Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

My congregation has had to learn to put up with the fact that I am more a Christmas than an Easter Christian.

I embrace this holy day whose message is that God so loved the world that God sent a son born of Mary in a manger, whose love embraced the entire world and all creation. The Incarnation is salvation enough for me.

Christmas as a feast day came late to the Christian calendar. Obviously, no date is mentioned in the Bible. An early third century calendar of feasts set the date in March. By 400 the winter solstice was the focus of Nativity celebrations. It was after Charlemagne’s coronation in 800 that Christmas celebrations took root in Europe.

They became great feasts with gifts and caroling, the highlight of the community’s life in the course of the year. As such, Christmas has been the target of sober, puritanical sentiments throughout the centuries. The English Civil War and the Protestant control of certain colonies led to its actual banning.

But I say bring on the feast. The carols, presents, decorations, even the tipsy toasts are proof we are alive, filled with a spirit that is unmatched by any other time of the year.

The hopes and fears of all the years are redeemed by the birth of a child. This is a compelling myth in ways that the substitutionary sacrifice of Easter simply is not. Easter’s true meaning is a mystery. The meaning of Christmas is crystal clear, “God so loved the world that he sent his only son.”