Sermon 12-31-23

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

The First Sunday after Christmas

Anti-Christmas Christmas

At last Tuesday’s bible study some of you brought to my attention material that has been floating around on the internet. I think you called it an anti-Christmas Christmas. It’s a rehashing of material that has circulated for years by those who make a big deal about a supposed connection between Christmas and paganism.

This is a somewhat dangerous controversy because probably without knowing it, those who reject Christmas are actually violating the doctrine of Justification by Grace through Faith alone. Let me explain by using a similar controversy that has gone on for the 500 years since the Reformation.

We read in Exodus 20:4-5, “4 ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God. . . .’” Lutherans consider this to be part of the first commandment. Evangelicals and the Reformed separate this out into a second commandment.

The controversy over this command can be seen in the way the different Christian denominations build and appoint their worship sanctuaries. Roman Catholic sanctuaries are often furnished with multiple statues, paintings, stained glass, crucifixes, votive candle racks, stations of the cross, candelabras, altars and much more. On the other hand, there are Protestants who worship in absolutely plain rooms — no Christian symbols of any kind. They do so because they claim statues and other furnishings are idolatry. In between are denominations or congregations that use certain furnishings and symbols in their sanctuaries but not others. It often depends on how strong the local anti-Roman feeling is. 

True Christians know that the actual worship of statues is idolatry, and refuse to do so. But is it wrong to have statues or other furnishings in a Christian sanctuary that are present as reminders of true Christian doctrine? Does having Christian artwork present somehow destroy our salvation before God? Does not having such artwork present somehow make us more righteous before God? The questions are related in that the doctrine of Justification by Grace through Faith answers them. For, here’s the question behind all these questions — what makes sinners like you and me righteous before our Creator God?

Obeying God’s commandments could make us righteous before God if we could obey them fully and completely. But as it is written in Galatians 3:21-22, “21. . . For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.”

Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way anyone can be made righteous before God, because Messiah Jesus alone is the full righteousness of God. And we know that Jesus is the righteousness of God for two reasons. First, He obediently died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sin, as was prophesied of Him in Scripture. Second, for His obedience unto death on a cross, Yahweh triumphantly raised Jesus from the dead as a sign that Jesus had in fact accomplished our salvation. Therefore, Jesus alone can make us righteous before Yahweh. There is no law that can do the same.

Now, this is not to say that Christians are free to be lawless. We read in 1 John 3:4-6, “4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” This means that to know Jesus is to know the power of His righteousness. The righteousness that Messiah bestows upon the believer breaks the back of habitual sin. It breaks the back of lawlessness. It breaks the back of continuous, deliberate sinning. It also breaks the back of idolatry.

In contrast, no law can break the back of lawlessness. If anything, the Law stirs up lawlessness. St. Paul complained about this in Romans 7:7-8, “7. . . I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’  8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.” And then Paul goes on to identify the source of the problem in Romans 7:18-20, “18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”

Paul brings the teaching to a conclusion in Romans 8:3, “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.” This means that the sinful nature we’ve inherited from Adam and Eve is stronger than God’s Law. The sinful nature will overpower God’s Law all the time within us. That’s why the Law can’t save us. If we could truly obey God’s Law, we would never fail to keep it at each and every point. But you and I proved that doing so was impossible the moment we first defiantly told our parents, “no.” 

And when it comes to the truly difficult elements of the Law, we utterly fail. Didn’t Jesus command us in Matthew 5:44-45, “44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” How are we all doing on that command lately? Only the righteousness of Messiah can break the back of hatred for enemies and enable us to do this. The commandment itself cannot. So, when it comes to the commandment on idolatry, in the same way, only the righteousness of Messiah Jesus can break the back of it. Only Jesus is stronger than the sinful nature. It says so in Romans 8:3.

In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther gives this explanation to the first commandment. “You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love and trust in God above all things.”

