeem us.

In that light, there are hundreds of Bible passages (most of which are neglected entirely) that could be the basis of our public and private meditations during the Advent season – not to mention many beautiful hymns written for Advent, one of which Dr. Bauder quotes, that we rarely sing in our churches.

We’re losing our Christian history, and it’s truly a shame.

Church Ministries Representative, serving in the Midwest, for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry

America includes seven principal holidays, each of which is devoted to the pursuit of a deadly sin: Thanksgiving (gluttony), Christmas (greed), Valentine’s Day (lust), Easter (envy), Independence Day (pride), Labor Day (sloth), and Halloween (vengeance).

Sorry Dr Bauder but I disagree with your assessment. My assessment:

  • Thanksgiving = Family centered. Good food a part of it!
  • Christmas = Family centered. Yes the world has made it a consumer-excess period but the Christian can easily eschew the materialism by limiting spending
  • Valentine’s Day: I really don’t do much to celebrate this. I buy boxes of candy for my widowed Mother, widowed Sister and my wife.
  • Memorial Day: Because we’ve lost people to war (my wife’s Uncle died in a Kamikaze attack in WWII) this is important to us
  • Independence Day = national pride. I’m OK with this.
  • Labor Day = Seems like for most people it is a half a day of yard clean up followed by a BBQ with friends and family.
  • Veterans’ Day: Important to us because we have so many who have served our country in the services (including my son (USMC / Iraq) (others: Father, Brothers, Sister-in-law, etc)
  • Halloween = waste of time but I do enjoy the little kids coming to the door. A good opportunity to reconnect with neighbors at the front door! I don’t really see any vengeance associated with it.

Jim, your sentiments and disagreement with Dr. Bauder are understandable. My wife works for a well-known low-cost discount chain Not Named Wal-Mart. Because Wal-Mart decided to open at 8PM on Thanksgiving in addition to the observance of “Black Friday” most of the other retail chains followed suit. My wife had to work a normal day on Thanksgiving, though she did earn time and a half. This forced me to cook the entire dinner except for the desserts that were done in advance. I don’t mind at all cooking for Thanksgiving dinner, it’s just the fact that I had to do so that was troubling.

Thanksgiving was a family holiday. It is now the opening day of the Christmas shopping season. My cynical Air Force nature tells me that Christmas is next. The Last Christian Holiday will be eliminated next year by “After Christmas Sales” on Christmas Day. What’s to stop Wal-Mart from doing so? The only day that retailers close will be the evening of Super Bowl Sunday, which is now THE National Winter Holiday.

Agreed and that’s an interesting angle. My D-I-L manages a large department store. She worked until past midnight (had to stay for closing) on Thanksgiving eve. Then had to be to work for the midnight opening on Thanksgiving night. Her Thanksgiving was basically a waste.

Jim ,

Alright, I’m confused. Not for the first time, as my students will happily testify.

I don’t see a point of disagreement. I stated that vice can creep into holidays. I observed that this creepage has become pronounced in America, even among many evangelicals, and offered some tongue-in-cheek examples.

You summarized your personal ideal for the holidays. Then, in your reply to Mr. Frank, you conceded that you were unable to fulfill that ideal this year because of the cultural pressures that are being applied to your family holidays.

Truthfully, I do not see a contradiction here. If anything, you have offered confirmation of my thesis.

Kevin

Jim,

I don’t think you need to retreat. From my point of view, our statements are complementary and not contradictory. In fact, that’s part of my point—there is a good way to celebrate days like Christmas. You suggest some of those good ways, and I pretty much agree with you. But our present culture works against us, so we need to look for ways to become deliberately counter-cultural. I think that counter-culture needs to be centered in the church. I don’t know whether a resuscitation of Advent is part of the answer, but I’d be willing to consider it.

Complementarily yours,

Kevin

Hi Dr. Bauder,

I’m curious to hear your thoughts on if and how the observance of Advent in a local church setting squares with the Regulative Principle of Worship. Wouldn’t it (the formal observance) be an instance of “esteeming one day as better than another”?

Curiously,

David

David,

The Regulative Principle is the point of my opening paragraph. Because Advent and Christmas are not required by Scripture, they must not be imposed as an element of worship. At the same time, I do not believe that they are merely human inventions. Rather, they are specifications of activities which are biblically warranted. Advent commemorates the anticipation of the incarnation and Christmas is a celebration of it.

There is a difference between what we are not required to observe and what we are required not to observe. Holidays like Christmas and seasons like Advent belong to the former category. But at some point, if we do not reflect upon the incarnation in anticipation and celebration, we fail to communicate all the counsel of God.

Kevin

Dr. Bauder,

I had caught the terminology (circumstance vs. element) but had failed to how Advent observance might be categorized as circumstance. I think I see now, though it would take careful handling.

Thanks again,

David

Dr. Bauder, I was agreeing with you, although you “dinged” me for lack of clarity. I agree totally with your thesis and should have clearly written so. Yes, it was “cultural pressure” that was applied to me to cook Thanksgiving dinner. It was a labor of love, I enjoy cooking a special dinner. Interestingly my waiter son was off on Thanksgiving [but Mrs. jimfrank wasn’t] and was able to eat supper with us. Merry Christmas to one and all from the jimfrank family!

Kevin wrote an article (12/16/2005) on the Three Christmases (I cannot find it in the Central Archives). I built on it in an article here: http://www.iarbc.net/seer/2007/2007-03.htm.

As my article indicates, I think we fight for things that have never really existed, except in our minds and traditions.

I like Kevin’s article here. Both of Kevin’s articles (12/16/2005, and this one) work well together.

For the Shepherd and His sheep, Kevin Grateful husband of a Proverbs 31 wife, and the father of 15 blessings. http://captive-thinker.blogspot.com