I’ll warn you early on. This may turn into a rant. This may even be offensive. I’m rocking a sacred cow. I am so unbelievably sick of hearing people talk about this battle to save Christmas. It is as if many people believe their entire mission on earth is to be certain that unbelievers celebrate the birth of Jesus. I don’t get it. Even if they somehow say, “Merry Christmas”, this does not ensure that they are preserving the “reason for the season”.
I love Christmas. I do not intend on not celebrating it. But the truth is I find nothing in the New Testament where Jesus tells us to celebrate his birthday. I do see places where Jesus encourages us to remember him through the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. I wonder what would happen if we were as passionate about preserving the true meaning of the gospel as we are about preserving the true meaning of our made up holiday.
Yes, Christians should use the Advent season as a time to celebrate and marvel at the wonders of the Incarnation. Yes, we should be passionate about exalting Christ above consumerism. And yes, this is a wonderful time of the year where people are actually thinking about Jesus. We should certainly take advantage of that.
But this is not the time of year when we militantly encourage people to celebrate the birth of a Jesus they do not even know. Perhaps, instead of making sure these darn liberals don’t take away our country we should model the Incarnation and sacrificially serve. Maybe we should say Merry Christmas not only with our lips but with our life.
Rant over.
You can enjoy a more thoughtful “rant” here. Also, I should mention that I think Happy Birthday Jesus cakes are a fine idea—and the picture above is not meant to mock anyone that celebrates in that fashion.
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