This Xmas falls on a Sunday. As a result, a few megachurches (and some minichurches, like Sojourners) have decided to not hold Sunday services. They’ll have Xmas Eve services on Saturday night, but nothing Sunday morning.
This has caused a little controversy among some Christians who see Sunday worship as sacrosanct. Let me quote you a little something from Ben Witherington’s blog:
Our culture does not need any encouragement to be more self-centered and narcissistic or to stay at home on Sunday. It is already that way. Christmas above all else should be a day when we come together as the body of Christ to worship and adore the Lord Jesus. Christmas should be the day above all days where we don’t stay home and open all those things we bought for ourselves INSTEAD of going to church. Christmas should be the day when we forget about ourselves for a few hours and go and honor the birthday of the great King, our Savior.
And on he rants. Note he refers to the presence as “all those things we bought for ourselves” rather than those things we bought for others. I don’t buy Xmas presents for myself. Xmas, to me, is not a self-centered narcissistic holiday. It certainly can be, especially if your parents have conditioned you to be self-centered by putting more emphasis on what you want for Xmas, Santa getting it for you, and never demonstrating proper Christian attitudes about giving. Xmas is about giving; it’s about God’s gift to humanity in Jesus; and the way we celebrate it best is in giving to one another. The greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor; and sad to say, most church services have little to do with loving one another. Especially in megachurches.
However, this wasn’t really the reason why Sojourners decided to not have a Xmas Day service. It was actually because we asked ourselves the question: ”Is anyone actually gonna be there?” All the Bethany students in the church will be visiting family and friends. The local families would have to hurriedly rush through unwrapping presents (or postpone it) to get ready for the service. So rescheduling the worship to Xmas Eve (worshipping on the Sabbath, for once) allows people to both worship God in the church and worship God by giving to one another.
The part that I find the most antithetical to everything Jesus tried to teach us: In order to conform to our tradition of worshiping on Sunday morning, we ignore the very people that God loves most. Sunday morning worship was made for humans, not humans for Sunday morning worship. The megachurches have got it right, for once.