Rev. David Holwick ZN CHRISTMAS
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
December 10, 2017
Isaiah 1:10-20
HOLIDAY OR HOLY DAY?
I. What holidays are good for.
A. Funny greeting cards.
T.M. Moore enjoyed reading funny greeting cards as a kid.
He liked one of them so much he actually bought it.
The outside had a tipsy, red-nosed guy with a glass in hand.
His bubble says, “I only drink on holidays.”
You open it up and inside a little red booklet was glued to
the card, entitled, “A Calendar of Holidays.”
The little red book lists 365 holidays, one for each day of
the year.
A lot of them are made up, like “Kick a Cocker Spaniel Day”
which is followed by “Nurse the Bite Your Cocker Spaniel
Gave You Day.”
He was just a kid, but it got him to thinking about the
significance of holidays.
#35575
B. Every culture has them.
This month’s National Geographic had a short article on holidays
around the world.
The United States has 10 official ones.
Only one of these is religious - Christmas.
India, on the other hand, has 48 holidays and 43 of them are
religious.
What would you do with an extra 38 holidays each year?
[1]
C. Holidays were supposed to be holy days.
1) Even in ancient Israel they soon became corrupted.
2) Isaiah quotes God himself as saying:
“Your appointed festivals I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.”
3) Mega-holidays like Christmas can wear us out, too, but
our reasons are different.
a) What God hated was the hypocrisy.
b) They went through the motions of the holiday but their
hearts were full of hatred and injustice.
c) God says they shouldn’t expect any of their holy day
prayers to be answered.
D. How do you handle this holiday?
1) Do you enjoy it, or is it too much so you burn out?
2) Is this Christmas season in any way spiritual for you?
a) Not just, do you make it spiritual or religious, but
do you experience any connection with God through it?
b) If your experience falls short, perhaps you can do
something about it...
II. Church leaders in the past felt the tension.
A. Luther loved holidays.
1) He liked the singing and the food and the festivities.
a) Luther liked beer, so alcohol at Christmas was fine
with him.
2) His attitude can be called “nominative” - if God doesn’t
forbid something, then you can do it with a glad heart.
3) Luther looked at Christmas celebrations and said, “Joy to
the World!”
B. The Reformers - Calvin and Zwingli - were more skeptical.
1) These men were a huge influence on the early American
society, most of whom were Puritans.
2) Their attitude can be called “regulative” - if something
is not explicitly ordered in the Bible, then you
shouldn’t do it.
a) In the New Testament, December 25 is never mentioned.
b) Christians don’t give gifts to each other or have
parties to honor the birth of Jesus.
c) Therefore, you shouldn’t either.
3) Calvin felt the way Europeans did Christmas was an
abomination.
a) Lots of drinking and carousing around.
b) For Calvin, the only good thing to do on Christmas was
to go to church and meditate on your sins.
c) His attitude to the season was, “Bah humbug!”
(Puritans even fined people for celebrating Christmas)
#65427
III. Christmas has some big issues.
A. The date is problematic.
1) There are clues in the Bible that point away from December.
a) It is a cold, rainy month in the Middle East.
b) Flocks would not have been outside all night, but
sheltered.
c) And the Romans would not order a census to be taken
in the rainy season, when roads might be impassible.
2) Autumn has more going for it.
a) The best clue is found in Luke 1.
1> Zechariah is the father of John the Baptist.
2> He is also a priest in the Abijah division which
had a rotational duty in the temple.
A> From other ancient sources we know what this
schedule was.
3> When his division had to do its temple duties,
God told him his son would soon be conceived.
b) Jesus, John’s cousin, was born six months after John.
1> Since the division of Abijah had its service in
the month of Tammuz, or June/July, then Jesus
would have been born in the month of Tishri.
2> This happens to be when Jews celebrate the festival
of Tabernacles.
3> In our calendar it is September, and some pinpoint
the birth of Jesus between the 16th and the 29th.
4> So perhaps Jesus was born on September 27 and I
share his birthday!
A> (I am glad I don’t because that would mean
fewer presents.) #65966
B. The pagan associations are a concern.
1) December 25 wasn’t adapted by Christians until 300 years
after the birth of Jesus.
a) It also happens to be when the ancient world celebrated
the winter solstice.
b) The pagans worshipped the sun on that day.
c) Even early Christians admit they were trying to subvert
that holiday and make it Christian.
2) Some early Christians were opposed to his holiday.
Tertullian was one of the great Church Fathers of the
second century after Christ.
He was born into a pagan family and converted later.
Tertullian had a puritan mindset.
