Christmas Doesn't Come Once a Year
The secular celebration of Christmas came to an abrupt end on December 25th. Radio stations in Detroit began playing [secular] Christmas music the day after Halloween. It all stopped suddenly and without warning late in the evening on December 25th. And with good reason.
Secular radio stations aren't interested in Christmas. They're interested in attracting listeners who are emotionally and psychologically moved by Karen Carpenter, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby singing sappy songs about lonely Christmas eves, chestnuts roasting, and pumpkin pie in Pennsylvania. If you get enough of those listeners between November 1 and December 25, your Arbitron ratings go way up - and so do your ad rates!
The sad truth is, even devoted followers of Jesus like us have been so conditioned by the secular celebration of Christmas that the season also came to an abrupt end for us as well. If only we believers took our cues from church history rather than from WNIC radio, maybe for us the season that is Christmas would be significant far beyond December 25.
Church history teaches us that what is now become the secular Christmas season used to be called the spiritual preparation of Advent. Counting back four Sunday's before Christmas day began a time of spiritual reflection. Four solid weeks of musing about the spiritual significance of the incarnation of God's Son in human flesh; scripture reading, worship services, and prayers that focused the hearts of devoted followers of Jesus on the wonder of it all. Instead of being emotionally manipulated by music about chestnuts and snow, our forebears in the church allowed their minds and hearts to be shaped by the lyrics and music of George Fredrick Handel and Charles Wesley. Instead of packing their days leading up to Christmas with holiday parties and frantic mall forays, those who came before us were packing into houses of worship - small, unheated, and candlelit - to focus their spirits on the Word.
The preparation of Advent didn't abruptly end on December 25th either. It continued through what is known on the church calendar as "Epiphany," the day the church marks the coming of the Magi to visit the young child with their gifts (some two years after the manger scene!).
And Epiphany, like Christmas, isn't just one day either. It takes us all the way to the middle of February with more worship, more spiritual focus, more insight into our relationship with the baby born who is the coming King. And Epiphany segues into Lent, and Lent into Pentecost, and before you know it we've been relating to the baby in the manger for a whole year and it's time once again to celebrate Advent! Christmas doesn't come but once a year! Christmas is a perpetual preparation in anticipation of the one endless day we will share together in the permanent presence of the baby born reigning as King of kings.
Secular radio stations aren't interested in Christmas. They're interested in attracting listeners who are emotionally and psychologically moved by Karen Carpenter, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby singing sappy songs about lonely Christmas eves, chestnuts roasting, and pumpkin pie in Pennsylvania. If you get enough of those listeners between November 1 and December 25, your Arbitron ratings go way up - and so do your ad rates!
The sad truth is, even devoted followers of Jesus like us have been so conditioned by the secular celebration of Christmas that the season also came to an abrupt end for us as well. If only we believers took our cues from church history rather than from WNIC radio, maybe for us the season that is Christmas would be significant far beyond December 25.
Church history teaches us that what is now become the secular Christmas season used to be called the spiritual preparation of Advent. Counting back four Sunday's before Christmas day began a time of spiritual reflection. Four solid weeks of musing about the spiritual significance of the incarnation of God's Son in human flesh; scripture reading, worship services, and prayers that focused the hearts of devoted followers of Jesus on the wonder of it all. Instead of being emotionally manipulated by music about chestnuts and snow, our forebears in the church allowed their minds and hearts to be shaped by the lyrics and music of George Fredrick Handel and Charles Wesley. Instead of packing their days leading up to Christmas with holiday parties and frantic mall forays, those who came before us were packing into houses of worship - small, unheated, and candlelit - to focus their spirits on the Word.
The preparation of Advent didn't abruptly end on December 25th either. It continued through what is known on the church calendar as "Epiphany," the day the church marks the coming of the Magi to visit the young child with their gifts (some two years after the manger scene!).
And Epiphany, like Christmas, isn't just one day either. It takes us all the way to the middle of February with more worship, more spiritual focus, more insight into our relationship with the baby born who is the coming King. And Epiphany segues into Lent, and Lent into Pentecost, and before you know it we've been relating to the baby in the manger for a whole year and it's time once again to celebrate Advent! Christmas doesn't come but once a year! Christmas is a perpetual preparation in anticipation of the one endless day we will share together in the permanent presence of the baby born reigning as King of kings.
posted by Paul Edwards at 7:18 PM
1 Comments:
Awesome post! Thanks
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