Lessons to be Learned 12.8.2022

    To be in ministry means to be constantly learning more about our environment of service. Very few of us are called to minister in our own communities. Far fewer are blessed to serve the Church where they grew up. Most of us are immigrants to the communities in which we live and the Churches where we preach. Christmas customs and traditions are a little bit like dating customs. There are some basic, universal constants but far more variables. 

    Biblical and theological training tends to mold people like us in the direction of inflexibility and focus. This is good for preaching, teaching, leading, and pastoring. It is not so good when it comes to learning the local lessons of the Advent/Christmas season. 

    Christmas is good and positive. Many of us will have not only Church-wide activities but also class and small group parties, as well as community gatherings. And as we make our way through life, we will find that each community and congregation has its own way of celebrating Christmas. One of the joys of ministry is learning how to be flexible, how to observe, and learn new ways of celebrating and worshipping—ways which may never have occurred to us, for which we must now take responsibility.

Christmas Universal but mostly local

    I served a Church once that had the tradition of every family in the Church bringing every other family in the Church a gift the Sunday before Christmas. I was not told, beforehand, of this quaint local custom. It is the sort of thing that a young minister might want to know, might need to know. 

    This is but one of the poignant experiences I’ve had through the years that remind me of an operating truth: Christmas may be universal, but it is always observed, celebrated, and kept locally. Ministry is a blessing and a joy. We have the blessed opportunity to represent our God before His Church and to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ! And we have the chance to meet many different believers from various backgrounds, ethnicities, and traditions. 

Traditions 

    Ministry allows us to engage people who maintain different Christmas traditions. Some of the customs will be broadly shared. Others will be hyper-local. Some of these traditions will be called by what we think of as a familiar name, only to find that it describes a totally different phenomenon! Oh, the joys of service and the endless pleasure of people!

    Meals, programs, parties, decorating, live/static Nativity Scenes, Caroling, and even shopping together. There are countless ways that humans can gather, and our Churches exhibit an extraordinary variety of ways to celebrate the holiday season. They are not scripture. They do not dictate theology. They are not a matter of faith and practice. They “season” the season with a local flavor that makes it home. The key to enjoying and embracing these new traditions, some of which may be alien to you is straightforward. Be at home where you live. 

Worship

    Because of the various commitments of the Christmas season many Churches add or alter their Worship.  Is it called Advent or just Christmas? Do we have formal readings and candle lighting? Who is responsible for these additions to worship? Some do, some don’t, and some have added them to enhance the experience and include more individuals in the worship experience. 

    Do you have a Christmas program? Is it a children’s program or, the now-rare adult Cantata? Who runs it? Is it an informal affair or a multi-sensory production that forms the basis of the entire Christmas experience, displacing even the preaching of the Word? 

    What about Christmas Eve? If it is a Candlelight service, it clearly needs to start in the evening. Is Midnight too late? Most Churches I’ve served had a “traditional” time for the Christmas Eve service and the tradition was dictated by what other Churches and organizations were doing. Everyone in the community had their own time slot and many families intended to attend more than one service. The heart of the local tradition was, “Be a good neighbor.”

When and Why

       All of this brings us to the central questions of when and why. This year at Grayville we will only have Morning Worship on Christmas Day, canceling Sunday School. Why? Because we want people to both enjoy their families and join us for worship. We could stubbornly insist on doing things like we do every Sunday. The result would likely be that those who skipped Sunday School and stayed in their Jammies would probably do the same with Worship and we would have simply cut off our noses to spite our faces. 

    From the day that we put up the tree, to the Sunday set aside for Walk to the Manger, to Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning the whole point is to leverage the attributes of the season to encourage greater attendance and participation. Every “what” question needs to have a corresponding “why” so that we keep these expectations in balance. 

Who

    The final questions we need to ask are the “who” questions. Who are we hoping to touch this holiday season? Who is the object of our concern, our worship, our planning, and our preparation? Obviously, the Church I mentioned earlier, where every family brought a gift for every other family did not expect a lot of new people. No unexpected gifts or visitors during the Christmas season. This goes against the grain of current Christmas planning that leverages Christmas as the time to “sell” visitors. Like Macy's, these Churches create a spectacle hoping that they will create a committed, regular customer. Here are some of the central issues for our congregation as we seek to provide a theologically sound spiritual experience during the Christmas season.

Silent Night. Holy Night. Calm. Bright. Focused on Incarnation.

Deck the Halls.  Focused on Celebration. 

Joy to the World. Focused on a clear, enduring word regarding a remarkable Savior. 

These goals are not mutually exclusive. Instead, they reinforce one another and insure that Christ is center and that His Church celebrates Him in worship. Even the music we treasure helps to focus us on the ultimate intent of our worship. 

    I love it all! My wife has been decorating for 4 weeks. Every day there is something new hanging, sitting, twirling, dangling, or blinking at the Parsonage on the Hill. In the past, I’ve led Advent services and not had them. It works both ways. In Grayville, we will have Christmas Eve Candlelight and Communion at 9.00 p.m. December 24. Christmas morning worship will be at 10.00 a.m. At one point or another throughout the month of December, we will have Christmas Joy, deck our halls, and reflect silently in the night. I wouldn’t miss these traditions for the world. We do these things to frame preaching about Incarnation in such a way that is not only appealing but inviting.  

During Christmas, Mary’s time is our time= “And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.” (Luke 2:6 ESV)

During Christmas, the amazement of the shepherds is our amazement= “And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.” (Luke 2:9 ESV)

During Christmas, we all have the chance to tell the story= “When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”” (Luke 2:15 ESV)

    The best lesson of Christmas might be that we did not invent this faith we treasure, proclaim, and share. Generations have gone before, and the traditions created through their pioneering efforts still resonate today. Listen closely to what the angels sing. It is often sung by the voices of the ancestors of our faith who have left us traditions to treasure and lessons to learn.