Magyar Egyház, 1982 (61. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1982-11-01 / 11-12. szám

MAGYAR £GYftAZ

8. oldal

A REFORMED CHRISTMAS

We take Christmas for granted as a religious holiday. No matter how hectic our days become, or how much the concerns of everyday life intrude upon our thoughts, we know that at Christmas time our hearts and minds should be fixed upon the miracle that God brought about with the birth of Jesus. We know that a part of our Christmas committment will be to spend extra time in church, and to be extra aware of the needs of our fellow human beings, in accordance with the angels’ song: “Glory to God in the hightest, and peace on earth, good will towards men.”

In this attitude, we are at one with the early Reformers: Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin. In Wittenburg, Zurich, and Geneva Christmas was a special celebration, marked by preaching, worship, and the serving of the Lord’s Supper. But later members of the Reformed family, notably the English Puritans, objected to the celebration of Christmas. They argued that most of the Christmas customs had pagan origins, and that it was the work of the Gospel to abolish pagan customs rather than enthrone them in the worship of the church. In the early history of the United States, and in England under Cromwell, the celebration of Christmas was actually against the law in some places! The contemporary popularity of Christmas anly goes back to the middle of the last century, and can be traced in large part to the influence of the novelist Charles Dickens, whose work A Christmas Carol was enormously popular all around the world.

It is perfectly true that many of our Christmas customs have their origins outside the Christian faith. The very day on which we celebrate Christmas, December 25, was once a holiday dedicated to “Sol Invictus”, or the Unconquered Sun, in the Roman Empire. It marked the time when the days began to get longer again, indicating that the sun had overcome the efforts of darkness to suppress all light. It took the church almost four hundred years to settle on December 25 as the day Jesus was born; the Bible does not mention a day at all. The date may have been chosen in part to oppose the popular pagan festival.

The giving of gifts was a part of the Roman holiday, and the practice was continued by the church, which understood the gift-giving as representing the gifts of the three Kings.

Later on, St. Nicholas of Myra became associated with gift-giving, because he was regarded as the patron saint of children, and brought them gifts on his feast day, December 6. Our “Santa Claus” is a decendent of the popular St. Nicholas, and even the name “Santa Claus” is a mispronunciation of his name — “San —Ni —K’las”.

Decoration of Christmas trees originated in Germany, where trees were thought to be sacred. St. Boniface won his first converts in Germany by daring to chop down one such sacred tree, which was an oak dedicated to the god Thor. He replaced it with the fir tree, which could be seen as a symbol of eternal life because it was always green. Before Boniface, the Germans had been accustomed to decorating trees burning yule logs, and feasting and exchanging gifts during their Winter festival. These customs were continued after their conversion to Christianity, but they were related to the birth of Christ and the joy of the Christmas season.

We can see, then, that many of our Christmas customs do have pagan ancestors. In this respect the Puritans were right. But does that mean we must do away with Christmas, as they did? Does our committment to the Gospel mean we must abolish our traditional Christmas customs from our churches and homes? I think not. The Reformed faith does just that: it reforms. It sprang from a reform of the Christian church itself, to eliminate abuses and bring the life of the church in line with the directives of Scripture. Today, our churches still reform: They reform themselves, as they listen to the Word of God and strive to obey it. They reform individual lives, as people continually hear the call of God. And they reform the society around them, as the influence of Christian faith and charity is felt beyond the bounds of the institutional churches. We do not accomplish these reforms perfectly, of course, and it is entirely due to the grace of God that we accomplish them at all. But the point is this: when we examine something in the light of the Gospel, before we ask if it should be destroyed or abolished, we must ask if it can be reformed.

The celebrations of the early Romans and Germans may have been pagan. But, as responses to the bounty of nature and the coming of Spring, they were also celebrations of God’s good gifts, even if the Giver of those gifts was unknown. In this

C9SiBiSimS3B|!QiB9!!jiB11»CSt!ijle9SilSISilS}SmsSiieiS9KlSaC3SilSi---------------------------- ONE SOLITARY LIFE”

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop until !He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying—and that was His coat. When He was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress.

1 am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as had that One solitary life.

James A. Francis, D.D.