A Holiday Dilemma

I’ll admit it; I was tempted to write an article giving several arguments why Christians should not celebrate December 25th as the birthday of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.  But, I decided not to.  Then I was tempted to use this space to defend the idea that even though we shouldn’t celebrate “Christmas” as a religious holiday, there is nothing wrong with treating December 25th as any other secular holiday (New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, etc.).  But, I decided against that too.  Then I was tempted to ignore the holiday all together and write about a completely different subject (see next Sunday’s bulletin to find out how that idea turned out). Ultimately, I decided I cannot argue for or against any celebration of Christmas and I certainly could not ignore it.  So I started thinking about why this one day has become such a problem for so many people.  Many are hesitant to wish their friends and family or even a stranger on the street “Merry Christmas” from fear they might offend someone.  Others feel compelled to shout “Merry Christmas” to everyone they see.  Many, including myself, struggle to maintain that magical balance between offending and coming across as a “Scrooge.”

I think one of the reasons behind this is the trend of a growing number of Christians to attempt to put their religion in a box and keep it on a shelf from Monday through Saturday and take it out on Sunday morning when its time to go to church.  Then, come dinner time, back in the box it goes.  You see, Christmas presents a real problem for this type of Christian: should they open the box for this holiday or not. Another reason why Christians are unsure how to handle Christmas is that too many lack a strong knowledge of the Bible.  Have you ever sat down with your Bible and really dug in to see what God says about the observance of Christmas, or any religious holiday for that matter?  If I may be so bold, I would like to suggest trying this in the coming days.  I suggest starting with Galatians 4 and Romans 14.

The purpose in this article is not to provide an answer to the question of whether or not Christians should celebrate Christmas.  If we make every day a day to remember God’s great gift then December 25th is no different than any other day.  The purpose of this article is to make us think, really think, about what God wants from.  And, what He wants is to be first in our lives each and every day.

God bless,

Thomas Sneed