Christmas on Sunday?

Christmas on Sunday?

“Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,

but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the LORD’s holy day.”

Isaiah 58:13 (NLT)

You would think that Christmas Day falling on a Sunday this year was a tragic event that was going to ruin everyone’s life from tiny babies to old-timers. I have never heard of so many complaints.  Yet it happens every so many years.  It will happen again in 2022, 2033, and 2039 and on and on.  It’s happened in the past and all have survived. 

 

How do the vast majority handle this earth shaking event?  “Well, you won’t see me in church on Christmas day.”  “This would be too traumatic for my kids.”  We have traditions and we aren’t breaking them.”  “I have so many coming for dinner; I wouldn’t have time to go to church.”  Well, I could tell you of many other excuses people have, but I have a lot of suggestions to fix these if anyone cares to listen.

This is a time in the history of our country when we need to join conservative groups who want to “put Christ back in Christmas.”  We are sending the wrong message to today’s culture when we put ourselves and our children first and worship as an option.

I want to share this anonymous quote, “It’s Christmas for crying out loud! It’s the day we celebrate the incarnation, the birth of the Messiah, the entrance into our world of the second Person of Trinity. Don’t we want to sing? Don’t we want to celebrate? Don’t we want to preach and praise and pray?”

Here’s another quote, “Family is a gift, not a god. I love, love, love waking up on Christmas, doing the Advent wreath with the kids, having a big brunch, and opening presents with the family. Yes, it will be hectic to get everyone out of the house for church. Yes, it will mean a delay in all the normal festivities. But maybe the normal festivities should not be deemed more important than the Festival itself. I want my family to know that we rearrange our schedule for corporate worship; we don’t expect corporate worship to be rearranged for us.”

These quotes really say it all and I can’t add much to them. My daughter said to me the other day, “How can I not go to church Christmas morning to worship Jesus whom Christmas is all about?  It would be an insult to the Lord and a poor example to others if I did my own thing and left Him out.”

I recently did a lot of studying about Christmas and found some interesting facts, some of what I already knew but are worth sharing here.  Basically the way we practice Christmas had its roots in paganism.  Down through the centuries the celebrations have changed drastically from the Roman’s ungodly festival of Saturnalia to what we practice today.

Even though Christmas trees, gift giving and even Santa Claus come from pagan practices, they have become ‘Family Traditions’.  Most of us have grown up with these traditions and they have nothing to do with anything ungodly.  For myself, everything is centered on my family; getting together, exchanging gifts and eating special foods.  When my children were young I made a birthday cake for Jesus and we would sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him, somehow that tradition didn’t continue.

 I wish it would have because it brings Jesus into our celebration which should be about Him!  This year Christmas comes on Sunday and what a joy it is to celebrate the birthday of our Savior.  After all, He should come first in our lives, our families and our celebrations.