This means that anything or anyone we fear more than Yahweh, anything or anyone we love more than Yahweh, anything or anyone we trust more than Yahweh has become our god — an idol of our own invention. Therefore, only if we fear, love or trust a statue more than Yahweh have we committed idolatry. In the same way only if we fear, love or trust the holy day of Christmas more than Yahweh have we committed idolatry. Therefore, are we sinning by having that big stained glass Jesus window at the rear of the sanctuary? I’d say not.

On the other hand, it might be possible for the godless or ungodly people of this world to commit idolatry if they want to indulge in a Christmas celebration without Christ. The Christian purpose of the holy day of Christmas is to celebrate how Yahweh, the Son, was incarnated in a real human body for the purpose of saving humanity from sin, death and the power of the devil. All those who receive this by faith will be saved. Therefore, all those who celebrate Christmas while denying Christ likely have turned the celebration into a meaningless idol. Truly, such people need to hear the real reason for the season; repent and believe.

Curiously, though, there’s a more subtle form of idolatry that is being practiced by those who preach the anti-Christmas message. Only Yahweh Himself has the right and authority to bind our consciences absolutely over matters of good and evil. He has done this through His moral Law as it is written in Moses, the Prophets, the teachings of Jesus and the writings of the Apostles. These writings are the inspired, inerrant and infallible Word of God. However, in those matters that Yahweh has not bound our consciences, He has left us free. So, let’s check out how this works with the Christmas observance.

The Old Testament is full of commandments concerning the worship of Yahweh. Yahweh commanded Moses to build a Tabernacle in the midst of the Israeli encampment in the wilderness. The Tabernacle was a worship space for Israel. It had to be portable since the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years. When Israel conquered the Promised Land, they set up the Tabernacle in various locations over the centuries that the Judges ruled. But when Israel became a kingdom and the kingdom was firmly established in David’s and then Solomon’s hands, a stone Temple was built for Yahweh in Jerusalem on the pattern of the Tabernacle.

Within both the Tabernacle and the Temple, Israel had to worship Yahweh according to elaborate worship rituals that Yahweh had established through Moses. We know from a terrifying event in Exodus, that on penalty of death, Yahweh was not be worshipped in any other way devised by human beings. Two sons of Aaron the priest were slain by Yahweh for enthusiastically offering incense to Yahweh that He had not commanded priests to offer. Therefore, through the Word He gave to Moses, Yahweh bound the conscience of all Israel to worship Him in His prescribed ways. Through fulfilling this commanded worship, Israel was to make itself holy and righteous before Yahweh, their God.

But then, Yahweh, the Son, was incarnated in the womb of the Virgin Mary and made man for us. He lived and dwelt among us. And during His three year ministry Jesus said the following things about Himself and our relationship with Yahweh through Him. First, He said in Matthew 5:17-18, “17 ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.’”

Jesus accomplished everything written about Him in Moses and the Prophets. Having fulfilled Moses and the Prophets He, therefore, commanded the Apostles in Luke 24:46-47, “46. . . ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.’” This means that through the repentance and forgiveness of sins won by Jesus Himself, any human being can be made righteous before Yahweh by faith that Messiah Jesus has actually done this for him or her.

Therefore, through faith in Jesus, worship of Yahweh exactly as prescribed in the Tabernacle worship is no longer required. Rather, as Jesus told the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John 4:21-24, “21. . . ‘Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.’” Also, Jesus said of Himself in Matthew 12:8, “. . . ‘the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’” Only those who have been made righteous through the forgiveness of sins in Messiah Jesus can worship Yahweh in spirit and truth.

In the New Testament there are only two commands regarding our worship. The first is to baptize. The second is to celebrate Holy Communion in remembrance of our Lord. Otherwise, there is no command for or against the various ways of worship that have historically been practiced in Christ’s Church. Therefore, the Lord has not bound our consciences concerning modes of worship in the New Testament, except that the worship be oriented toward Himself and not toward ourselves.

Consequently, any who would bind the Christian conscience by saying that Christmas must be celebrated or we’re sinning are in error. Likewise, those would bind the Christian conscience by saying it’s a sin to celebrate Christmas are also in error. We have freedom in the New Testament to make Scripturally oriented ceremonies for ourselves or not.