He wanted the church to break all ties with paganism.
He had a real problem with getting sucked into these
holidays, particularly Christmas and New Years.
In his comments we see reference to the pagans’ holiday
trappings that have passed down largely unchanged to
our own day:
Tertullian wrote:
“On your day of gladness, we [Christians] neither
cover our doorposts with wreaths, nor intrude upon
the day with lamps. [they put these on porches]
At the call of public festivity, you [pagans] consider
it a proper thing to decorate your house like some
new brothel.
We [Christians] are accused of a ... sacrilege because we
do not celebrate along with you the holidays of the
Caesars in a manner forbidden alike by modesty,
decency, and purity”.
Tertullian also contrasted the pagans’ faithfulness to
their pagan festivities with Christians’ faithlessness
and their tendency to compromise their beliefs.
He wrote:
“The Saturnalia, New Year, Midwinter festivals, and
Matronalia are frequented by us!
Presents come and go!
There are New Year’s gifts!
Games join their noise!
Banquets join their din!
The pagans are more faithful to their own sect.
For, even if they had known them, they would not have
shared the Lord’s Day or Pentecost with us.
For they would fear lest they would appear to be
Christians.
Yet, we are not apprehensive that we might appear to be
pagans.” #65966
C. The way we honor Christmas is often unchristian.
1) Someone told me many corporations are banning alcohol at
their Christmas parties this year.
a) They are concerned their employees will get liquored
up and flirt with each other and have to get fired.
2) Even without drunkenness, there can be an awful lot of
excess during this holiday season.
a) Too much debt, too much rich food, too many relatives.
IV. How Christmas can be done right.
A. The Old Testament saw an important purpose in holy days.
1) Holy days reminded the people of the greatness and grace
of their God.
2) Holy days renewed their identity as the people of God.
3) Holy days strengthened their souls.
a) These festivals gave them opportunities to serve God.
b) They also gave them opportunities to bond with their
neighbors.
1> Feasting was common at many of the holy days.
2> Luther would have fit right in.
#35575
B. Christmas is tailor-made for significance.
1) It celebrates an important and unique event - God became
a human being.
2) It reminds us of the joy and potential of a newborn.
a) Not just the joy at the baby Jesus, but our own joy
that we can be born again.
3) It gives us opportunities to share joy and material
blessings with others.
a) The Wise Men shared their joy at the birth of the
Messiah by giving gifts.
b) Since Jesus said that gifts given to the “least of
these” were gifts to himself, our gifts to each other
can fit the spirit of Christmas.
1> That is why I like our Christmas gift card ministry.
2> People who can really use some material help are
blessed through the generosity of believers.
4) It gives us an opportunity to truly worship God.
a) This might be where we fall the shortest.
b) God is kind of at the end of the line when it comes
to Christmas celebrations.
1> Fewer and fewer go to church these days.
2> The whole focus is worldly.
3> But it doesn’t have to be this way.
V. Put the holy back in your holiday.
A. Look to his Word.
1) On your own, outside of church, read one of the Christmas
passages in the Bible.
2) The beginning of Matthew and Luke are the best places find
them, but the first chapter of John is good, too.
3) Recognize the sweep of history portrayed there, that God’s
son is the fulfillment of ancient prophecies.
4) True believers were overjoyed to see the birth of this
child.
B. Spend some quiet time.
1) Christmas is a very busy time. Especially for pastors!
a) Next year will be very different for me.
b) But this year can be different as well.
2) Take time in a quiet place to reflect and pray on what God
has done for you and your family.
3) And thank him for it!
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] "The Holy Days," by Nina Strochlic, National Geographic, December 2017.
#35575 “Preserving the Holy In Holidays,” by T.M. Moore, Breakpoint
Worldview magazine, December 18, 2008.
#65427 “Reformers’ Disagreement On Christmas Yields Lessons,” by David
Roach, December 13, 2016; <Baptist Press; <link>.
#65966 “Was Jesus Born On December 25 - Christmas Day?” From the website
of the United Church of God [an offshoot of Armstrong’s
Worldwide Church of God], January 26, 2011; <link>.
The Tertullian quotes come from David Bercot’s “A Dictionary of
Early Christian Beliefs,” 1998, p. 342.
Additional data on the date of Jesus’ birth was gathered from
“The Course of Abija,” by William Struse, “The 13th Enumeration”
blog, January 6, 2013; <link> and “When Was Jesus Born?” by
John O. Reid (1930-2016), FORERUNNER, December 1994; <link>.
The timing of the priestly service courses is not entirely
clear.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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