Ever read Fox’s Book of Martyrs?  I confess I haven’t.  Not the whole thing, anyway – just enough excerpts to curdle my blood.  I’ve also read a number of accounts of modern martyrs of the faith.  There are more who have died for Christ’s sake in the last century than in all the time since Christ’s own death.  With that in mind, I now turn to the plight of the poor American Christian who must endure the persecution of …..  The Annual Christmas War.

I expect to hear the first salvo any minute now:  some Christian complaining because the world is disrespecting Christmas.  “Why can’t the clerks say ‘Merry CHRISTMAS’ instead of “Happy Holidays’?!!!” “Why won’t schools sing songs about JESUS?!!!!” “Put CHRIST back in CHRISTMAS!!!!”  “Why can’t we have a Nativity in the Capitol?!!!”  “Don’t they know how stupid it sounds to call a Christmas tree a ‘holiday tree’?”  It gets more strident with every December that passes.  It makes me shake my head, it really does.  It’s so senseless!

To complain about the world not keeping Christmas is to fault the world for not celebrating that which it has NO REASON to celebrate in the first place.   The Bible makes plain that the world loves darkness instead of light (John 3:19), suppresses the truth by its wickedness (Ro. 1:18), is futile in its thinking and its heart is darkened (Ro. 1:21), is filled with every kind of wickedness and is a God-hater (Ro. 1:29, 30), it has rejected the truth and followed evil (Ro. 2:8). Those in the world walk totally and completely in the flesh, which is hostile to God, and does not – and CANNOT – submit to God’s law. The world stands already damned. (John 3:18) It has every reason in this world to hate, loathe, and detest Christ Himself, let alone give a fig about some “holy” day His followers have chosen to declare.  The world can’t “put Christ back in Christmas”, because for them, He was never there.

Since the world can’t celebrate Christmas, those in the world who want to celebrate a form of Christmas substitute other versions created in man’s likeness.  Stuffmas is the celebration of gifts.  Since affluenza is the defining characteristic of American culture, it should be no surprise that this time of year is when it is seen in its most acute form.   There’s the celebration of Santa Day, usually accompanied by Rudoph, Frosty, and the rest of the gang.  The modern American Santa is the incarnation of works righteousness.  Santa is a God-figure, or at least, God as many wish He would be:  an all-seeing and all-knowing miracle worker, giving rewards to those who are “good” and punishment to those who are “bad” – but really, such a jovial and kindly old man that we know he couldn’t ever truly be angry, but will look on most offenses with a wink and a nod.  Many in the world don’t mind celebrating Sweet Baby Jesus Day; after all, who doesn’t love babies, all helpless and innocent and inoffensive?  For most who celebrate this day, the babe in the manger is eternally an infant, never growing up.  Even for those who think about the fact that the baby became a man, they will acknowledge Him only as a “good man” or “wise teacher”.   They cannot face the reality of Jesus as LORD.  The plethora of “feel good” movies celebrating the “”True Meaning of Christmas Day” are all about generosity, sharing, caring, and giving of oneself, often self-righteously repudiating Stuffmas while occasionally embracing Sweet Baby Jesus Day.  When stripped to their basic premise, however, all are making a statement about man’s essential goodness.  That is, deep down, we’re all really good people, and would be warm, kind, generous, and loving if we just opened ourselves up and let our inner goodness shine.  All four of these celebrations are pretty poor subsitutes for celebrating the birth of the Messiah; but they’re the best the world can do.

To complain about the world not keeping Christmas is to fault the world for not acting as if OUR holiday were the only one that mattered.   America has never been as homogeneous as some would like to believe, but certainly by now no one should carry any illusions as to our uniformity.   Christmas – even the world’s forms of it – is NOT the only holiday going on at this time of year, and especially for those in the marketplace, there is a vested interest in trying to appease all sides. Christmas-purists may be offended by a “Happy Holidays” greeting, but NON-celebrators feel no differently about “Merry Christmas!” – and if the former say, “Well, they shouldn’t be so sensitive; it doesn’t hurt them to hear ‘Merry Christmas'”, the reverse is just as true. Or maybe businesses should just rotate their greetings? “Merry Christmas!”, “Happy Hanukkah!”, “Happy Kwanzaa!”, “Happy Bodhi Day!”, “Happy Winter Solstice!”, “Happy Eid al-Adha!” and “Happy winter!” for the atheist. I really pity the poor clerks who are on the front lines, having to follow the manager’s directive because he is the one signing their paycheck, but getting huffed at by purists upset because they didn’t get the “Merry Christmas!” they wanted.

But even if those of general Christian tradition were the majority, would that make it right to insist that everyone do things ONLY our way? Having lived in an area of extreme religious influence, and myself being in the very definite minority, I can tell you that, sure, as the minority, you may choose not to make a fuss about it and just “live with it” if you see no way of changing things; it won’t kill you. But I can just as certainly tell you this: having their will imposed on you in that way will NEVER make you look favorably on them, will NEVER give you warm, fuzzy feelings about what they believe, and will NEVER make you want to be like them.   Having our way at the expense of others…. doesn’t sound very much like Jesus, does it?

To complain about the world not keeping Christmas is to fault the world for not doing that which we ourselves are not commanded to do. The celebration of Christ’s birth is not sacred. That is, such a celebration is nowhere commanded – nor even hinted at – in Scripture.  We therefore have the freedom in Christ to celebrate or not celebrate; celebrating doesn’t make us “holier” and not celebrating (and there are many Christians who do not!) does not make us “less spiritual”.  The celebration of Christmas is entirely a man-created thing. Yes, Christ was born, and yes, without Him having been born He could not have lived and died and risen, but there is nothing that says we have to have a celebration of that birth.  If there is nothing that says we have to celebrate the birth, there is most assuredly nothing that defines just what that celebration must look like!  Thus, every culture that has been touched by Christianity has developed its own cultural traditions, every denomination has its own traditions – there is no right or wrong.  We do not have any grounds on which to dictate to anyone else what they should or should not do to celebrate.  If we have not that right even within the Body, which is celebrating true Christmas, why on earth should we feel it incumbent on ourselves to correct the WORLD which is not even celebrating Christmas at all?

To complain about the world not keeping Christmas is to waste our time, our energy, and our witness!   The world can’t ruin our Christmas, but WE can; nothing the world does can stop us from celebrating Christmas, but every minute we spend huffing and grumbling about how someone else isn’t celebrating Christmas like we think they should is a minute we haven’t spent celebrating Christmas, either.  I don’t think it hurts Jesus’ feelings that the world doesn’t join in the birthday party we hold in His honor – but I can’t help wonder if it doesn’t grieve Him that so many Christians, by their militancy about the subject, give the world so little cause to want to see what it is we’re celebrating!   If we set ourselves to use every opportunity to speak to the reality of Christ and His power in our lives, His love for sinners, His forgiveness of sins, the cross as well as the crèche, keeping our cheer no matter what the perceived “offence”, having compassion for those who have so little to celebrate, I think our celebration of Christmas will present a winsome witness that will give real meaning to our “Merry Christmas!”

Let the world do what it will.  We have the Christ!