There’s just one warning we have to observe. St. Paul writes in Colossians 2:20-22, “20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21 ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.” Here the Apostle warned the Colossian Church not to submit to human commands and teachings, as if they were from God. As a Pharisee, Paul was well acquainted with the types of human traditions that could be made mandatory by long usage or by appearing to have divine virtue. Human traditions do not make us more righteous by usage or less righteous by disuse. Our righteousness is from Christ alone.

Now, according to The Treasury of Prayer published by Concordia Press that Carol and I use for daily devotions, in the earliest centuries of the Church, the birth of Messiah Jesus seemed to have little significance. Eventually, however, January 6th became the day on which both the birth and Baptism of Christ were celebrated. This changed in the 300’s with two significant events. First, great controversies broke out concerning the two natures of the Messiah — His divine nature and His human nature. Second, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and the emperor wanted these controversies settled. It was during this period of controversy that both the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds were written to settle these matters. 

The opening words of the second article of the Nicene Creed are these: “And in one Lord Jesus Christ,” [One Lord to explain that although Jesus is both divine and human, He’s not two separate Lords.] “the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made,” [All these words make sure that we understand that the divine Jesus is not a creature created by Yahweh. He is Yahweh. How God begets God is a mystery. But here’s what it says about Jesus in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” NKJV] “who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man;” [These words make it absolutely clear that Jesus truly was a human being. He was born in mortal human flesh and resurrected in immortal human flesh — the same flesh in which He now is seated at the right hand of the Father, and in which He will return to judge the living and the dead, and which He will retain into eternity.]

These words of the Creed are used to explain what theologians call the Personal Union of Christ. Jesus has two distinct natures: Divine and human. But they are unified in such a way that there is only one Jesus. There’s no way to separate the two natures. Yet, these natures cannot be mixed as if we have a blender Jesus. They are distinct, yet unified as one. They communicate with each other in such a way that the divine Son of God could taste death for us human beings, while the human Son of Man could do what only God can do, namely things like cause a storm to cease or walk on water.

In the creed there’s an important key word: incarnation. To become incarnate means to be placed in a physical body. At His conception and birth, God the Son took on human genetic flesh from His mother, Mary. Thus, God the Son was incarnate in human flesh. To say anything else about the two natures of Christ is heresy.

Therefore, in order to more firmly establish proper teaching about the two natures of Christ, the Church in its wisdom separated the birth of Jesus from His Baptism and turned it into the feast of the Incarnation of our Lord. That’s the proper technical name for December 25th. The term Christmas comes from the Christ Mass that is celebrated on that day. But the day is properly the Incarnation of our Lord. By 336A.D. there is record of the Church in Rome celebrating the new feast day of the Incarnation of our Lord on December 25th — 12 days earlier than January 6th. It was quickly adopted in much of the rest of the empire.

It may be that in order to kill two birds with one stone the Church moved the feast day closer to the old pagan Saturnalia — or feast of the god, Saturn, that Rome celebrated for centuries — in order to distract Rome’s formerly pagan people from that festival. But this doesn’t make Christmas a pagan holiday or a holiday that has its origin in a pagan festival. The origin of Christmas is in the controversies over the Personal Union of the Messiah. It’s a celebration that recognizes Yahweh’s plan to Incarnate Yahweh, the Son, in human flesh for us.

Unfortunately, there are some believers out there who have been imprisoned again by the elementary things of the universe — don’t taste, don’t touch — concerning Christmas. They would imprison everyone else. But nowhere in Scripture are we forbidden to celebrate a festival of the Lord’s Incarnation. And nowhere are we commanded to keep such a festival. We’re not made more righteous by keeping or not keeping Christmas. For, our righteousness before Yahweh depends entirely on faith in the righteousness of Messiah Jesus and nothing else. Therefore, have no fear. No one is going to hell because they celebrate Christmas or because they don’t. For this reason, in Christian freedom, I choose to celebrate the Incarnation of our Lord with decorations of light. And in Christian freedom I can wish you the Lord’s blessings over these twelve days of Christmas. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the NIV, unless otherwise noted.