Christmas is it Christian?

Sort of an odd question isn’t it? Despite the fact the holiday has an obviously Christian name — designating it as a mass in special honor of Christ — many object to its celebration by Christians.

Some think that because pagans used to celebrate a different holiday on that day, we Christians shouldn’t celebrate on that day. In addition, some argue that Christ wasn’t born on Dec. 25. How they know this I don’t know, or care. The Bible doesn’t record his birthday, but I’ll celebrate it on Dec. 25 all the same. Truth be told, it holds a special seat of honor in an overall Christian calendar celebrating many different themes of Christian doctrine, and to not celebrate it would be very disorienting for us Christians who follow the liturgical year.

But that is another story all together. Christmas is Christmas. We Christians celebrate the incarnation of our God, and the birth of our Savior on that day. We don’t celebrate pagan festivals even if others do on that same day.

You wouldn’t know it today, with all the ranting against the commercialism of Christmas that goes on, but early in American history it was puritan church leaders who had actually banned the celebration of Christmas all together. Freedom of religion and the presence of Catholics and liturgical-loving Protestants all but put that ban to an end. Christmas is a holiday that just won’t die. Kind of hard to tell your children they didn’t get a present on Christmas because you don’t believe in it. I find a special joy in that triumph of Christmas. In many ways it has become more, not less, than a Christian holiday by becoming more or less an American holiday.

You might be surprised by this, but I see nothing wrong with celebrating both the American and Christian holiday. Many who do not hold to the Christian faith still put up Christmas trees and Christmas lights. They bake cookies, have parties, and wish their friends a merry Christmas. I can’t rightly find anything more wrong with this than I can fireworks on the Fourth of July. Even so, I wish they could know the true joy of Christmas that is the celebration of our Lord and Savior’s birth.

Mary gave birth to God. That is what we Christians believe. It’s not that God did not have an existence before Mary, and actually that is what this is all about. God became one of us, and Mary gave birth to him. It would not have been possible for Mary to do this if Jesus was not already God from all eternity, very God of very God, and being of one substance with the Father.

God is eternal having no beginning or end. Therefore if one at one time was not God, it is impossible for them to ever be God. That, however, does not mean that it was impossible for God to be born and begin a human existence. All things are possible with God. And on this day we believe God did just that; that he was born of the Virgin Mary who conceived Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit.

“But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’” (Matthew 1:20, ESV)

It is an occasion that all but demands an annual celebration, for in this God’s plan of salvation for all mankind was put into action. He became one of us, so that he could save us, dying in our place. He became one of us so he could forgive us with his blood — no longer the blood of a mere man, but the blood of God, for Christ is God.

So Jesus may or may not have been born on the 25th of December, and non-Christians might celebrate a different holiday on that day even now. But I don’t see the sense in changing the day of the celebration of the incarnation of God, nor do I mind sharing a day of celebration with someone else.

Bror Erickson is pastor of the First Lutheran Church in Tooele. He is a graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Ind.