Quite a few people have walked into my office today, most of them letting the smile precede them, some of them are whistling a happy Christmas carol. Some of them even knock. As they sit down on the sofa, there is an expectation that I will ask them what brings their smile to my office, and I gladly oblige because if there is any one time of year that seeks fulfillment of joy, it is the advent season. So much expectation - so little time.
Why can't advent be prolonged for four months? Why only four weeks? There are many places on the web that I could find the answer to these questions; many of them claim that the original understanding for advent, or "coming", was more in preparation for Epiphany, rather than Christmas. Little do many know that in the early church there were three main church holidays: Easter (of course), Pentecost (that would be right) and Epiphany (the coming of the light). What? The first three are 'churchy' holidays. What about Christmas? 'Christ' right in the word unless you are my neighbor who continually (to get my goat, I think) calls the whole season x-mas almost as if it were a holiday for Wolverine, Magneto and Storm.
Why didn't the early church celebrate Christmas? Most likely, I think, because they didn't actually know when he was born. Let's face it: Jesus was born as (traditionally understood) part of a poor Jewish family. Birthdays were not considered that important in those days - most people didn't really even know how old they were. They probably would have known what season they were born, but an actual date? Probably not. So how was December 25 chosen as the date of the birth of the Savior? The most obvious guess is metaphorical. December 21 is the date commonly given as the solstice, when the earth begins to swing back the other direction. For those who live north of the equator, the daylight hours would be getting longer after December 21. The young church (already almost two hundred years old at this point) chose the winter solstice because it was a quaint understanding that the light was coming back into the world. What was interesting to me, as I pored through some research on Christmas, was that after the winter solstice, it usually takes the human eye four days to begin to see the change in length of daylight hours i.e. four days after December 21. Literally, we could see a change in the light coming back on December 25. (in the northern hemisphere, that is).
The most common understanding of the date chosen, though, was that it was a religious takeover of a pagan festival. This was common practice in the early church to commandeer the best dates during the year such as Eastertime and Christmastime to help people remember to be especially 'religious' at these times. For the new Christians who were pagan or non-practicing something or other, Christmas was the corporate church takeover of the pagan holiday dies natalis solis invicti or in English, "birth of the invisible sun god.' Imagine that, the metaphor of Christ, the light of the world being born at Christmas - it fits, doesn't it? Christmas which literally means, "Christ Mass" - was an attempt to separate the people from the pagan mindset to celebrate Christ at the darkest time of year.
But Christmas, in the early church, was never intended to become one of the 'Big 3.' Easter carries with it God's saving grace in the world, Pentecost is the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit, the comforter and Epiphany, the celebration of the light of the world and his baptism: Light and Water, symbols of life. But Christmas, why has Christmas become Number 1? I think for multiple reasons:
1. People like babies. According to Taladegha Nights: the Legend of Ricky Bobby - it's easiest to pray to a 8 pound 6 ounce baby Jesus. If somehow we can keep Jesus little, keep him bound up in all of our best pictures of Christmas as a 'fleece diapered child of God,' Christmas is more palatable for the general public. People don't want to think about what Jesus did in his life, his death and resurrection. (My sarcasm ball and socket is flexing wildly.) I would guess that many people agree with Ricky Bobby.
2. Christmas is all about receiving. I've heard it over and over again, Jesus said it, "It is more blessed to give than to receive.' But more and more what I hear across the radio waves: "The one who has more presents has more love." Usually, the bigger the present, the more you are loved. Businesses have to sell, I guess, but how many of us really need to be told that, in no uncertain terms, 'your wife will really love you if you put a bow on a brand new Mercedes this Christmas (I should write 'holiday' to fit in with the advertising. Wouldn't want to send mixed messages at this blessed time of year.) Ask and ye shall receive. Write your list to the portly, red outfitted, chimneyphile - ask and ye shall receive it - unless, of course, you've been bad.
3. Everyone likes what Christmas represents: trees, lights, presents, family together, stuffing your bellies full of food and drink and then waddling to the sofa that night after opening presents to fall asleep and not go to Christmas Day services at church. Oops, maybe next year. The glam of Christmas is wonderful, don't get me wrong - but where is the 'silent night' of Christmas. Where is the reflection? Where is God's whisper to us that he loves us forever and ever? Why do we wonder that we can't hear God's voice now?
4. Lastly, Christmas became bigger and bigger once lent and Easter became darker and darker. As western culture developed, as the Church became older, the message of Easter stressed sacrifice and the cross, crucifixion, death, blood and gore... This is what people want to avoid, if they can. It used to be that sex was the great taboo - no one would talk about it. But now, death is the great taboo. We don't talk about it; we avoid it at all costs. We fill our lives with things that speak of eternal youth. As the church tries to exercise the beauty of discipline and sacrifice, more and more people want to call a halt to it. Sacrifice means death; the death of a selfish part of life. Discipline means restrictions on what I want to do. We want happiness and things that make us generally content, not things that remind us of death. But how, as Christians, can we separate Christmas from Easter? It is because of Easter that we have the freedom to celebrate the light and life that came into the world.
It is time to go home. Those who have visited me have left the comfy sofas. There Christmas carol whistles still hang in the air somewhere, but now I am alone for a little bit in silence. It's a good thing during advent: to sit in silence and prepare for what God might have for us at Christmas.
Just a few rumblings for advent - a time of preparation. Prepare for the coming again of the light. Have a very merry Christmas.
Reid
